To boost one's confidence

There are teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe who might just make one's life in many ways though their contribution to international is negligible. The teams mentioned above are one such teams against whom a victory is guaranteed unlike the case with the other 7 teams out there. In case some team happens to encounter either of the teams mentioned and in case that happens in a season where the ICC is bound to reconsider the teams' ratings, then, the team facing Bangladesh and Zimbabwe would have to consider itself lucky for, because of that their rating would definitely continue to raise.

I can recall the way South Africa made it to the number spot in ICC's test rankings in the late 2007 by beating the West Indies and Bangladesh with Australia losing to India in the Border - Gavaskar trophy. Similar to this, in yesterday's encounter between the Mumbai Indians and the Guyana team, the Mumbai Indians needed absolutely no effort needed to overthrow their opponents. Starting from Sachin Tendulkar and Kieron Pollard, everyone made their contribution felt if not for Saurabh Tiwary who got out for a naught. Of course, even Ambati Rayudu scored a mere 4 but that was towards the fag end of the innings.

Lack of game planning was evident in yesterday's match with the Guynese captain - Ramnaresh Sarwan opting for not more than 5 bowlers who bowled their complete quota of 4 overs each. A little bit of risk taking usually helps in getting back into the game and if that doesn't, nothing to worry. Atleast the captain would be satisfied that he made use of the options available to him to the fullest extent whatsoever. The Guyanese innings saw just two hits out of the ground compared to 9 alone by the man of the match Kieron Pollard alone in a T20 game.

I had totally forgotten until now that Guayana was facing a team that stood on the top in this year's IPL and had international players like Harbhajan Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Lasith Malinga to name a few. Despite ending up on the losing side, one has to give the Guyanese a pat on their back one, for scoring a decent 153 with over 7.5 an over and two, for not losing all ten wickets in a failed run chase. Only Christopher Barnwell was found ending up with a strike rate of more than 150 compared to three from the Mumbai Indians' side.