Arm Ball

Juggling of numbers.

I have no hopes. I have assumed India is out.

Less hurt. Less frustration. Less agony.

If Australia go through they are my favorites, if they dont then its India.

But the onus of the early exit would lie on 3 individuals and they would be RP, Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh.

Not many Indian fans support Pakistan except if you live in those pockets in India where…..but tomorrow would be an exception.

And there are signs that Younis wants to play India in final. Of course, thank you. But dont expect Manmohan Singh to ask his team to lose it to your team again.

30th Sep is never so complex.

Get over it ASAP….

To start with congratulations to Younis Khan for a memorable win.

And as of now the game we lost, the blame goes to the bowlers — RP Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma.

Sachin failed, Kohli failed and Yusuf Pathan now has reached the stage where somebodys gotta go to him and say “Dude thanks a ton. Your T20 skills are too good, unfortunately they dont work in ODIs. Out you go. “

Lad hasnt performed since ages and now he is hurting one place in the team. Not sure how good Nayar kid would be, but still that should be the end of Pathan for now.

Harbhajan Singh now has pathetic record of 10 wkts in 15 games. Horrendous.

In the touring party the other fast bowlers are Praveen Kumar. Who is no different than Ishant Sharma in non swinging pitches.

The fast bowling looks like a worry.

And for the critics of Dravid, here is why he is important to the side even now when the IPL stars have loomed large : hhe has patience and persistence. 76 in 102 balls were the difference why India lost by 54 runs and why not by 85 runs.

Still all is not yet lost for the team. Beat Aussies tomorrow which is a possible task if the team gets its combination right.

And why did Kohli come on 4 instead of 5 or 6 ? This are some of the problems which need an urgent fix. Throw the fast bowlers who are just on the reputation of IPL or tests. We need bowlers who could take wickets on any pitch. Something like Srinath and Zaheer do / did.

All is still not lost.

And yes this post would be a disappointment for flamed readers from the neibhourhood who….

And their best bowler in the warm up game is not going to play the most important game of the CT. Not because he is a lowly bowler on talent, but because his captain doesnt put that trust in him.

This is South Africa and there is place for just one spinner. And that spinenr is going to be Harbhajan Singh who is fresh from a 5-for.

RP Singh had a fabulous T20 world cup in 2007. How far he goes this time is not very sure as he is not seeming to be in good form. He was clobbered for 66 runs in 8 overs by Neil Broom.

Ishant Sharma has been on and off. Praveen Kumar well I am not sure if he would be playing. Ashish Nehra seems to be the best bet to rely on right now.

Zaheer Khan seems to be missed big time in this tournament. A country where he has been tremendously successful except the match on 3/23/03 against Australia, the biggest match of his career.

Possible bowling line up looks like : Nehra, Ishant, Harbhajan and RP.

Batting more or less looks settled. Tendulkar, Gambhir to open with Dravid at 3, Yuvraj at 4, MS at 5, Raina at 6. 7th spot seems to be in a bit of doubt. I would rather give the benefit of doubt to Yusuf Pathan in the first game and then may be try Nayar in the game against dummy Bangladesh…..

If the bowlers do their job half decent, the Indians would be good to live up to their reputation as the best ODI team in last 2 years. They have now won 6 trophies on trot. No other team can boast of the same record.

it would be a retro move to get back Dravid, but then there is no cut for experience…

India gets to play 8 tests this summer, 6 against good teams and 2 against minnows. Sachin, if he plays all he would be one test away from Steve Waugh’s record. Dravid would easily scale past Ponting and Border getting 11000 runs. Laxman all set to cross 7000 runs and the man at the top Sehwag crossing 6000 and the golden goose Gambhir crossing 3000 runs.

The biggest question for selectors would be the place of Ishant Sharma in the scheme fo things next season. He has been patchy in ODIs and T20s. Relatively OK in Tests. So I guess he should be played more in tests than limited overs format.

Ashish Nehra has proved out to be a good enough bowler in ODIs. Not sure how would he shape up, he could be a decent partner to Zaheer Khan in the ODIs if fit.

This combos are too far to discuss, but would be a lot of headache for the selectors to pick up right squad to continue mission 11 in right track.

Toss comes in. And we are chasing. Yes. Way to go. Ojha and Irfan go out. Jadeja and RP come in. Good choices. India makes sensible choices. Spin + pace. England get in Ryan Sidebottom in and Adil Rashid, the spinner goes out..

Lord’s is already blue with Indians and English supporters. Time for Anthems. Its proud to stand to Indian national anthem. Great to see likes of DK, Irfan, Zaheer, Yusuf sing along with the likes of Bhajji, MS, Gambhir and Yuvraj.

There. Diff between Indians and English supporters. Every Englishman sung national anthem despite camera focussed on them. And Indians. They jumped and waved when focus shifted to them even when Jan gan man was played.

Asoka Desilva is the one umpire along with Aussie Steve Davis. We all know how much DeSilva loves India. First ball. Swing off the off stump. Bopsie on strike. 2nd ball, played back.

Hussain says 160 is winning total. Not quite. Wide ball and good take by MS. First runs on the board for England. Good run. First runs off the bat. Virender Sehwag is a crucial man in Indian line up. He is the next batting great. He has to feature in every crucial game.

Not to forget Zaheer is playing against his favorite opposition England. 1st over gone. England 3/0.

RP next. 2 dot balls. Great ball. Wright shuffled too much. Leg slip for Wright. Sachin there. Sachinnnnnnnnnnnnnn. Chance for out. Catch out. India draw first blood. Yousuf gets it. Short ball. Wright goes for it. and India get the first wicket

KP comes in. Get in Yuvraj. Pie-chucker. Remember KP is injured. Bonding seems great between the team much in contrary to what ass media reports.

2 gone England 4 for 1. Typical English start. Bad ball, first boundary. 8 for 1 in 2.1 Bopara bats like Sachin ? :O. Hussein all right ? Zaheer pitching in leg side. Bad ball again. KP off the block with a boundary. Strike rate of 400. Mis fiekding. Poor stuff. Yuvraj there. Supposedly best. Hussein warns about the backlash if either of the team goes out today.

15 for 1 in 3. Rp comes in for 4th over. Short ball. One more. 17 for 1 in 3.2
Bad ball again. 4 more. 21 for 1 in 4 overs. Appeal of the last ball. Not given. Ishant comes in the attack and rightly so. We need a Indian commentator in the box. Bishop and Hussein too anti-Indian.

Bad start to Ishant. Four. Too much of misfielding happening here. India needs a wicket here. Gambhir dis time. Six to end the over. 34 for 1 in 5.

Last over of Power plays. Bumble in the commentary box. Four. Great stuff from KP. England running away. No imagination from Indian bowlers. Dhoni tsands up to the stumps. Good fielding from Raina. End of restrictions. 40 for 1 in six.

Will we see Yuvraj come in? Apt time for him to come on right now. Stop KP before he opens out. He comes. But goes for a 4. Bopara. KXIP team mates. 6 off 3 balls. KP avoiding Yuvraj. Pie chucker. There he comes. 7 off 5. Four. 11 off the over.

51 for 1 in 7. Bhajji on to match on. Match on to Videocon. 4 off 4 balls. Flighted delivery. Good fielding by Mr Useless. 56 for 1 in 8. Good start. India needs to get a wkt here. Ishant has been a let down. Yusuf Pathan, Raina and Useless should get few overs. IPL experience.

3 off 2 balls. KP now. He s got better of Yuvraj. 4 off 1. 5 off 2. 4 off 3 balls this over. 5 off 4. Mr Useless does it again. Misfield. 9 off 5. Another misfield. 10 off the over.

65 in 9.

Harbhajan for 2nd over. 10th of the innings. 2 off 3 balls. Great stuff from Bhajji. he is a surd from Punjab. Smart street. 3 off 4. Was it a chance ? 3 off 5. Wickets man wickets. Wrong one. 71 for 1 in 10.

Jadeja comes in. Sachinnnnnnnnnnnnn. Last time they showed Sachin a wkt fell. What about this time ? 2 off 2 balls. Left arm spinner from RR. Shane Warne find. 3 off 3. England have got their runs off leg side mostly. Thats it. Bowled him. Bopara trying to make the room, a faster one. Bopara bowled. 2 for 74. Shilpa Shetty’s Dimmy comes in. 75 for 2 in 11.

Ishant Sharma back. 1 oof 2 balls. KP on strike. Bad throw. 2 off 3. 3 off 4. Jadeja everywhere. 5 off 5. Good running. 7 off the over. Next one to go out would be Ishant Sharma. 20 off his 2. So now 40 of 84 runs have come in 4 overs. Take that away and score then reads 44 in 8.

Wide ball. Dimmy faces his own team mate. 3 off the 3 balls including one wide and a dot ball. First six of the game. 10 off 5. Thats out. Big wicket. Huge wicket. Wooo hooo. 92 for 3 in 13.

sharma for 3rd over. Colly next. 1st run off the over on the 3rd ball. 39 more to go. Nah. Its Owais Shah who is in. 2 off 4 balls. Good bowling. 4 off the over. 3/96 in 14.

Jadeja for the 15th over. My blog named by Ian Chappell. Arm Ball. 33 more. Good bowling. 1 off4. 2 off 5. 100 for England in 15 overs. 8 off last 2.

RP has 1, Zaks has 2, Bhajji has 2. Jadeja has 1. Ishant iin for his last. 3 off 2.
4 off 3. Ishant is a poor bowler in this format. he proves it again. 8 off 4. Zaks walks off to him. 32 off 3.5 overs. assholle. 36 off 4 overs. Take them off and the score would be 77 in 12.

Jadeja for his last over. MS slow in whipping off the bells. Wide. Four. 7 off 3. off 4. 8 off 5. Good end. And a brilliant spell. 26 off 4 with 2 wkts.

Bhajji on. 17 balls to go. Gone. End of Shah. Collingwood comes in. Jadeja everywhere. Bhajji too good for Colly. 5 wides. Bad stuff.

Bad stuff continues. 135 for 4 in 18.1. 6 off 2 balls. Wide ball. Ridiculous.Switch hit and gone lbw. James Foster next man. 140 for 5. Direct hit would have taken Foster. 142 for 5. 1 more to go and 5/143.

Bhajji to bowl last. Why not RP ? Good over this. Bhajji gets Foster. And now bowled. 3 off the hatrrick ball. 4 wides. Yuvraj Singh misfields. Mind games. 7 for 153. 20 extra runs off fumbles.

India needs 154 to win and stay alive.

And guess what Rohit Sharma would make a comeback. Bloody ridiculous. And Sachin felt this was the best batting line up he ever had ? Did he forget Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid ? Replace Raina with Saurav and Pathan with Rahul, there you go the best batting line up India ever had. 2003 World cup. Yes Saurav gets it right. Mentioning fact is one thing and motivating the team is other thing.

Good opportunity for India to win the series tomorrow. But thats possible when the replacement for 163 works.