Unbelievable from New Zealand

Well it was unbelievable for New Zealand to beat Sri Lanka first of all for being the underdogs prior to going into the match and secondly for losing quick wickets with time and overs following suit and thirdly with spinners like Muralitharan and Jayasuriya haunting their team like devils. But, in the end New Zealand had a last gasp for victory when they eventually won the game by 2 wickets with one ball to spare. New Zealand have always been losing to Sri Lanka in all three formats of the game. Since 2007, New Zealand have lost to Sri Lanka in T20 world cups.

This time, it was not Jayasuriya who did the damage either with the bat or with the ball. For a change, one can see Jayasuriya taking to the crease in the 7^th position after the sixth wicket fell. May be that was the reason why Sri Lanka had to end their innings with such a small total on the board. With someone like Jayasuriya on the top, either there would be a wicket fallen or else there would be a steady rise in the scoreboard with Jayasuriya smashing every bowlers at will. Yesterday, Jayasuriya never got to face the ball with the 6^th wicket falling in the 120^th legal delivery.

Main batsmen like Sangakkara, Chandimal and Dilshan failed with the bat leaving Jayawardene with the tough task which he accomplished well. Jayawardene was at the crease with the top three wickets of top batsmen falling at a wrong time. Whatever, the batting of Sri Lankan team was a complete failure. One can see the devastating spell of Shane Bond who scalped two important wickets of Kapugedra and Mathews in back to back deliveries failing which the Sri Lankan score would have well passed 150. On the other hand, Shane Bond was the most successful bowler in terms of runs given.

Likewise, New Zealand's run chase didn't start on a high when they lost their first wicket of Brendon McCullum even before the scoreboard had something on it. Similar to Jayawardene, Jesse Ryder held his nerve in staying on the crease despite wickets falling from the other end. Ryder was the second one to go and there followed a series of wickets falling with hardly any individual scores making news. It was Nathan McCullum's quickfire 16 which sealed the game for the Kiwis. But, the man of the match should have been either Jayawardene or Jesse Ryder. McCullum's efforts can hardly be seen.

Back to the pavilion

Well this happens every year after the Indian Premier League gets over. The duration of close to two months which hosted the Indian Premier League not only was successful in showing a spectacular cricketing action on the field but was also responsible in showing the Indian sub continent as a world rather than as a country like it is after the IPL got over. In these two months of cricket's calender, most of the international players played just for one country nevermind that they played for different Indian cities but as a country it was India for which everyone was found playing.

Now, three days after the finals of the tournament which happened to be between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Superkings the players will have to go back to their respective teams to serve their international duties. Players like Mathew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist who were seen picking up the willow even after their retirement from international cricket a couple of years back will now have to either play for their domestic team or else get back to some stuff like commentating or coaching young legs but would rarely be seen playing for any team or coming in front of the world for what they are known and have been known in their playing days.

The Mumbai crowd who would have cheered Sachin Tendulkar for his mind blowing batting will now have to dream "had Sachin Tendulkar been around in the upcoming T20 world cup" and worse come be contented with that. So would be the fans of Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble. And, players like Robin Uttappa, Virender Sehwag and Ambati Rayudu will have to be seen next year only with the selection committee picking Piyush Chawla for reason not evident to common man and is restricted only to the BCCI. In a way, players will also be losing a lot as said above.

And, finally the Chennai crowd who would have in the two months cheered the Sri Lankan off spinner - Muttiah Muralitharan will now have to make up their mind that he gets belted by some Yuvraj Singh or Rohit Sharma when India play Sri Lanka. So would be the case regarding Australia's Shane Watson, whom the Rajasthan Royals would now want to go back without scoring when he picks up his bat against India. Other such players who'd be rejoiced after being done so for their good performance until now will be New Zealand's Brendon McCullum, Shane Bond to name a few.

The fate of a depleted KKR

Well it has been the trademark of the Kolkata Knight Riders to reserve wickets and go in for a final assault which is yet to become a reality. Even in yesterday's game between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Mumbai Indians, the Kolkata Knight Riders lost just 3 wickets in the 20 overs that they played only to pile up a mere 155 runs on the board and eventually end up on the losing side. If not for his captaincy, Sourav Ganguly should stand nowhere when it comes to rescuing his team which was evident when he scored just 31 runs from 34 deliveries at a strike of less than 100.

This strike can be appreciated had it been in a one day international. But, this is not the time to remind anyone that Ganguly was playing a T20 game where his experience is less than some Piyush Chawla who is at present half his age. But, if common sense speaks, Ganguly should have taken the decision to take charge of his team by going for big shots rather than steadily increasing the pace after ducking in the initial part of his batting. No one would account Ganguly for hitting 5 boundaries but would surely point their fingers for not hitting even a single ball out of the ground.

If the other side of the coin is also given a close look at, it would be quite evident when the KKR team hardly had any hard hitting batsmen with only Chris Gayle and to some extent Ganguly being an exception. Had I been in place of Ganguly, I would have opted to choose Brad Hodge instead of Angelo Mathews and Shukla over Saha or Harpreet Singh. One has to wonder from where did this Harpreet Singh come from when the KKR squad doesn't mention his name. On the other side, even the bowlers from KKR had no momentum in them to trouble the Mumbai Indians' batsmen.

One cannot cite the presence of Sachin Tendulkar to have increased pressure on the KKR side for, Sachin is as good as anybody else as far as T20 cricket is considered though there might be a lot of contradictions to this. Shane Bond and Ishanth Sharma should have shown their caliber for the money what they were paid and the expectations they had drawn from their fans. But, they were the bowlers who ended up with the highest economy rate when both of them returned with a run rate of over 10 runs an over. Shane Bond was not even made to bowl his full quota of 4 overs. The only area where KKR can boast over MI is that they hit 2 sixes compared to only one from the MI side.

Rajasthan Royals win at a neutral venue

Well it was a neutral venue where he Shane Warne led Rajasthan Royals snatched a 34 run victory over the Kolkata Knight Riders. This was the first victory for the Rajasthan Royals while at the same time it was a second loss to the Kolkata Knight Riders. For a change, the match was played on a slow track which is quite rare in T20 cricket and more so when it comes to the IPL matches. Perhaps! It is due to the fact that the match was being played on a neutral venue rather than a home pitch to one of the teams out there.

If not for the opener Michael Lumb, who returned back to the pavilion without scoring, the rest if the batsmen returned with timely contribution with the bat which ensured a decent score on the board. But, if this score was compared to the team totals put up by other teams in earlier games, this total of the Rajasthan Royals stands nowhere but the end result of the match says otherwise. A total of just 168 on the board at a run rate of 8.70 an over is not a tough task atleast as far as the IPL is considered. But, at the end of the day smiles ruled Shane Warne's face.

Yousuf Pathan couldn't do much with the bat that he was expected to. But, when it came to do the same with the ball, Pathan had his full say when he bagged 2 wickets which was more than anybody else in the Rajasthan Royals' side. Luckily, this was the highest any bowler in the match was supposed to take with Ishanth Sharma, Ashok Dinda and Shane Bond joining him. The scorecard suggests a dull performance from the Kolkata Knight Riders' bowlers where the concentration of wickets lies in Shane Bond, Ishanth Sharma and Dinda and with Murali Karthik going waste.

Sourav Ganguly could have had the ball keeping in mind the experience that he has got in international that has made players like Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble star in their respective areas though not being included in the international squad. It was a rather slow approach by the Kolkata Knight Riders' batsmen when they couldn't chase down a modest total despite not losing wickets at regular intervals. This has been the trade,mark of the Kolkata Knight Riders wherein they keep their wickets so that they can go in for a risk at the end only to find kicking themselves at the end of the 20^th over.

Brett Lee follows Shane Bond

May be it is the thing of the past when bowlers used to play all three two formats of the game of cricket and retire once for all from all the formats simultaneously. Some examples include India's Javagal Srinath, Australia's lanky pacer Glenn McGrath and others who quit both tests and one dayers simultaneously in one season to be more precise. This may not be the case with the present generation of bowlers with increasing load on bowlers who will have to do an extra bit of hard work in order to capture wickets even against low standard teams like West Indies & Bangladesh.

Thanks to the batsman friendly nature of wickets and batsmen friendly rules like the extended powerplay and a free hit when a no-ball is bowled. Added to the discussion would be abandoning the pitches which are termed dangerous for batsmen when the ball swings like a mad monkey. And bowling fast is no child's play for, this requires more work outs and increased fitness levels. This may not be true in case of batsmen and spin bowlers who do not take much burden when compared to fast bowlers. Added to that would be tournaments like the IPL which can guarantee money much more than what test cricket can.

However, Brett Lee's case is not as worse as that of New Zealand's Shane Bond who also quit from test cricket a couple of months back to concentrate on one dayers and the T20 formats of the game. Brett Lee has played 76 test matches for Australia compared to Shane Bond who had played just 18 test matches in his 8 year long international career. Brett Lee was able to pick up 310 wickets and also score 5 half centuries with a highest score of 64. Brett Lee's contribution to international cricket and for Australia though not enormous but may be considered satisfactory as far as a fast bowler is concerned.

Lee was awarded the man of the series in the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2007-08 which Australia won 2-1 which he can highlight to his children in case they intend in taking up playing cricket. Very rarely a bowler is awarded the man of the match let alone the man of the series. Brett Lee was able to strike a pace which was less than only Pakistan's Shoaib Akthar but could not draw the fan following and appreciation that Bond could. Like his pace, even his quality of pace bowling lies in between Shane Bond & Shoaib Akthar. The difference being in the reverse direction. Meaning in terms of pace it is Shoaib-Lee-Bond and in terms of quality it is Bond-Lee-Shoaib.

PCB officially does an IPL franchisee

Just a day after there were rumors that Pakistan's Abdul Razzaq has been linked to Kolkata Knight Riders, comes in another very interesting news that the PCB chairman has ruled out the possibility of any Pakistani player from participating in this year's edition of the Indian Premier League. This was no doubt in response to the humiliation that the Pakistani players had to face when none of the players from Pakistan were seen attracting bids from any of the IPL franchises. Someone like Kieron Pollard was able to attract the Mumbai Indians' eyes even before he could draw some appreciation from his home side.

There was nothing unusual in New Zealand's comeback man Shane Bond going in for a whooping $750000 for the Kolkata Knight Riders. However, when no Pakistani player was picked up by any of the franchises one has to wonder as to what made the Kolkata Knight Riders to approach Abdul Razzaq. Though the claim has been rubbished, had it been by anyone else, it could have been ditched. But how can anything be turned down when Abdul Razzaq himself has given a nod to that statement. It seems that Abdul Razzaq had been offered a contract of 1 year and is waiting for an approval from IPL.

But now, even though in future, in case of a freak chance if any of the IPL franchises opt for any player from Pakistan, it would not be let to happen by none other than the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt who has revoked the no objection certificates that it had issued to its players to participate in the IPL. But, one has to understand the motive behind targetting the players from his own country. No gains can be anticipated from the actions of Ijaz Butt why has been strict regarding the players from Pakistan. Is this in response to the anger on the Indian counterpart by the PCB chief?

The PCB chairman could have handled the issue in some other way when he could have asked for a reason for the franchises actions regarding the selection of players from Pakistan. Ijaz Butt could have sought the reason behind shortlisting the players' list who would be available for the auction in the third edition of the IPL. When no franchisee was ever interested in bidding for players from Pakistan, there was no reason for the IPL organising committee to have shortlisted the Pakistani players. Like last year, even this year the Pakistani players could have been barred from playing in the IPL by being straight forward. But, this action from Ijaz Butt is not justified.

Shane Bond Breaks The Test Bond!!!

Well this post is not directed towards praising the New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond despite deserving to take home some applause. One can just pity Shane Bond for not having made a grand exit from his international cricket career. Had Shane Bond made up his mind, he could have taken his fast bowling career far more to the extent where the New Zealand great Sir Richard Hadlee had. Shane Bond was hardly found giving a serious thought to cricket which should have been played as a sport. But, Shane Bond mistook cricket to be a business than a sport.

Shane Bond was attracted by the cash rich ICL which was not at all serious in its business and I bet no one would have voted in Shane Bond's favor for nodding his head for ICL. Finally, as it is evident, ICL lost and so did Shane Bond. He was one time (somewhere during the 2003 world cup held at South Africa) seen as the third fastest bowler in world cricket after Shoaib Akthar and Brett Lee. It is not an undisputed issue regarding the way Shoaib Akthar bowled the world's fastest ball with a bent arm. And though Brett Lee has no complaints, still, Brett Lee has not been successful in convincing people with his amazing speeds.

Fortunately, the world finally got a breakthrough when Shane Bond made it to the big stage. But, the world has hardly seen this so called fast bowling ace who finally called it a day from tests a couple of days ago. If one goes by his career stats, Shane Bond made his test debut in 2001, at the age of 26, when people get into the scene at the age of 20. Alright! This is no big issue. Someone like Mike Hussey got into the international arena at the age of 30+ which is greater than 26. Shane Bond is one such bowler to have made his test appearance earlier than his ODI debut.

And surprisingly, Shane Bond is also one of the very few cricketers who have bid adieu to test cricket before calling off from the shorter versions of the game. Of course, Glenn McGrath quit tests after the fifth Ashes test in 2006 and ended his ODI stint after the world cup. May be that, had there been no such mega event, McGrath would have quit ODIs sooner. This is not the case with Shane Bond. Despite having the ability to make it big, Shane Bond's test career lasted just 18 test matches long in the 8 year career that Bond has had. It is our fortune that atleast for a flash of moment, someone like Shane Bond was seen striking the ball at lightning speeds.