Coming 'Back' soon...Modi...

run your imagination guys...give me some wittiest captions...

Three defeats...same mindsets...

we had three different results yesterday...

wi lost against oz...

kiwi lost against pomers...

and certainly...MIs 'lost it' against warne's RRC...

three defeats...same mindsets...

wi are talking about the positives they can take from the match...

to hell with positives...

they should say how hurting the defeat was...they should be kicking their own @sses...

here was a team, a team who is discovering the inhibitions against dominance they used to enjoy...

a real gutsy player who after getting hit on his head..stands again....scores a century for you...

and your bowlers drop you an honest effort away from famous victory...

what more motivation you want...

some are afraid of loosing...some are of winning...

same with kiwis...

they aptly displayed their age old nemesis...freezing at final hurdle...

all this is ridiculously predictive...

and what more you can say about MIs defeat against my adopted team...

that they are carrying forward the legacy of south africa...?

three close matches...and in all matches they were almost cruising...until that 'moment' stuck them...

i was having discussion with trideep of crickosphere...that it will be interesting to see how sachin will be captaining after taking over from pollock...

and last night confirmed my doubts...

i was taken back to oz tour he was captain of...

he looked so animated...his reaction after taking that catch...yelling on miss fields...bowling etc...throwing his hands in despair...all was same...as old sachin...

he puts enormous pressure on his colleagues being captain...to the point that they start doubting the very things they do good normally...at crucial juncture it always proves costly...

and last night was no different to MIs...

the calmness...the composure he brings to the side being just a player...is starkly opposite to when he dons captain's hat...suddenly he gets transformed in to different person altogether...

last time i used it for dhoni...but that was for positive assessment...

it shows that sachin has not moved an inch as far as captaincy goes...

three defeats...same mindsets...

Dravid...i am with you...

at the outset this blogger wants to state that he is not talking about dravid the BRC Captain...who he thinks is a failure...

its the dravid the player i am talking about...

who is the last man standing for BRC...standing alone in the debris of some royals...with his hand firmly up and still counting...

he has scored 330 odd runs in his 12 outings so far with strike rate of 126 at the average of 30!

not bad...infact good...

if you consider that wickets keep falling around him like nine pins...he has not got much support one requires at other hand...

that too...under resolutely relentless pressure from almost all quarters and specially consistent glare from media...

some of his own creations but mostly not...

as if some force is hell bent on singling him out...as if it gives, that force, extra pleasure...

still he has done far better job than most without even blinking...certainly more than some celebrity specialist T20 players like yuvrajs, uthapas etc. to highlight the point...

and they are from winning teams...

what more he can do now so that people accept him as viable T20 player?

some players are cursed to stand the scrutiny of their endeavors for life...some get away with murders...

may be his fate was decided when he was famously named 'the wall'...

and we all know...what many of us do with wall...

but does he really deserve all this...is it so difficult to give him peace of support...the feeling of being wanted...cant we even give some 'space' he deserve...more than anybody...?

and more importantly cant we just enjoy his last couple of years...?

my heart goes for him...and i really wonder sometimes...

what heals dravid...?

take your call...isn't it time to say 'I'...?

PS: and no soulberry, my adopted team is RRC...(he knows what i am talking about)...

500 reasons...

to cheer and congratulate gautam who is looking gambhir (serious) to crack open one available spot at top of india test team...

infact delhi dare devils (3Ds) should bow to him that despite sehwag captaining them 'brilliantly' they can still dream a place for semifinals!!

his consistency of late is remarkable for a guy who was susceptible to moving ball...that too for an opener he is...but he seems to have worked very hard on his technique without loosing out an iota of his flamboyance...

his feet are moving nicely, surely but positively...

it doesn't harm him any bit that he is one of the best (if not best) player of spin today...

another remarkable difference is...now he seems to carry on the start he was guilty of throwing away in past...

lessons learnt hard way but learnt anyway...

i think jaffer is going to be first casualty of IPL...with GG being the beneficiary...

not by default though...but for knocking at the door till its wide and invitingly open...

thanks Q for the hint

Who is making plans...

for KKR i.e.

its been a while i am saying that KKR are eventally leaving it too late to put paddle on accelerator...they once got away with bash-us DCs...and later suicidal 3Ds...

now that they have lost two matches on trot...will someone stuff in their brain that this is not going to work for them or rather not working for them...

what they really need is a dasher or two at top to give innings an impetuous...but match after match they are repeating same mistake...

who is to be blamed...

the self proclaimed master of all strategies...john buchanan?

did he got lucky with oz team full of class players? or his role in oz team was overrated as warne have been saying for a while...

i don't know...

but someone at the top has left his brain at home for sure...

Leading from Non-Striker end...

thats what ganguly did when he showed his true colors again in yesterday's match between MIs and KKRs...

by the time more than half the KKR team was back in dug out...he just played around 10 balls...

End of over 11 (2 runs) - Kolkata Knight Riders 46/6 (RR: 4.18)

AB Agarkar		10* (9b 2x4)		DJ Thornely		1-0-2-0
SC Ganguly		8* (12b 1x4)		RR Raje		1-0-9-1

he came in 3rd over...at the fall of 1st kkr wicket...and by the time 6the wicket went down in 10th over he merely played 10 balls!!

now thats something strangely interesting...

with wicket was seaming and swinging he should have taken it on himself to lead from front and play as much deliveries as possible to utilize the vast experience he has earned playing international cricket since ages...

what we saw was totally opposite...

he seemed happy to stay on non striker end...

but then...its ganguly for you...

Dreams do realise...

they both were in the oblivion of anonymity...well...at least one of them for sure...

one has tasted success earlier and then went in to darkness of gloom...as if that success was a dream he never lived...

other kept doing what he can do best but didn't had the 'charm' to attract attention of almighty selectors...

they both worked hard...kept faith in their abilities...kept their focus on game...kept the negative chants away from their ears...while working on their respective skills...

god smiled on them eventually...

presented (or created?) an opportunity in the form of IPL...

and then hat tricks happened...

yes guys, i am taking about Balaji and Amit Mishra...

is it just a coincidence...that this happened to both of them...or they both were chosen with purpose...

that they created history within the space of few days...and wont be...or rather can not be... discarded to anonymity now...

goes to show that if you want something badly...resolutely...even mother nature devise a way to fulfill you wish...

another chapter in the very short history of IPL where dreams got realized...

Delhi own devils...

or what you would call it...

i thought somebody told 3d bats that they had to score 130 odd runs in 15 over itself...otherwise what could be the explanation of shots they all played?

best moment that sums up the situation came when Dhawan played ball back to dinda who throwed the ball back to him and there were some heated glances exchanged...dilshan sensing the mood of dhwan went up to him to calm him down and play according to the situation...but what happened next ball? he just swayed his bat across the line and got bowled...

mindless...like they all were...

i discussed with good friend Soulberry that KKR are leaving it too late to up the tempo and got away with DC the other day...and 3ds have to hit hard at this strategy of theirs...they did exactly the same and restricted KKR to almost walk away total...

perhaps then they decided to make the match more interesting and chase down the total in 15 overs itself...

but whatta come back by Shoaib!!

i think this T20 format will suit him more than anything coz he just have to bowl 4 overs of full throttle...and he did exactly the same...

but at the same time, more than his pace or accuracies of bowls...i think 3ds got intimidated by his presence and tried to out bowl him and thats where they lost the match...by playing some inexplicable shots...

which brings me down to the question which i wanted to ask for long but i think this is the best moment...

how can a captain rap his batters to play rash stroke or preferring their 'natural' play over team demand...when he repeatedly does the same?

i think in the answer of this is hidden the solution of 3ds problem...

what say?


PS: Was it only me who noticed that the captain who was looking to win the match appeared far more tensed than the captain who was loosing it...? infact sehwag was smiling like they were cruising to victory...

Moving on...with a twist...

following on report in cricinfo that both sree and bhajji are keen to move on i specifically liked this portion...

Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth offered to share a room, had lunch together and told Sudhir Nanavati, the BCCI's probe commissioner, during his hearing on Friday into their controversial face-off after an Indian Premier League match last month, that they would prefer to forget the incident and move on from there.

i think its an excellent idea...

they can settle some pending scores in the confined atmosphere of hotel room...

who ever steps out night after gets selected in the team...

and we all move on...

Confessions of regretful minds...

We have finally succeeded in getting confessional statement from Cricket Australia which goes like this...

To all cricket fans around world...

we finally admit that we were stupid, plain dumb and devoid of any thing which can be associated with wisdom when we decided to not offer captaincy to Shane Warne.

For rest of our lives we will never be able to find answer of the fact that whether it was our greatest loss or the cricket fans all over world...

if you think, like this blogger, that this should really be the statement from cricket australia...please sign up here as token of respect to Shane Warne...the captain...

those rares who don't agree yet can visit uncle's post at cricket with ball and then can comeback and sign here...

i will make it sure that Uncle of Cricket with Balls (famed for running petitions...) will drop this signage to Cricket Australia's office...