Madcap Recap Part II

Continued from Madcap Recap, the World Cup diares, Part I,
March 24, 2014.

Another great performance and I think my prediction has gone terrible. Yet again. The last thing I predicted was Virat Kohli will fail in South Africa. The last time Dhoni lost a toss, the match was abandoned. That was the luck of Ms Dhoni and tosses. With the bowling attack built around spin, he can’t afford to lose the toss he has been successful so far. Yesterday was all about great bowling, captaincy-which cannot be said often- and terrible fielding. Surprisingly Dhoni was spot on with team selection (once again) and bowling changes with Indian bowlers made Raina’s prematch comments (or trash talks as you would say) look legendary. The West Indians never bothered to rotate the strike nor hit sixes like their Captain reckoned in the pre match presser. Chasing was all successful and it was done without a sweat under the guidance of master chaser Mr. Virat Kohli.  However the great take away from this game is the confidence boost in Bhuvi-who had a bowling figure that would make Steyn and Malinga jealous- and Rohit Sharma letting his bat speak after a considerably long time. Dhoni was all usual Dhoni in the presser wanting Yuvraj to get his mojo back. By Dhoni standards, he won’t be dropped but you can never guess whats up with our cool captain.However the point of discussion yesterday was about India not going for NRR. In my opinion, I dont think it will haunt us later and the outrage was all just for the sake of it surprising the folks who didnt expect a comprehensive win. First thing being, the rest of the teams has already lost a game in our group. (Not considering Bangladesh for obvious reasons. ) and my prediction is we will win the remaining games even. Hopefully my prediction is right at least this time.

March 29, 2014

You don’t often see an international game-not just cricket- with two team’s national anthem written by the same person. The person is Rabinthranath Tagore and the match started in a predictable manner right from the toss.It looked liked the replay of the previous game which indeed looked like the replay of the first game. There was a heavy discussion if India played the same game thrice in succession. Virat Kohli did what he was supposed to. He could do no wrong and he didnt. It was all simple and Dhoni wanted some batting practise which he got. India became the first team to qualify for WT20 semi-finals making my prediction look like a joke. Yet again. 

March 31, 2014

What just happened? I missed most of the game and I am literally shocked. My title favourites were knocked out and they were preparing for a battle of wooden spoon with Bangladesh. I did follow Yuvi blitz though. As usual, not surprisingly, Dhoni fans wanted the credit for their thala. I didnt have any clue and didnt offer any opinion for obvious reasons. Another surprise though, was Ashwin claiming more wickets than Mishra and I am pretty sure the guys who accuse me of regional hatred would have been happy. Happy for you, guys. 

April 4, 2014

My first full game of cricket since the New Zealand series. 
& ofcourse, from hopes to stakes to nerves to tension, everything was pretty high. It was India playing the Ch.. err sorry, Proteas in the second semifinal in Dhaka. With weather issues looming large, MS Dhoni did what he does the best. Lost yet another important toss. Du plessis decided to bat first & why not, MSD with a few guts to leave Dhawan & Shami out, playing the unchanged side from the Kangaroo roasting a few days ago.
With a deck that looked 160-165 par to Shane Warne, Africa lost de Kock right up, unsuccesfully fending at an outswinger & guiding it right into the trusted hands of Captain nowadays-not-so-cool. Amla, Faf got going but then a screamer from Ravi Ash that got Dada gushing cleaned Amla's middle stump up. It was the carrom ball that turned. Many, post match, termed it as the ball of the century in T20 cricket. Ashwin, a wizard of words as he is giggled & defended it with a straight bat. "To be honest, I have no idea if I can bowl that one again." Du plesis, Duminy - after a brief quiet period, put their feet right on the 4th gear. Amit Mishra, ineffective for the first time in the tournament added another frown to Dhoni's forehead. Suddenly one from Ashwin turned again & the next moment, Faf was on his behind, bewildered that how it hit his stumps. But there was no time for a breather. Abraham Benjamin de Villiers coming out, marking his guard - it was as if the nation took the notice & offered a collective prayer to the almighty.

Oh AB, not today.

Oh AB, not today.

Reverse swept for four on the fourth ball.

AB please.

AB please.

And he scoops it up to Rohit on the boundary.

As if we won the match already. Thank you Bradman, Sachin, God, Heavens, Ashwin & whoever else did that. Phew.
But Duminy didn't listen. Adding to Bhuvaneshwar's newfound wayward deliveries & foreverfound death woes, he took him & Mohit for the cleaners along with some god-awful raw striking from David Miller to give South Africa a possible non-choking total of 172.

Big ask. No joke.
But there was something inside each Indian fan, now as confident in chasing as an Entrance examinee writing a 5th grade paper,
"You know, if there is someone who can pull this one off, it's us." The belief that radiates from the team itself to the fans, the worshippers, the lunatics but misses a few nutjobs on Twitter, hitting on all the positive energy with their negative titbits.
Oh shut up you guys.

Out came Rohit & Rahane, determined to set up a launchpad. All thanks to Faf who had Steyn fielding the boundaries when Duminy was taken for 14 in the first over itself. No sight of the shit scary mohwak even in the second over. 

God bless Faf du Plesis.

39 good runs & the maggie timer went off. The neurons in Rohit Sharma's brain had this sudden urge for a nap & the next thing you know is the ball is soaring higher & higher & higher, complimenting the chords of Sanjay Manjarekar in the commentary box.

Drop it.
Drop it.
Drop it.

Nah, out of luck. Caught. Gone. Idiot.

Rahane's neurons, proven to be far better than Dhawan & his just dismissed counterpart kept faring well. But the focus had changed.

On the other end of the crease was a man whose jersey resembled the 10, the 19 & it only knew to score. & score. & score.

He was the center of all the hopes. Focus of the spotlights. Topic of the discussions. Demon of the opposition.

His name was Virat Kohli. He came, dropped the anchor & sealed it with superglue. Not looking to match the set Rahane, playing his own game, in some zone of his, in some other world where cricket balls appear like footballs & fielders go invisible.

Single here. Single there. Bad ball, four. Single. Bored with singles. Let's play with the in field. Two. Two. Two. I dont like spinners. Six. Rotate. Repeat.

Before you finished your first nervous coffee of the evening, Kohli sir stormed into the thirties. Rahane, in a sudden bug, pulled one straight to de Villiers. 

Damn, son. Why let the boat toddle? Bad, very bad.

He although, played well. Shikhar certainly needs to pull his socks up. Now what happened with Yuvi coming in, on a pitch tough to accelerate rightaway, the proteas smelled a long shot at victory, effectively cutting off the twos, some dots, decreasing the boundary frequency & making Virat execute all his this-is-crisis-I-did-not-expect expressions on the other end.

Calm down, son. This is a run chase, no? You have them for dinner all twelve months, no? 

Calm down Virat.

Don't get out.

Don't mess this up.

We can do it.

You can do it.

He listened. He did. Smoking a rememberable maximum off Imran Tahir, notching up his 50, going past the Netherlands duo to sit firmly on the top of the leading run getter list. 
Yuvi didn't look like he did against the hapless Oz, spooning one up & giving the proteas some more hope, yet again. We could lose. We had to do what our opposition does the best. Choke.
NO, said Virat.  You don't lose matches when I'm in. 

Stow the negativity, kids. I'm taking this home. Now.

He didn't wait. Not long enough to let his & Dhoni's different finishing methods have a giant clash. Suresh Raina, like a well instructed,supremely oiled machine, took on Wayne Parnell like he had eaten his quota of ice cream every single night this month.

Bang. Six.
Two.
Flunk. Four.
Whip. Four.
You could smell it.
23 runs. 18 balls.

Final chance of any mess up. Dale Steyn running in. Steyn who? I can only see a football. & it's coming for the middle of my bat, said Virat. Eighteen runs. Steyn scratches his head, looks at his captain, then at Kohli, takes a deep breath & starts walking towards long on.
Something you don't see everyday.
You could smell it.

Raina however smelt like something is burning in the dressing room. Lobbing Hendricks up to mid off on the 19th with just six runs required. Nuthead.

You could smell it.

In comes MS Dhoni with a bat that looks heavier than himself.
Helicopter time.
Virat pulls one off Hendricks. Takes a single.
Scores are level.
YOU CAN SEE IT.
MSD WILL SPANK THIS ONE TO MOOOOOON......
Virat gives his biggest, cutest, bubbliest My-job-is-all-done grin to his skipper.
SPANK SPANK SPANK.........
He plays it down quietly.
ERM?
Ah he wants his boy to score the winning runs.
There comes Dale Steyn.
Outside off.
His eyes light up like Diwali.
Whip to midwicket.
Favorite shot. Favorite son.
A roar to the sky. A thanks to dad. Some love to Yuvi paaji.


Be prepared, Sri Lanka.


10.00 AM, 6th April, 2014

I have this non-final like cheery vibe today....
Maybe because it's India vs Sri Lanka for the shitllion-th time....
Maybe because we have been so clinical throughout the tournament.....
Maybe I am overconfident. Let's not mess it up.

7th April, 2014

Yet to forget last night. 

We messed up.

Big time.

You can't win any T20 on a subcontinental pitch with 130 on the board. Unless your bowlers had magic performance enhancing & multiplying potion for dinner. 

Neither did we.

It was awful. Yuvraj, out of sorts, out of everything, didn't middle a single ball.
It's all bad karma & not to forget, some stunning death bowling from the Lankans.
Hoped against hopes.
But not to be.
The oldies stole it comfortably in style. Sangakkara, Jayawardena. Farewell.
200 million ounce of sadness.
You couldn't look at Virat Kohli's face.
A man, so selfless, scoring almost 60% runs of the team total, breaking a handful of records.
For nothing.
So near, yet so far.
Even the heartless would've felt for him.

Come 2016, we will.

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Madcap Recap Part I

A first phase of T20 overkill before the Tamasha cricket is done and dusted.  Probably the only tournament which has a qualifying round one for the minnows even after respective teams qualifying for the tournament. The joke that is, is over now. This had everything from- TRP fixture aka the India v Pakistan to the mandatory India v Sri Lanka to South Africa reduced to a joke in multinational tourneys to England crumbling to spin.

Instead of waiting for some topics I decided to write whatever I observe in this WT20. A statuary warning is that it is entirely like my musings and probably it wont have anything new, if you expect.

Before the tournament, like everyone, I never imagined India would go this far. And having nothing to do, I thought of keeping a diary on India games, And this is that.

How was this for India? Clubbed with three better teams which had two favourites in them?

Even though England  lost a T20 series against West Indies just days before the WT20, ICC, for some reason, made them play again in a warm up fixture. So, if you try to make sense of ICC, you cant. So leave it.  A regular game against Sri Lanka to begin with.

March 18, 2014.

Though India lost yesterday, I am quite happy with my prediction of India going down is on track. It was all predictable. Dhoni won the toss and India chased unsuccessfully. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar continued to wane as his new ball prowess was lost somewhere in middle. He did increase his reputation,of being the worst choice to bowl at death, conceding seventeen runs- A six and a four to Kulasekara- and probably the game. The surprise though was Varun Aaron who looked sharp forcing Dilshan to a scratchy start. who was all about playing and missing. The main weapon, spin bowling, was drastic with Mishra doing nothing to change the skipper's perception on him while Ashwin outsmarted him easily. However the worrying thing was Yuvraj not getting to bowl in a pitch where even Raina managed to squeeze in two overs.

March 20, 2014.

The second practice game is a great example what happens when we are pushed to plan B without a choice- batting first- which never happens unless we lose the toss. We got away with that yesterday because Virat Kohli didn't retire after scoring a fifty-which usually happens in a warm up game and more because that was England. The consistency though was marvelous. Rohit and Dhawan killed the momentum with the bat and Bhuvi with the ball even before it showed up while Mishra's chances got reduced with everything against him. Yuvi didnt get a ball and he had nothing to show with the bat adding to perception that he is in the team as a specialist batsman who is seen as a far better choice to Rahane. The other important and predictable thing was Raina in Virat mode proving once again T20s are his best format.

March 21, 2014

I think India is going to the tournament knowing Rohit is not good enough up top and a serious contender for 'match ka murjim'. With Mishra ji going for runs I am pretty sure Dhoni will go for Varun Aaron. Even though Varun Aaron looked sharper in the first practice game I think he is a bigger liability than Rohit. Anyway I am not quite sure of having Bhuvi in the team. And that could be the only way Aaron could be in the team.

March 22, 2014

Winning the toss, with a sigh of relief, Dhoni was happy to bowl first and with reports doing around that he doesnt prefer Amit, he did prefer him and surprisingly the idea of three spinners. Probably the match was won with the toss and that decision. Mishra apart from one over, bowled beautifully with flight using up whatever the track offered. Jadeja proved why he is the third best performer in Indian team after Dhoni and Virat Kohli with a terrific spell. Ashwin being Ashwin, struggling for consistency in a over, did bowl well if not great. The surprise package though was the death bowling which was Steyn, Malinga esque considering our pretty bad standards. The chasing had no real trouble apart from the mild heart attack when Yuvraj got bowled to a straighter ball but one would imagine getting him bat before Raina itself was a huge mistake. However the idiots of the day award went to Bhatti and rest who tried to target Raina with short stuff, hilarious thing being, born and brought up in SC they didnt know the basics. With a comment of "Raina is the bradman of SC" somewhere in my twitter TL people were busy trolling the neighbours. To be frank I didnt expect India to win and I am sure we wont make it to the semi finals.

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What you need about CSK, RR and IPL scandal

Observing a lot of opinions on IPL corruption scandal and remarks of Supreme Court, I have come up with a short post. More like a compilation of various facts.  

First of all the perception regarding the hate for CSK. There is no such conspiracy to keep CSK or RR out of IPL. 'Hate' is probably a big word to use considering the team involves a lot of Indian players. The call for kicking CSK out of IPL is based on the findings of Mudgal Committee and the clause in franchise agreement. 

Clause 11.3 (c) of the Franchise Agreement says a franchise may be terminated with immediate effect if “the Franchisee, any Franchisee Group Company and /or any Owner acts in any way which has a material adverse effect upon the reputation or standing of the League, BCCI-IPL, BCCI, the Franchisee, the Team (or any other team in the League) and/or the game of cricket.”

The above clause is why there is a call to terminate CSK and RR from IPL. Since the allegations against Raj Kundra needs further probe let’s see a bit about CSK. The question regarding CSK is how much Gurunath is related with the team? 

When the scandal broke out CSK distanced itself from Gurunath Meiyappan. The hilarious thing here is the BCCI investigation which was formed said there is no proof of wrong doing. The members of that panel are Jayaram Chouta and R Balasubramanian. Then the apex court appointed Mudgal committee to probe IPL spot-fixing and betting allegations. He came with a report which had this gist. 

1. Allegations against Meiyappan of Chennai Super Kings for betting stands proved. The point     here being Gurunath is indeed a part of CSK. 

2.Allegations against Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra needs further investigation. 


3. The conflict of interest of Srinivasan may ruin the game and affect the credibility of investigation. 

Based on the findings of Mudgal report and the franchise agreement, CSK and RR can be terminated and should be. Apart from the emotions, fanfare etc, if you are a part of an organisation you have to abide the rules. When you dont, you deserve to be kicked out of any organisation. So, dear fans, your emotions doesn't matter. What matters is the credibility of the league and the sport. For that sake, lets hope Supreme court takes a strong precedent. 

And there was another perception today that CSK got away with it. No. This is a temporary verdict. The case is going on and court is yet to dissect various aspects of Mudgal report. Court allowed CSK and RR to play in IPL because it is yet to acknowledge- that Gurunath is a part of CSK- is what I think. 

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