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.

Australia tour of India '10 - Test Squad announced

Following multiple attacks on Indians down-under which were claimed as a "friendly bash" by the Aussie govt. and described as "racist attack" by the Indie counterparts, which then led to Emraan Hashmi going ding-dong with blonde chicks in his latest flick aptly titled "Crook". Now, the selection committee of the B.C.C.I. have announced no free perks to the visiting Australian team. In a very rude yet, not so shocking announcement it was cleared that Yuvraj Singh will not be a part of the Indian test team for the upcoming 2 test match series. Meaning, Chappelli and co. will have to come up with new lines at the last minute to ridicule the fitness/form of the Indian team. No more "MRF BLIMP" jokes to be poked on Yuvi. Alas.. the selectors over looked Bhajji, Zak and their ponchos! So 1-1 already.

Cheteshwar Pujara(Che) gets his maiden call up to the test squad after being in the Saurashtra NEWS radar forever. Same guy who played for KKR in the IPL, now you remember? Also, Free! Sreesanth was also named in the squad, we are now waiting for an injury update on the same. The regulars in the Indian team since 90's SRT, RD, VVS did not fail to make it either. Sehwag - Gambhir should look forward to their re-union after both being out regularly due to injuries. Captain MSD, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay seamer Ishant and trio of spinners Bhajji, Ojha & Mishra named in the test squad. Why three spinners? No one has an answer to that one. Balanced squad I guess, 3 seamers + 3 spinners that is, if you count Bhajji as a spinner.

Notable absentees: *drums roll* Dinesh Karthik and Subu Badrinath. Aaaah! Who would have guessed?

India squad: MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, M Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Sreesanth and Amit Mishra.

Board President's XI (Vs Aus): Gautam Gambhir (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Jaidev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, Abhinav Mukund, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Abhimanyu Mithun, Sreesanth,  Ravindra Jadeja.

Rest of India squad (Vs Mumbai): Yuvraj Singh (capt.), Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, S Badrinath, Saurabh Tiwary, Parthiv Patel (wk), Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, R Vinay Kumar, Manish Pandey, Abhimanyu Mithun and Ravindra Jadeja.

Captain Cool on Fire

    Dhoni, is on the firing line after India's yet another disastrous performance at the ICC World T20. I don't seem to understand the fact that, why should a captain be blamed, when its a called a "TEAM" game. Isn't the whole team responsible for the loss. Finally, India showed some team work, it was not one or two guys out of form, the whole TEAM looked out of place. Agreed, Indians cant handle short stuff, but how long will they keep saying the same old stuff. It cant be said that India played badly, the opposition played exceptionally well, which made India looks like, cats on a tin roof on a HOT day. What amazes me is the fact that, just few weeks back, when Dhoni lifted the IPL, adulation reached the peak and now they have turned the other way, courtesy : MEDIA. Fitness has definitely been a major concern. After playing 14+ matches in a span of 8 weeks and flying to Carribean two days later can definitely take a toll. People may argue that even foreign players played IPL. The main difference is that not all the International players played 14 games excepting a few. The others players had enough time with them, which was not the case for Indian players. Rightly so, Gary has hit out against the players as well, saying there around 8 people who are overweight to name a few: Yuvraj 'MRF Blimp' Singh, Rohit 'can take a paunch' Sharma and Zaheer 'I may be fit' Khan. Their paunch is EXPLICIT! This has resulted in the team failing in all 3 departments of the game. The batting looked miserable facing pace, bounce, swing. The bowling attack never really attacked or even started to look like one. The fielding for so bad that Afghanistan will be proud of their efforts.

    Right now,  in case Dhoni is dropped, wonder who will replace him... Viru couldn't handle the pressure of Double D's and looked like fish out of water when ever the national duty has beckoned him, he will lose his implanted hair too, if he captains India once again. Gambhir, no way! Earlier, there was captaincy material in him but, post IPL3 he has shown some serious attitude problems and lacks leadership skills. Plus he doesn't know what he is speaking during the presentation. Yuvi and Bhajji, ha ha , Cricket is(was) a  gentleman's game, isn't it? Raina flopped in the IPL so, lets not go there again. Only people left are PK, Zaks, Nehra which seems highly unlikely. Otherwise, Subu-Badrinath / Dinesh Karthik will have to take over the reigns. And that will only make matters worse with Srikkanth being the chairman of selectors. So its better if BCCI stick on to Dhoni rather than looking out for another lame ass.

Ton & Out

The 1st test at Nagpur saw the world no.1 test team go down tamely without a fight to the no.2 team. So, what was it that they did differently here..

India started the match on the backfoot with injuries to some big names like Rahul-the-wall-Dravid, Very-very-special-Laxman, Yuvraj-cant-sing-Singh and also Rohit-no-hit-Sharma. MSD then pciked a weak team thinking I dunno what. So, Badri, VJ after having carried drinks for over a year finally playing together for the national team. WOW!! and... Wriddhiman-the-buddhiman-Saha got to make his debut due to the inauspicious circumstances. Clearly MSD missed a chance to play 5 genuine bowlers. And he needed that as he picked 2 genuine spinners (yes, Bhajji is one). So, just 2 seam bowlers playing a 5 day game is ridiculous these days. What MSD needed was a 3rd seamer or even someone like Abhishek Nayar who can do a bit of both. With Sehwag in the team he could use his bowling as well.

Now with VJ who bowls slow spinners and Badri who is the same (none with quality) and Saha who cant throw past 15 yards none of the replacements were more than 1 dimensional. Add to that Sachin-I'm-getting-Old-Tendulkar seems reluctant to bowl and Gauti cant pick a wicket even in his wildest dream. This was particularly well timed as Saffers won the toss and elected to bat and after the initial hiccup they were on the highway to victory. Credit to Amla and Kallis who negotiated the tough period with care and then never turned back. Together they help SAF put up a mammoth total. AB Devil and Boucher were handy partners.

When it came to India's chance to bat the Saf seam bowlers were spicy hot. Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn were making batsmen hop & dance. Sehwag was the lone batsmen who played confidently in the 1st innings. But, another irresponsible shot after having done all the hard work meant Sehwag walked back where he could have made the opponent sorry. Badri stuck around for a while and then Steyn cut through the line-up. During the second innings batsmen again never seemed settled and wickets continued to fall only Sachin showing what needs to be done. He brought up his 46th ton in the process and then threw it away. The shot he played was just unacceptable let alone the negative line Harris was bowling throughout the match. I'm sure Sachin would not attempt such a stroke when on "0" or on "99" then why should he try once he's reached his ton. Indian bowlers played aggressively with the bat but could not avoid the end result. Proteas going up 1-nil in the 2-match test series.

Battle resumes at Eden gardens, Kolkata for the 2nd test.

Steyn-tastic!!

I may have missed most of the test due to weekend and other customary activities but, I have no reasons now. Steyn blew the Indian batting order apart super-man style!! Sad he tried to fly as well(see pic) but could not. Biff consoled him tho' all's well.. Steyn took 7 wickets and wrecked India in the 1st test at Nagpur. India all out for 233 still 325 runs behind Saffers' 558 1st inn score.

Viru though seemed to be playing on a different track and he got his 18th test ton in the process. Viru played particularly well despite wickets tumbling around him. Innings wasn't bang bang boom booom à la Seh-whack but, he looked to score with ease and a big score was for the taking. I was genuinely surprised to see Smith dint use more of Wayne Parnell against Viru. Viru seemed settled after a while against Morkel Sr. and Steyn. And knowing his history against left-arm pacers I wud have bowled Parnell a lot more than what Biff did. Be it Bracken, Mitch Johnson, Tanvir, Perera, Mirando, Aamer... all have seemed to disturb Viru time and again. And surprisingly not Parnell only got Viru out herem actually Viru threw it away and Doominy caught it. So, I hope this dismissal sends Biff a clear cut message.



Apart from him debutant Badri made a half-century in India's cause. He can be better described by the pics below.

Guess who was caught giving tips again..

All Badri can say is THANK YOU SACHIN :)

First-Aid

Due to some unpredictable circumstances the forthcoming test championship battle between the top two test playing nations South Africa and India (read in order) now seems more like a battle of chimps. Yes, first the saffers monkey around sack the coach and then the entire selection committee. Mean while self appreciating team India go to Bangladesh for a two test series, the toughest there could ever be and result in injuries. It started with captain MS Dhoni, Bhajji, and then spread like wild fire to Sreesanth, VVS, Dravid, Yuvraj and some bits of Sachin to add. Although MSD and Bhajji have recovered since and Sachin looks okay it raises the basic question whether the two teams are ready to play for the top position. The Proteas don’t seem to be bothered with Mickey and the rest of the Disney gang changing but, India need some serious replacements if they are to retain the no.1 spot in the ICC (mindless morons inc.) test ratings. So, who are capable to replace the likes of Dravid, VVS and Yuvi in such short notice let us see.

Mock’s pick:
Well, with Dravid out with the jaw fracture, I just can’t see a better replacement than S Badrinath. He has got what it takes to be a 1 down batsman. Skill, technique, good hand eye coordination etc. He has been the backbone for Tamilnadu in the Ranji Trophy for years now.
Vijay is sure to hang on to his place since Laxman isn’t playing against the Chokers... Oops Saffers. Though Vijay did not score much in this test, his technique did stand out. Confident and elegant.
An aggressor replacing another aggressor, a lefty replacing another lefty. Yes, it’s none other than the one who sends the ball screaming to the cow corner, Suresh Raina. Though he hasn’t played an Intl test yet, he has proved himself time and again in the county circuit. He has come of age and has proved he’s matured enough to play at the test level. Can be a handy part time bowler too and about his fielding…you know it .

Quite a coincidence that all the 3 replacement players are from Chennai Super Kings… HAIL CSK!

Steam’s angle:
There’s no point in pondering about who will when it’s the matter of who can. There is no question in the ability of Murali Vijay so, regardless whether Gauti plays at the crucial no.3 or opens with Sehwag, Vijay can play either ways. Considering Sachin is fully fit he bats at no.4, otherwise a whole new slot opens another debate. No.5 spot presently belongs to VVS playing his twilight years of cricket. Now that he is injured he should be replaced by Badrinath who has been in and out of the side for quite some time. But going on current form and the Pied Pipers tune I am tempted to opt the not so forgotten and lucky monkey of 2010 Md. Kaif. Kaif has the experience and the caliber to play the long game. His high bid in the IPL auctions and recent burst in the zonals have only helped him appear once again in the selector’s radar. Whether or not he is chosen is another case. (Remember he dint attract a single bid in the 1st round of auctions. But, what happened last lasts longer.) So, good for the chap. MSD will have to now bat at no.6 in place of Yuvi and someone can take his place batting with the lower order tail. Raina would be one contender but, recent form again points towards Virat Kohli. The boy is now a man so why not test him. Raina is in good form himself but, honestly Kohli looks more solid (tried and tested down under) and Raina’s history with the short pitched stuff will only bring smiles to Saffers. So, Badri and Raina could make the squad but not the playing eleven.

One’s who closely missed out: Pujara – he’s still got time till there are permanent openings. One opportunity and you don’t want to end up ruining your chances forever. Manish Pandey – good season of domestic cricket, still have time. Probably play some ‘A’ tours abroad. Rahane – all izz well! But not tested against international attacks. Rohit Sharma – no.

OFF THE MARK!

UP TO DATE:

· Kiwis beat Pak in the final ODI by 7 runs to win series 2-1.

· Johnson & Watson ruled out of the 7th and final ODI of the Ind-Aus series to be played in Mumbai.

· Indian team for the upcoming Ind-SL test series is announced.

Steam's Shot:

o Kiwi's possibly have the most brittle batting line up today, gone are days of Stephen Fleming, Nathan Astle, Chris Cairns et al. This Kiwi side relies too heavily on McCullum, Taylor and probably Jesse. Bowling looks really good with the all-rounders in the team performing better than with the bat. But the 3rd ODI was a different tale. Pakistan failed to chase 211 after a superb bowling effort. The Pakistani batting looked painful @ 86/8 then a 100 run 10th wkt partnership by Saeed Ajmal and Md. Aamer brought the chase too close only to lose by 7 runs with 5 balls to spare. Kiwis win series 2-1.

Steam’s corner-This only raises one question in my mind. Is this Pakistan team serious about cricket that last more than 20 overs per side?

If it is to be the reason, all cheers as the team is now to face the Kiwis for 2 T20 internationals.

o Johnson & Shane Watson ruled out of the 7th ODI ! I thought the series was over... Really does it matter now if the Indians play the Aussie Women's cricket team?

o Indian side picked for the test series against Lanka at home. This was the bomber, why was Ashish Nehra dropped after so many consistent performances home as well as away. Poor lad has done nothing wrong, but won a few games for his side and picked the M.O.M as well. So is he secretly injured? Y would u pick Sreesanth who has no discipline whether bowling or otherwise and continue with Ishant who needs some rest and rehab and some re-thinking on his bowling career.

Steam’s session- Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha both feature in the race to play against Lanka. Bhajji must be very lucky to play considering his recent form.

Steam’s prediction- The two lads from T.N. Badri and Vijay are most likely to carry drinks in Ahm, K'pur & Mum. Unless, someone is nursing an injury from the set batting order. So, Tamil Nadu will miss their services in the on-going Ranji trophy games as well.

Mock’s Take:

o Kiwis,well,a team has to rely on its experienced players. Leaving aside the previous 2 matches, McCull had hardly scored any runs. Maybe the jinx of KKR just got over him :) Jesse is injured half the time. Kiwis rely mainly on their all rounders . Styris is back in the team and it has really added a new dimension to their side. Dan Vettori has definitely been an inspirational captain for the Kiwis.He has lead the team very well, be it batting, bowling or fielding. NZ may not have the strongest team on paper, but they have a real formidable attack. Pakistan, on its day can beat the world champions or can be defeated by minnows. Pakistan can play their best only for 20 overs. Its tailor made for them. They reached the finals of the 2k7 WC T20 and eventually won the 2k9 WC. They are good for playing FUN games like T20 not the other formats of the games, which are quite serious :)

Mock’s pick- I place my bet on Pakistan for the 2 T20 Intls against the Kiwis.

o Would it even matter if Aussies dont play the next ODI! India sealed the series when they were 27/5.

o I have been a Sreesanth supporter and I am happy to see him back. After his performance in the Challenger series,it was sure that it would jus be a matter of few days to get into the side. He is the one of the most spirited cricketers I have seen Ishant is really good with the red ball and is exactly opposite with the white and it would be good to watch zaheer after a decade :P I feel sorry for Nehra who dint make the cut, but 3 seamers are more than enough. Mishra, I hope gets a chance to play, It shouldn surprise me if India plays 3 spinners.

Mocks prediction- It should be a great contest against the spinners. Murali Vs Bhajji, Mendis Vs Mishra , Herath Vs Ojha. It would be great to see the spinners ripping it !

Cheers,

Mock Wah & Steam Wah