Day: August 26, 2005

How and Why?

How and why do we do this so convincingly?

First I’m not trying to be a cynic. I’m anything but that when it comes to cricket and India.
We have NZ reeling @ 36-5 and let them end the innings at 215 in 43 overs @ run-rate close to 5!
From 36-5 we should have made them slog and earn every run. Not gifted easy runs. I have no clue how the pitch is. But it is not devilish from the way the New Zealand’s bottom half played.

India might go on to win this one considering 215 is hardly a total to defend these days. (I won’t be surprised if NZ does defend it! Shane Bond is back!)

My Mumbai star refuses to learn!
Match Figures: 7.1-0-45-2
Runs/Over: 6.28

Why? How long? How long are we going to defend your comebacks? Only you have an answer and the answer has to come on the field, none other will do.

This is dismal:
Match Figures:
9-1-55-0
Runs/Over: 6.11

Bhajji, please do justice to the fact that you are chosen over Kumble.

Impressive as usual:
Irfan Pathan
Match Figures: 8-1-34-3
Runs/Over: 6.11

Ashish Nehra
Match Figures: 8-3-22-2
Runs/Over: 6.11

But why dear captain, when NZ is losing wickets was their quota not utilized, not even after 8 wickets were down? You were expecting the last two pairs to last till 50 overs? Nice confidence in your bowlers! Was it not a risk worth taking?

Send some aggressive signals to the opposite camp, see how Stephen Fleming is constantly at you and your team?

What happened to you? You were the one guy who stood up to Steve and his Aussies and retorted in their own words? You had them perplexed!
Come on we want the old Ganguly back!

Battle @ Bridge

It’s been a frustrating England summer for me. Flintoff and Pietersen are playing havoc with the Aussie bowling. I’m all excited to get home and rest on the couch glued to the TV set; only to find them off the field after battering the Aussie bowlers all over the ground. I manage to catch their innings only during the highlights post-match!

Finally, yesterday I was all upbeat that I was home just in time to see Pietersen bat and later Flintoff walk in. Only to see rain play spoil-sport as it had throughout the day! I did not get to see any fireworks live! Everyone knows the charm of catching a match live and the frustration of viewing the moments in highlights later, when the whole world has already seen it!

Today again they will kick off the day’s proceedings and I’ll see my woes continue!

England rains are weird as my sister aptly describes them. She has been there for 5 years and she craves for a rainy season like that in Mumbai (No not the sorts that happened on 26th July). One moment it was all dark and the rain pouring, the very next moment sun was shining brightly and none would believe that it had rained just a second before on the ground!

Day 1:
Aus will miss McGrath. They have not lost the two matches he played in. Psychologically, one point to England before the game began. England looked good to take hold of the match. I saw the wickets Shaun Tait grabbed on his debut and Trescothick’s bowled dismissal was what every fast bowler strives for.

Tell me if I’m wrong but for the first time I’m seeing a hint of worry, a trifle sense of loss and confused expression on the Aussie faces. So not them, so not the team I’ve been fascinated by in the last decade. Signs of mortality, old age creeping in?

Ponting, I think is getting sleepless nights. To go down in history as “That man, that captain, who surrendered the Ashes.”
Oh, how I would hate to be in his shoes right now!

P.S: I’ m waiting for the amazing comebacks they have shown time and again in the past, the will to rise from the dead. That’s what made them the greatest of the greats.
Come on Aussies Fight Back!

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