Today was also a repeat of yesterday’s ICL encounter between Badshahs and Superstars and yet again the Badshas cruised to victory with the sylish and experienced Inzamam Ul Huq being the man of the match. Usually Paksitani teams have a history of slumping when it most matters but today they reapeated another impressive victory under pressure circumstances.

I also hope with the amount of talent this line up has that the PCB recognise there performances and select the likes of Imran Nazir for next years t20 world cup in England. It shall be an excellent exhibition and alot of attention shall be seeked in the Pakistani community especially with England in our group.

Australia and South Africa are no longer the top cricketing sides. I don’t remember any team beating Australia so convincingly in the recent past. India dominated them completely. The better team won.

Cricinfo staff

November 10, 2008

Aamer Sohail, the former Pakistan captain and opener, has been appointed director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), replacing Mudassar Nazar who left for a coaching post with the ICC last month.

The decision was taken by the PCB’s governing board who met today for the first time under the chairmanship of Ijaz Butt. Sohail had been widely touted to pick up a key role in the current administration, though many had thought he would resurrect his role as chief selector again. He first held that position in 2003.

“I think it is a challenging role,” Sohail told Cricinfo. “But it is one I am really looking forward to. Over the last few years we have trained so many coaches at the NCA – about 250 of them – and we don’t have enough players for that number. The challenge is to strike a balance so that coaches are working in the right areas with players.”

A mild controversy had broken out over the post last week when Salim Malik claimed he had been offered the post. That was later denied by the board.

No decision was taken at the meeting on the new selection committee; currently Saleem Jaffar heads an interim committee which includes Ijaz Ahmed and Shoaib Mohammad as members. Ijaz, however, is said to be in line for a more senior role, possibly as fielding coach for the national side.

But the board has welcomed back Wasim Bari, the former wicketkeeper and chief selector, into the fold, appointing him director of human resources and administration. Salim Altaf’s redesignation to chief operating officer – taking over from Shafqat Naghmi – was also approved at the meeting.

Now, wait for the new thread on DADA Ganguly.

All the best.

I don’t know if we would be able to see such a character in near future in Indian team.

We will miss you dada!!

Thats because Dhoni is a keen learner and when he made his millions he realized that he is in a different league now and in order to fit in that league he has changed his lifestyle, hairstyle and his walking, talking habits too. He no more makes that stupid noise “Aiyeeeee” or “Catch it” on every ball and every shot.

He learned English and hired an image manager to teach him mannerism and how to speak thats why he is so articulate now. Where there is a will there is a way.

Look at Shoaib Malik, there is so much complacency and lethargy in him that can be seen from the way he walk, talk and sit. I am sorry to say myself being a Pakistani Canadian, we think too much about ourself and we don’t want to improve, in fact we think that we already know everything and there is no room for improvement.

Arun Lal may be an ear sore but, his English is far better than most Pakistani commentators unlike Waqar and Sohail who are committing grammatical blasphemies Arun Lal choose right word (minus his takia kalam “Just what the Dr. ordered”) he is fine.

Whereas, our Jiyalas they say, I play kirkit, I happy. And the paindoo ex-PM Ganja Nawab says, “I am agree” on everything he agrees………. basically its like “Mai Muttafiq hoon” ka literal translation.

Waiting for the game to start, I had a siesta today after lunch so I am not sleepy at all and it would be interesting to see how Hayden and Katich takes on the Indian fast bowling attack this morning.

He suggests India needs an all rounder but I disagree. That is because unless India finds someone like Kallis or Flintoff they should let things be. One of the things that has worked to India’s advantage of late is the fact that the specialist bowlers are batting ably at the end of the innings, be it Kumble, Harbhajan or Zaheer Khan. Why get an all rounder and upset the consistency and efficacy in bowling?

Zaheer and Harbhajan should definitely be called all rounders now.

In terms of fielding I agree India needs to improve.

Ian Chappell
November 09, 2008

Australia and India have provided some epic battles in the last decade. But where are they headed once this hard fought series is over?

For many years, Australia have been winning over 70 per cent of their matches thanks to a strong and varied attack built around the magic of Shane Warne and the miserly accuracy of Glenn McGrath. Suddenly in India they find themselves with a reasonable pace attack, albeit not entirely suited to Indian conditions and a spin attack too dependant on a bunch of slow bowling part-timers. Not surprisingly, they were unable to dismiss India cheaply and there were serious questions about the whereabouts of the next wicket-taking spinner.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding Australia’s slow bowling stocks, they still have an extremely strong batting line-up headed by the brilliant Ricky Ponting and the belligerent Matthew Hayden. They were still going to post decent scores but, only supported by an unbalanced attack, they could expect to endure a few more losses and a lot more draws.

Then Jason Krejza made a belated but telling appearance in the series and suddenly the Australian attack appeared a lot better balanced. When looking at the prospects of a team, the first thing to evaluate is the attack; a team will not win consistently without a strong and balanced bowling quartet.

This is why India’s future, despite an aging middle-order, appeared much rosier than Australia throughout the series. They have the ideal balance in attack; a left-arm pace bowler who swings the ball, a thoughtful, tall right-armer with pace and bounce, followed by a successful off-spinner and a budding leg-spinner.

There appears to be depth in both pace and spin but India’s flaw, and it has been with them for a long time, is the failure to produce a top-class all-rounder. Apart from that headache the big question for India is one of timing; is the great batting era passing just as the attack is reaching full potency?

There are signs that India have some viable replacement batting options. In Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir they have a dynamic opening combination that should be around for some time. The promising debut of Murali Vijay should give confidence that there’s a replacement opener on call for any emergency. He also looked like he could easily fill a top order batting slot, particularly at No. 3 where Rahul Dravid is now struggling.

Then there’s Rohit Sharma who was impressive in both technique and temperament when he toured Australia. He’s now turning potential into consistent runs at the first-class level and the way is now open to blood him in the Test side with Sourav Ganguly retiring.

With Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman still displaying good form, they should be around for a while to guide the younger players.

The one area of concern for the Indian selectors is to find young players who can both bat and field. At crucial times in the current series India had the chance to put Australia away but didn’t because of sloppy fielding. No team can expect to dominate without good catching to back strong bowling.

So are these two teams, who have provided world cricket with rare tense Test matches it desperately needs, heading in opposite directions?

There are a couple of things you know about Australian cricket; they will continue to bat well and their out cricket (fielding and running between wickets) is generally of a high standard and they will always play hard for the full five days. A depleted attack will see their winning percentage drop considerably.

Unless India address their flaws in the field and the lack of an all-rounder they will continue to play slightly below the potential of a team with a potent attack.

These aspects will also stop India supplanting Australia as the dominant number one but the rivalry should still be ongoing and extremely intense.

Quote

“He rode the bike with us, played with us, ate with us, spoke our language…We fought amongst ourselves and then made up. And then suddenly he makes it big in no time, like a fairy tale. We never imagined he had it in him,” says Soma, who used to keep wickets to Dhoni’s bowling for the para team, Durga Sporting. Yes, Dhoni also bowled then. “He used to bowl pretty fast. When he bowled with a leather ball, it even swung,” adds Soma.
……………….
“Once, after he received the man-of-the-match trophy from Bengal spinner Shiv Sagar Singh at the tournament finals in Panskura in 2002, Mahi was asked to say something. But he just told the organiser apologetically: “Mujhe bolna nahin ata (I can’t make a speech).” This same guy is so articulate now. His speech is so polished. It’s like magic,” says Sinha.

Unquote

It was difficult in post lunch session to score fast specially Indian trick was not to give Oz a hold on this match. Today they maintained the red cherry well and demarcation between shiny and rough side was very clear. Result could be seen in Watson bowling .. he was looking most threatening with his reverse swing going. Although Sehwag got out off Lee in rather unlucky manner but he could have been bowled or got out LBW by Watson anytime. It was Watson effect that India tried to secure wicket in that crucial time.
Having said that, they overdid it. It was beyond comprehension what Sachin and Laxman were trying to do …. just killing time and no runs ? It wasn’t that much great bowling that they cant even score @ 2.5 . Thanx to Ponting for taking too much time for field setting and all those gibberish with Umpire that he was forced to go with part-timers to compensate their bowling rate. And Dhoni took this opportunity to climb India’s run-rate.

Tomorrow Oz will definitely try to score fast atleast in the morning session when ball will be new with no conventional swing. It is upto Dhoni what strategy he is going to apply. Will we again witness 8-1 defense as in the first inning for morning session and then go attack in post lunch session ? That trick worked in the first inning ….. but the question is can they repeat that accuracy again … specially when Hayden try to manufacture strokes on the onside? This is the best match of this series … and well poised for fascinating last day.