Sloshed Prediction-Indian WC'2011 squad.

The big daddy of all the ODI tournaments is just round the corner and its time for their cricket board to send their best 15 to the sub-continent .The strategic,head breaking decisions must have done already and its time for all the boards to announce it in the following week. We have already done it and its time for us to announce it ;). Here's a look at the pick of the top most players from the 30 probables who shall make it to the final 15 . 

OPENERS-Virender Sehwag,Sachin Tendulkar,Gautam Gambhir and Murali Vijay.

Undoubtedly,the opening pair would be Viru and Sachin with Gauti batting 1 down.Considering the recent injury to Sachin means Gambhir shall come back to open with Sehwag.We don't see Murali Vijay making the cut as there are 3 openers already.

MIDDLE ORDER- Virat Kohli,Yuvraj Singh,Rohit Sharma,Suresh Raina,Yusuf Pathan.

I think except for Rohit Sharma, everbody else shall make the cut . Rohit Sharma has't proved much in the recent times for India. Maybe , he loves playing for Deccan Chargers . Yuvi has been useful bowling his pie chuckers and his half century in the previous match made his position strong. Yusuf too has been pretty good with his bowling , though not much with his bat ,except for his blazing ton against the Kiwis at B'lore.Kohli has been in supreme touch of late . Raina, by default is in . 

WICKET-KEEPERS - Mahendra-Captain Cool- Dhoni,Parthiv-Mini bullet-Patel,Wriddhiman-Buddhiman-Saha.

Nothing to say about MSD. There will be a toss up between the other two.Parthiv Patel grabbed the oppurtunity with both his hands scoring consecutive half centuries and impressive keeping , while on the other hand,Saha did not impress with keeping and batting at all. Patel's batting is flexible as he can open and also bat in the middle order.

SPINNERS - Harbhajan-Bhajji-Singh,Pragyan Ojha,Ravichandran Ashwin.

Considering the spin options which the part timers provide , the chance of 2 front-line spinners playing is very less,unless played at very slow tracks .Chances are that , only 2 spinners will be picked in the squad. Bhajji, being an offie, and the off-break options provided by Yusuf and Raina ,chances of Ojha making the cut is more . Sorry Ashwin, not this time around . 

PACERS-Zaheer Khan,Praveen Kumar,Ashish Nehra,Sreesanth,Munaf Patel.

Zaheer has been the leader of the pack. No doubt about him being in the squad . Praveen Kumar has always been consistent. Ashish Nehra has been pretty good in the recent past too, although he has had his fair share of screwups.There is a stiff competiton between Sree and Munaf . Sree was excellent against the Kiwis and ofcourse , in the tests against Saffers . Munaf has been pretty consistent , picking up a wicket or two in every match . But ,we feel Sree might just sneak through.

So that is it . The 15 players have been shortlisted and this is how it looks -

1)Sehwag

2)Sachin

3)Gambhir

4)Kohli

5)Yuvraj

6)MSD

7)Raina

8)Harbhajan

9)Zaheer

10)Nehra

11)Praveen Kumar

12)Parthiv Patel

13)Sreesanth

14)Ojha

15)Yusuf Pathan

DLF IPL - DC CSK mixed fortunes

We know DC are the defending champs but look at the mess they've got themselves into. First, they don't play at Hyderabad which is the official home ground for the DCs. They end up playing their home games at Cuttack, Navi Mumbai, Nagpur and their horror run of losing home games continues. Their last home game against the Raj Royals, who have stressed on building that fortress for opposing teams when playing at home. RR have the best home games record. Mumbai Indians this season have set the same tune. So, how crucial is it playing at home and more importantly winning!

DC bowled well, played with a plan and executed it. They really needed the win to equal CSK, RR, KKR on points and fight to the semis. 159 still seemed a lil disappointing as they managed to avoid some serious beating from the hands of their old pal Yusuf-cant-play-short-stuff-Pathan who has won 4 M.O.M's in 5 games they have played. Shane-can-whack-Watson's knock helped RR post a target of 160 for the DCs. And from there DC batsmen switched their brains off. They managed to go from 137/5 to 157 all out. This with Rohit-I'm-going-to-WI-Sharma hitting 73 from 44 and not able to hit 3 runs from the last 2 deliveries and DC were all out. Only CSK could have managed to lose it from there (Remember chasing 139 against KxiP). So, their fate now looks stuck above the KxiP but, they still can make it due to weird calculations.

So, we see how did DC actually perform ala the Sooper Kings. This is what we can understand from the team's fortunes up to now:

• Gilly = MSD : Capt and WK - both have come and gone, hit a few but, missed mostly. (MSD was injured in between)
• Gibbs = Haydos : Both have swished the bat like Harry Porters wand, the spells seemed to backfire very often.
• Rohit = Raina : Both have played some good knocks, looked curious for more but then disappointed.
• VVS = Badri : Two batsmen who seemed to be in wrong place at the wrong time playing the wrong game.
• Symonds = Morkel : All-rounders for their teams, never really performed to potential or previous performances.
• Vaas = Murali : Both had good beginning to IPL this season, Vaas eventually ran outta gas, Murali on the way?
• Ojha = Jakati : The two left-armers have picked wickets but have gone for plenty.
• Rahul = Ashwin : back-up spinners hardly looked vicious in batsmen's paradise.
• RP = Gony/Tyagi : Jaskaran = Balaji : Harmeet = Joginder They have been in a league on their own. No matter who is picked the result doesn't change.

CSK have recovered with Vijay clicking at the top. Murali has been resonable and with MSD back they look better placed than DC who need to win all from here and hope the others don't. Interestingly, CSK-DC have to play each other in the remaining games to come. CSK have 8 pts from 9 games and DC have 6 pts from 9 games. Just 5 matches each, its a fight to the death for each one of them. RR and RCB will their main threats, considering KKR like to goof it up when someone takes them seriously.

IPL 3.0 Royal Spirit

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

Introducing this team is like showing light to the sun(LOL), from being the under-dog champions to now being over-rated chimps they have done it all in just 2 seasons of IPL. The big news last year was Shilpa Shetty and her beau who had bought stakes in the champion side. From there on everything seemed to go down-hill literally! Warne the chief-in-charge could not re-create the magic the Royals put up in the debut season. Partly due to missing key players like Watson and Tanvir who were very effective in the inaugural season. Even Graeme Smith dint look in touch even at home conditions. So, they ended up missing the cut to the semis but, entertained us with a few fiercely fought games. Thus, keeping us interested in the Royals.

This year they have done Warne some favour and made him feel at home by bringing in some of his mates from down under and his county side Hampshire. Michael Lumb currently making news is also one to look out for. Damien Martyn was probably the steal for them in the auctions it has to be seen whether he stands to that. Otherwise losing Kaif and Jadeja has made their domestic rooster even more brittle. Apart from that Royals planning to expand their franchise even outside India is a bold and great move.

SQUAD: Shane Warne, Johan Botha, Damien Martyn, Michael Lumb,Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Shrikant Wagh, Abhishek Raut, Sumit Narwal, Faiz Fazal, Syed Ahmed Quadri, Amit Paunikar, Kamran Khan, Amit Singh, Graeme Smith, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Morne Morkel, Shaun Tait, Munaf Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Sidharth Trivedi, Swapnil Asnodkar, Mahesh Rawat, Naman Ojha, Amit Paunikar.

STRENGTHS: Warne's captaincy, his ability to make heroes out of unknowns.

WEAKNESS: Domestic players aren't top-class or even half of that. Sticking to just 4 foreign players will be tough.

WATCH OUT FOR: Michael Lumb as said earlier, Shaun SLOON Tait who's been in impressive form for Australia in T20s.

WAH's xi:

• Smith
• Naman Ojha
• Abhishek Jhunjhunwala
• Damien Martyn/Michael Lumb
• Dimitri Mascarenhas/Shane Watson
• Yusuf Pathan
• Shane Warne©
• Abhishek Raut
• Kamran Khan
• Sidharth Trivedi
• Munaf Patel

WAH Say: The team looks mighty weak, if they need Tait/Morkel they would have to either drop a foreign player who can bat. The pinch of losing Jadeja, Kaif is gonna feel like a sledge hammer slammed on to your face! Sure to end at the bottom of the league table. Expect very few wins this time. Ex-champions will have to remain "ex".

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*