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

Quick Updates : India Vs South Africa ODI#1

After the much hyped test series , it was time for both the teams to battle it out in the ODIs. Indians were missing the service of Gauti, UV and Zaks and Graeme Smith was on the SAF injury list .The Sawai Mansingh stadium was tightly packed with the buzzing crowd. Kallis won the toss and chose to field. Sachin was run out cheaply . But after that Indians kept the scoreboard ticking steadily. Everyone chipped in with 30s and 40s but none of them could convert it to a big score. Raina was the top scorer for India with an almost run -a-ball 56 .
The partnership between Nehra and Pk produced 18 very important runs. It was fun to see them running between the wickets, typical tailender's running . India ended up scoring 298. Gibbs and Bosman opened the innings for SAF and got off to a good start scoring 58 until PK cleaned up Bosman. From then, the Proteas kept losing wickets continuously and they were 180/7 after 35 overs.

Kallis and Parnell put in a useful partnership of 45 runs . Kallis was sent to the pavilion after Sree bowled him. Well, I am sure 95% of the people would have thought that the match was over and would 've switched off their TV sets or changed channels . But .. hold on.. Match had just started . 74 was required of 7 overs when Steyn took strike. Well, I guess the Indian bowlers became a touch over confident and Parnell and Steyn took advantage of this and sent the ball sailing to all parts of the stadium. Both of them were showing No Mercy .
Indian players heart rate was rising exponentially with each ball. The equation of runs to balls kept narrowing after each over and finally it was down to 10 runs of 1 over. Well, considering the way the duo were smashing , it looked an easy SAF victory . Pk was given the ball for the last over . He held his nerves and cleaned up Steyn.
Commendable effort by Steyn , scoring 35(19). It was down to 3 reqd of 1 ball and Parnell's desperate attempt to at least tie the match went in vain as he was run out in the final ball for an awesome 49(47). Parnell's innings was just mindblowing . This reminded me of the match when India played against Oz and Pk and Bhajji almost won the match for us .
Plays of the day 1) Raina's well compiled 56(63)
2) Jacques ' Mr. Dependable ' Kallis's 89(97) which ensured that the runs kept ticking even when the wickets were tumbling at the other end .
3)Terrific bowling by Jaddu . He varied his pace , line and length nicely giving only 29 of his 10 overs and bagged 2 wickets too.
3) Last but not the least , the 'almost' match winning partnership from Parnell and Steyn.
Turning Point - Some may say Sachin's effort to save the boundary or Jadeja's bowling but according to me, it was Abhishek Nayar's effort to save the boundary was the turning point. He saved 2 runs, which cost South Africa pretty heavily in the end .
Indian's almost pulled out a defeat from the jaws of victory. But that's typical Indian Ishtyle.