Laxman as always received plaudits as the best savior for India in Test matches. He hasn't disappointing us with the 14th century he scored against Kiwis at Napier. India could have easily handed the defeat to kiwis but for the rescue effort from Gambhir and Laxman. What makes him so special is he bats effortlessly and no one will disagree me on that. He is class , elegant , stylish player but for this running between the wickets which has kept him away from One dayers.
I can't remember the last test match where he has not rallied himself with the tail enders. He is effortless in doing that and has several times put India into safe waters. This make him Very special.
Let's not forget his contribution over the last decade , am feeling nervous about the player who is going to replace him. I personally can't finish this blog without pointing out the knock against Oz at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, nice memories. India is at its peak when Laxman is around and this seems to be best chance for the Team India to reach the numero one in Tests. I hope MSD is fit for the next match Wellington. I would like to see one more change in the Indian lineup with L.Balaji replacing Munaf Patel.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Scolari Sacked from Stamford Bridge
Disappointment for Chelsea and Big Phil, but not a bug surprise. Big Phil who has taken this home country to glory during the WC 2002 and also took charge of the Portugal Nation team in 2004, has been a inspiring coach through out his career. Unfortunately he hasn't inspired Roman Abrahomavich , the chelsea owner.
I personally feel that this isn't any big surprise to me, but sometimes we feel that few great people are at the wrong place, for wrong reasons and at the wrong time. And unfortunately i feel this has happened to Scolari. Sometimes you feel that you had too much masala in to the sambar and that's how i feel when we see Chelsea playing or fielding their first team. This team is a anonymous to Real Madrid where there are too many stars and each star is too bright that they don't glow as a group. Individually there are the best players in the planet, no one can deny that. But to win games at the highest level the need of the hour is to play as a group. This has been the major drawback for the team and i feel that Phil was not able to manage them as a group. He was handed this prestigious job after a serious of unfortunate events at Stamford Bridgt.It started of with the dispute between Jose Mourinho after which we saw Avram Grant holding the job during the far end of last season and then he was sacked after which the job was handed over to Phil.
What makes owners to sack coaches? The owners have the money to talk and the coaches has to listen to them but this always not the case with all big clubs. They need results, they don't expect you to go level on a match against under dogs at home. I hope they find one similar to Jose Mourinho to bring the Blue from their blues.
I personally feel that this isn't any big surprise to me, but sometimes we feel that few great people are at the wrong place, for wrong reasons and at the wrong time. And unfortunately i feel this has happened to Scolari. Sometimes you feel that you had too much masala in to the sambar and that's how i feel when we see Chelsea playing or fielding their first team. This team is a anonymous to Real Madrid where there are too many stars and each star is too bright that they don't glow as a group. Individually there are the best players in the planet, no one can deny that. But to win games at the highest level the need of the hour is to play as a group. This has been the major drawback for the team and i feel that Phil was not able to manage them as a group. He was handed this prestigious job after a serious of unfortunate events at Stamford Bridgt.It started of with the dispute between Jose Mourinho after which we saw Avram Grant holding the job during the far end of last season and then he was sacked after which the job was handed over to Phil.
What makes owners to sack coaches? The owners have the money to talk and the coaches has to listen to them but this always not the case with all big clubs. They need results, they don't expect you to go level on a match against under dogs at home. I hope they find one similar to Jose Mourinho to bring the Blue from their blues.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Bowler were Confused : Dhoni
I have taken a small article from Times and pasted down here. This was the post match interview after second One day against Srilanka where India clinched a thriller in Colombo.
Jaideep Marar | TNN
Colombo: Having won seven games on the trot, MS Dhoni was not exactly in seventh heaven on Saturday night. The Indian captain was concerned that his bowlers had allowed the Sri Lankans to come dangerously close. He was upset that his bowlers had confused themselves by not sticking to their plans.
“It’s very important to have a clear mind,’’ he said after the match. “If you are running in from the bowling mark, you need decide that this is the ball I’m going to bowl. Accordingly you place your fielders. If you are in two minds then you would be confused about what you are doing. If you have just one thought, you can execute it better,’’ he reasoned. “It’s better to have a plan—even if it is a bad plan—in mind than end up being confused. You need to be clear what you are bowling. If you are bowling a bouncer, you don’t need a long on and a long-off. If you are bowling a slower one, you don’t really need a third man, you can have a deep midwicket. At the same time you can confuse the batsmen with this field and bowl a yorker. But if the ball is completely different than what the field is then you have a greater chance of conceding a boundary.’’
The captain’s ire seemed to be directed at pace bowler Ishant Sharma, who conceded 40 runs in his last four overs, including six boundaries. To Sharma’s credit he continued to strike telling blows despite the mess he was in. His haul of 4-56 fetched him the man of the match award, but the bowler wasn’t too happy with his display either.
“It was not my best performance,’’ he said at the presentation. Dhoni even dropped the cool captain guard. “In international cricket when there is pressure on you, you are never cool. You give the opportunity to the bowler saying, ‘you bowl according to your plan and your field,’ but at times when it doesn’t work you turn from a democratic captain to a dictator... you become like a king... you say no more powers to you. Now, this is the field and you bowl according to the field.’’
He made it clear that it is not always the case. He always gives the first preference to the bowler. He had his reasons for that too. “With experience, with their own plan, they will get better. After two years, they won’t run to the captain and ask what they should bowl. They will grow if they learn by themselves,’’ he said. It would also help them mature, he felt.
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My personal opinion: "Dhoni is the best thing that has happened for Indian Cricket in recent times. His resource management skills, Belief in Self-Convicition, Choice of diction and straight talk will make him take Team India a long way in world cricket." These comments and gyan also applies to our day to day life where you need to know and decide what you are trying to do!!!
Jaideep Marar | TNN
Colombo: Having won seven games on the trot, MS Dhoni was not exactly in seventh heaven on Saturday night. The Indian captain was concerned that his bowlers had allowed the Sri Lankans to come dangerously close. He was upset that his bowlers had confused themselves by not sticking to their plans.
“It’s very important to have a clear mind,’’ he said after the match. “If you are running in from the bowling mark, you need decide that this is the ball I’m going to bowl. Accordingly you place your fielders. If you are in two minds then you would be confused about what you are doing. If you have just one thought, you can execute it better,’’ he reasoned. “It’s better to have a plan—even if it is a bad plan—in mind than end up being confused. You need to be clear what you are bowling. If you are bowling a bouncer, you don’t need a long on and a long-off. If you are bowling a slower one, you don’t really need a third man, you can have a deep midwicket. At the same time you can confuse the batsmen with this field and bowl a yorker. But if the ball is completely different than what the field is then you have a greater chance of conceding a boundary.’’
The captain’s ire seemed to be directed at pace bowler Ishant Sharma, who conceded 40 runs in his last four overs, including six boundaries. To Sharma’s credit he continued to strike telling blows despite the mess he was in. His haul of 4-56 fetched him the man of the match award, but the bowler wasn’t too happy with his display either.
“It was not my best performance,’’ he said at the presentation. Dhoni even dropped the cool captain guard. “In international cricket when there is pressure on you, you are never cool. You give the opportunity to the bowler saying, ‘you bowl according to your plan and your field,’ but at times when it doesn’t work you turn from a democratic captain to a dictator... you become like a king... you say no more powers to you. Now, this is the field and you bowl according to the field.’’
He made it clear that it is not always the case. He always gives the first preference to the bowler. He had his reasons for that too. “With experience, with their own plan, they will get better. After two years, they won’t run to the captain and ask what they should bowl. They will grow if they learn by themselves,’’ he said. It would also help them mature, he felt.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My personal opinion: "Dhoni is the best thing that has happened for Indian Cricket in recent times. His resource management skills, Belief in Self-Convicition, Choice of diction and straight talk will make him take Team India a long way in world cricket." These comments and gyan also applies to our day to day life where you need to know and decide what you are trying to do!!!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Somdev Varman next bright spot in Indian Tennis
Indian Tennis badly needed one player in the Men's Singles arena and there comes this young boy Somdev Varman to prove how good a singles player he is. Indian tennis now can add another feather in its cap as Somdev Varman arrives.
Varman who hails from Assam, trained at the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy (BAT) before joining the National Tennis Academy (NTA) at Gurgaon. He was among the India's Davis cup team and had a couple of good matches.
Recently his wins against Carlos Moya , two time French Open winner and against Ivan Karlovic has raised a few eyebrows. He seems to have a different game compared to all our previous tennis players. The good thing about his game is his serve and volley which is quite unusual and he seems to be solid from the baseline. The interesting part about his game was the service.
I think the next bright spot in Indian Tennis has arrived in the form of Somdev Varman. I think others need to keep an eye on this player whom i believe can make India proud in Men's Singles after 3 decades.
Varman who hails from Assam, trained at the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy (BAT) before joining the National Tennis Academy (NTA) at Gurgaon. He was among the India's Davis cup team and had a couple of good matches.
Recently his wins against Carlos Moya , two time French Open winner and against Ivan Karlovic has raised a few eyebrows. He seems to have a different game compared to all our previous tennis players. The good thing about his game is his serve and volley which is quite unusual and he seems to be solid from the baseline. The interesting part about his game was the service.
I think the next bright spot in Indian Tennis has arrived in the form of Somdev Varman. I think others need to keep an eye on this player whom i believe can make India proud in Men's Singles after 3 decades.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Zak comes of age to be termed as the next "Sultan of Swing"
Zak , yorked his way into the international arena in the ICC mini World Cup in Kenya. Let me not overdo my blog here to talk about the life history and stats of the player.But just wanted to highlight the point the fact that Zak has really comes of age.
The left arm fast bowler is now spearheading the opening attack for India as well nurturing the young guns to perform well at the highest level of cricket. What makes me write about zak? Why does this whole fuzz of electronic waste that iam doing mean?
In the recently concluded test series against the Aussies i found some striking features of his bowling. It just shook me the way he bowled , it was just amazing to watch. I still remember during the second test where he bowled 6 different deliveries. I mean it and i was surprised the way his variations seems to be very vital for the batsmen to read. I couldn't have imagined myself bowling 6 different deliveries. The confidence with which he executed the half a dozen ball shows the caliber in him. He hasn't shown any laxity on the field and urges other bowlers to perform well.
Yes he can be rightly named the "next sultan of swing". Zak has proved to be the best bet for India and i believe he has improved a lot in recent times. The way he handled the bowlers and the way he bowled the penultimate over shows that he can be a true match winner. Just watch the video here to rekindle your thoughts about the bowler.
The left arm fast bowler is now spearheading the opening attack for India as well nurturing the young guns to perform well at the highest level of cricket. What makes me write about zak? Why does this whole fuzz of electronic waste that iam doing mean?
In the recently concluded test series against the Aussies i found some striking features of his bowling. It just shook me the way he bowled , it was just amazing to watch. I still remember during the second test where he bowled 6 different deliveries. I mean it and i was surprised the way his variations seems to be very vital for the batsmen to read. I couldn't have imagined myself bowling 6 different deliveries. The confidence with which he executed the half a dozen ball shows the caliber in him. He hasn't shown any laxity on the field and urges other bowlers to perform well.
Yes he can be rightly named the "next sultan of swing". Zak has proved to be the best bet for India and i believe he has improved a lot in recent times. The way he handled the bowlers and the way he bowled the penultimate over shows that he can be a true match winner. Just watch the video here to rekindle your thoughts about the bowler.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Who the hell in this world is Duckworth Lewis?
The D/L method was created by two English statisticians its not a single name, Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, originating from an undergraduate final-year project at the University of the West of England. This method is a mathematical way to calculate the target score for the team batting second in a one-day cricket or Twenty-20 cricket match interrupted by weather or other circumstance
The D/L method has been criticized very badly that the price is on the wicket and not on the overs. You will be lucky guy if your team haven't lost a wicket batting second even though NRR (Net Run Rate) is poor. To me the game is flawed, we have seen some many where teams have lost half a dozen wickets with a heavy NRR still to chase winning the game.
Personally i wouldn't accept it for a sport where you need show your skill rather the technology or few people taking the game away from you. This is neither fair nor acceptable as part of the game. Here is one of the examples in sport where machines and technology dictate terms to humans. Still remember the days when i was wondering how could a team suddenly be in a situation to score 22 runs of 1 ball. SA then were assured of Victory against England but for the fact that 12 minutes of rain , damn for the rain gods and D/L cost the match for them. How could any team score 22 runs of 1 ball because of rain?
But that's how the rules are and that how the game is played and flawed with D/L. There has been several revisions of D/L method in the recent years to minimize the impact but the teams who have been on the receiving end because of D/L can only crib about the rules.
I can never take a big heart that India has won against England in the Kanpur ODI. Never ever will i consider this as a ODI victory, but that's how it is. The game was evenly poised and a couple of wickets would have done the trick for visiting team eagerly looking out for an outright win.
Matches where D/L has played spoilsport :-)
1. The match that strikes me when i talk about D/L was SA Vs ENG during 1992 Benson & Hedges WC in Australia where SA had to score 22 runs of 1 ball after shot showere of 12 minutes.
2. There was one similar situation during the 2003 WC in South Africa, i guess the match was played between SA and Kenya if my memory is right. Here it was altogether a different situation where in the SA team were just 1 run short of reaching the target computed by D/L method.
3. Another one that played against India .India batted first, and were all out in the 49th over for 328. Pakistan, batting second, were 7 wickets down for 311 when bad light stopped play after the 47th over. Considering the overall scoring rate throughout the match, this is a target most teams would be favored to achieve. And indeed, application of the D/L method resulted in a target score of 304 at the end of the 47th over, with the officially listed result as "Pakistan won by 7 runs (D/L Method)".
So am leaving all my readers with a sour taste that machines and technology can at times dominate humans and sport. The time is not far away where the we humans will become slaves to machines.
The D/L method has been criticized very badly that the price is on the wicket and not on the overs. You will be lucky guy if your team haven't lost a wicket batting second even though NRR (Net Run Rate) is poor. To me the game is flawed, we have seen some many where teams have lost half a dozen wickets with a heavy NRR still to chase winning the game.
Personally i wouldn't accept it for a sport where you need show your skill rather the technology or few people taking the game away from you. This is neither fair nor acceptable as part of the game. Here is one of the examples in sport where machines and technology dictate terms to humans. Still remember the days when i was wondering how could a team suddenly be in a situation to score 22 runs of 1 ball. SA then were assured of Victory against England but for the fact that 12 minutes of rain , damn for the rain gods and D/L cost the match for them. How could any team score 22 runs of 1 ball because of rain?
But that's how the rules are and that how the game is played and flawed with D/L. There has been several revisions of D/L method in the recent years to minimize the impact but the teams who have been on the receiving end because of D/L can only crib about the rules.
I can never take a big heart that India has won against England in the Kanpur ODI. Never ever will i consider this as a ODI victory, but that's how it is. The game was evenly poised and a couple of wickets would have done the trick for visiting team eagerly looking out for an outright win.
Matches where D/L has played spoilsport :-)
1. The match that strikes me when i talk about D/L was SA Vs ENG during 1992 Benson & Hedges WC in Australia where SA had to score 22 runs of 1 ball after shot showere of 12 minutes.
2. There was one similar situation during the 2003 WC in South Africa, i guess the match was played between SA and Kenya if my memory is right. Here it was altogether a different situation where in the SA team were just 1 run short of reaching the target computed by D/L method.
3. Another one that played against India .India batted first, and were all out in the 49th over for 328. Pakistan, batting second, were 7 wickets down for 311 when bad light stopped play after the 47th over. Considering the overall scoring rate throughout the match, this is a target most teams would be favored to achieve. And indeed, application of the D/L method resulted in a target score of 304 at the end of the 47th over, with the officially listed result as "Pakistan won by 7 runs (D/L Method)".
So am leaving all my readers with a sour taste that machines and technology can at times dominate humans and sport. The time is not far away where the we humans will become slaves to machines.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Yuvi - A nemesis to English Bowlers
Stuart Broad had his worst ever bowling figures in T20 World Cup in South Africa last year. I think he still remains in the privilege list of people who have conceeded half a dozen sixes in a over and the person was none other than Yuvi. Recently i read an article in The Hindu not sure who the author was it says "Yuvi has the grace of Lara, has the power of Gary Sobers". Not sure whether these statements are true but yes to an extent.
I think he has done a world of good to himself in scoring back to back centuries after coming back from a slump. I think he has redefined the way he needs to apply himself to situations rather than going for the kill. Now Yuvi looks a more matured player and with the scheme of things he seems to be right replacement for Ganguly.
English bowlers has been a nemesis to Yuvi's batting skill. The last 2 games that we have witnessed is one of the power packed performance and he was slaying the bowlers all round the park. I has got a new lease of life through the english bowlers and its time for all of us to see Yuvi in both form of the games. I think the english bowlers need to rethink when they have a go at Yuvi the next time. Its seriously high time that English bowlers bring the best under the leadership of Pietersen.
I think he has done a world of good to himself in scoring back to back centuries after coming back from a slump. I think he has redefined the way he needs to apply himself to situations rather than going for the kill. Now Yuvi looks a more matured player and with the scheme of things he seems to be right replacement for Ganguly.
English bowlers has been a nemesis to Yuvi's batting skill. The last 2 games that we have witnessed is one of the power packed performance and he was slaying the bowlers all round the park. I has got a new lease of life through the english bowlers and its time for all of us to see Yuvi in both form of the games. I think the english bowlers need to rethink when they have a go at Yuvi the next time. Its seriously high time that English bowlers bring the best under the leadership of Pietersen.
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