Archive for April, 2011
WORLD CHAMPIONS
Posted by Sentinel Prime in LS India on April 3, 2011
India the world champions
If you are an Indian you will never never forget the date 2 April 2011, the day when India was crowned the World Champions at Mumbai. The whole Indian nation is celebrating. Politicians are saying this is the happiest occasion the country has faced since its independence.
As with my match analysis of the Pakistan semi final, I have not consulted with Javed A Khan about what we are going to say in this thread. He has told me he is a little busy for some time and he may have his own views about the new world champions and the world cup review which he will write about if he feels the need.
If I am brutally honest, I did not expect India to win this World Cup and it was the 4th most likely team to be crowned the world champions for me. I expected Australia, Sri Lanka and South Africa (in that order) to better India. However, as fate would have it two of those teams did not even make it to the top 4. I do blame the WC format for this but this is a point I will come to later.
The Indian batting once again thrived. For me the highlight of their batting was Tendulkar's flawless strokeplay against Steyn and Morkel
The usual suspects performed for India and did what they were expected to do. Tendulkar amassed 482 runs, averaging 54. Gambhir, Sehwag and Yuvraj were all consistent. 4 out of the top 8 batsmen in the WC were Indian and this is something you would perhaps expect.
Career best performance
Yuvraj played a monumental role for India in this WC. He was the 8th highest run scorer and 6th highest wicket-taker. This is really the reason why India won. The problem India was having in the recent past was that they did not possess a wicket taking talent other than Zaheer Khan so Khan would often have to fight a lone battle in the bowling department. In their middle order India lacked a consistent performer who could assume responsibility if SRT and Sehwag would be dismissed cheaply at the top of the order. Yuvraj gave his career best performance at the most significant time.
Zaheer also gave the best performance of his life and almost got away with the Player of the Tournament award
And then there was Zaheer Khan who also gave the best performance of his career. What I found was outstanding with Khan in this tournament was not his use of the new ball, but his use of the old ball. He got the ball to reverse swing whenever Dhoni wanted him to and kept picking wickets. He finished with the highest number of wickets along with Afridi. 5 years ago you could not imagine an Indian bowling like this. From India’s point of view hopefully Zaheer Khan will inspire many more pacers who will rip through batting orders.
I have a problem with this tournament format. This WC was essentially a 3 match knockout contest between the top 8 teams.
Format wise this WC was a failure. The ICC must not make this mistake again
The biggest event in world cricket should never be organised like that. This format favoured subcontinental teams for obvious reasons, due to their familiarity with low and slow pitches. One would then naturally expect the strongest subcontinental team (arguably India) to win. Hopefully the ICC will not organise events like this in the future. Teams that reached the semi final will probably not complain, but those that did not have plenty to criticise. Imagine India or Pakistan playing in England in aknockout competition? I am sure they would have immense problems- they might lose relatively easily to teams like West Indies and New Zealand.
And finally there was Dhoni. A smart, cool and consistent performer. Dhoni is a rare talent. His batting is ugly and some of his decisions are questionable, but he has nerves of steel. Above everything he is also a very humble human being. His journey has involved applying to become a ticket collector to winning the World Cup for India. His decision to promote himself up the order in the final was nothing short of courageous if not heroic. I recently discovered that Dhoni averages 47 runs more in those ODI’s that India has won. Numbers never tell the whole story, but in this case they do tell a lot. I would say the World Cup was won by Dhoni and Yuvraj. I salute Mahendra Singh Dhoni and at the moment he is in my opinion the greatest Indian alive.
Once again, congratulations to the Indian visitors of this blog and all of India.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni the great
WORLD CUP 2011 FINAL LIVE COVERAGE
Posted by Sentinel Prime in LS Pakistan on April 1, 2011
A battle between two juggernauts for the ultimate cricketing glory
Former Pakistan Test cricketer Mohammad Akram claimed before the World Cup that an Asian team would be bringing the Cup to the subcontinent. His claim has come true now that India and Sri Lanka battle it out on 2 April for what is the biggest prize in world cricket- the World Cup.
How desperately these two sides want to be the world champion will be revealed tomorrow when they go head to head with the newly renovated Wankhede Stadium.
India will as always rely on Sehwag and Tendulkar to give them a flying start. This is the perfect platform for Tendulkar to score a century and add another feather to his cap. Gambhir, Kohli and Yuvraj will be expected to score runs. Sri Lanka are good players of spin but Yuvraj has been bowling decently against every side so SL will consider him a threat. Zaheer Khan’s role becomes very important and he should play a crucial role.
It remains to be seen whether a low and slow turner is produced by the curator or whether it will be an absolute batting paradise. There are rumours that due to IPL starting very soon, Sri Lankan cricketers might be bribed into underperforming in the final.
Most people consider India to be favourites as they appear to be peaking at the right time. However Sri Lanka has historically played well against India in important games so the slightest lapse in focus of the Indians may mean that Sri Lanka is in a commanding position. India needs to watch out for Malinga’s yorkers and Murali and Mendis.
May the best team win.
POSTMORTEM OF INDIA PAKISTAN SEMIFINAL
Posted by JAVED A. KHAN in LS Pakistan on April 1, 2011
BMW
ching chee
The Auto Rickshaw crashed and it is not a ‘John Doe’ because, it has a name, an identity and it is called Ching Chee. There are plenty of casualties in that Sardine packed Ching Chee. A postmortem revealed the names of those who did not survive thetop of the list name is Rambo Shoaib Akhtar. He was DOA in Lahore, in fact his condition was beyond recognition, perhaps it is the result of being left out to burn up. At no stage he was showing any positive signs of recovery. His own retirement announcement was premature, he should have waited till the end of the tournament. But, it was a deliberate ruse from him to get empathy which in turn could get him a place in the playing XI. Instead it ensured a permanent parking spot at the Rawalpindi Railway Station, which they will ultimately move it to the museum. The Pindiites are building, a monument in “Choor Chowk” Rawalpindi to commemorate the once upon a time “The Rawlapindi Express.” Now, known as Maal Gaadi.
The other victim came out from the Ching Chee is identified as a, blocker, sweeper, the so-called fighter “the son of the soil from where the famous General, Paper Tiger Niazi hails and this sweeper is from MianWali Miss Baah.
The famous General, Paper Tiger Khan Niazi, when asked about surrendering against the Indian Army in 1971 proudly said: “Over my dead body.” And, the next thing he did was surrendered in front of the Indian Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Arora. An army of 90,000 infantry, tank battalion, armored car battalion and a dozen fighter jets under his command and he surrendered. Never before in the history an incident of such magnitude and such large army surrendered. So, no wonder if Misbah ul Haq hails from the same town of Mianwali and also from the same warrior race of NIAZI…. Imran Khan Niazi, who is struggling to be a leader since the last 19 years, is also from Mianwali.
Coming back to the semi-final, as if that was not enough, another court-jester who cannot stop smiling even after dropping a simple catch or getting out cheaply is a Pathan. Perhaps his motto is, “Jio tou Aisay Jio, Jaisay Khusshall Khattak Khan nay Jia” no matter whatever happens he says, don’t worry be happy. In order to remain happy in his own paradise he declined to lead the team’s captaincy thrice then pinched himself to make sure he is not dreaming and is alive also he is not a dummy captain! So, as long as he is alive he cannot be the captain of the Pakistan team perhaps he is on the GT road on way to his hometown to set up his “Chai Ka Dhaaba”.
Kamran Akmal may not have a future behind the wickets but he has a bright future ahead of him. He can be a sabziwala, fruitwala or, a Nayee where he can sit with his gloves on, and drop tomatoes, potatoes and oranges under his table and no one will notice how many he dropped? The only time Kamran’s mouth is shut when he is playing a shot, this is not a joke, watch him on a video.
Umar Akmal will be Kamran’s Chotta and won’t let his Bhaiyya remain alone, he will join him wherever he may go. Be it Farzana Davakhana or Baluchi ka Chai Khana. My advise is, both of them should go to Peshawar at least once.
Abdul Razzaq should make a golden handshake with Ijaz Butt and create history by announcing the retirement of both of them at the same time. I can offer one million dollar Canadian Tire Money to Ijaz Butt. But, the time is limited, he has to accept it on April 1st 2011 and not after that.
Time to rebuild the Pakistani Ching Chee or, the auto-rickshaw but definitely not like the Indian BMW. To me that Indian BMW had a very bumpy ride on the streets of Mohali. The problem was not with the speedometer alone but it was in the wheels, the chassis and the steering wheel. The 0-60 acceleration was good but, then everything collapsed, the linear torque was pathetic, yet they won the race because the Lahori Ching Chee was overloaded with overweight passengers, in other words there was too much drag.
Eventually one can say that India won or the better team won but, by any standards India played badly, especially Tendulkar he is lucky but, he played ugly. And, Pakistan played the worst game of the tournament and deserved to lose the match. You cannot drop 6 catches, 4 of them of their ace player and you cannot afford to offer a dead bat to every single ball that was bowled. Only the Mianwali Paper Tigers can do that and the irony is such paper tigers will remain in the team because of the jingoistic decision makers sitting at the top. To sum up, enjoy the auto-rickshaw ride like these girls
