Arm Ball

He didnt bowl or train in 8 months. Didnt bowl in a game for close to 17 months, yet when he picks a bowl he is back to his self, we all know.

Pidge has just been a fantastic bowler over the ages. What do I say about him. He is just awesome.

And Sehwag has now cleared the fear about his injury. His absence was the prime reason India bowed out in the first rounds of back to back ICC tournaments.

Dinesh Karthik, the dancing babe, today slog sweeped Mendis to 3 sixes in 3 before evoking Yuvraj comparisons and putting Sangakara on mute who had just praised tough character of Mendis.

Oodi baba. Sangakara mention. And mention of character. Japanese would be pissed off.

Good to see Pidge playing and Veeru demolishing bowlers after 6 months. And yes Delhi Daredevils were 2nd team to be in the Super Eights. Ding dong

Only if he could have new ways to win in a game that mattered than saying huge words and looking like an ass in the field.

He better “brush up” his skills else the day wont be too far when they languish in the bottom of the ICC rankings in ODIs.

Weird bugbear.

If Saffas lose today, Kiwis just need to beat England and if they lose, they go in a tussle with the Lankans and Saffas on NRR which they should have edge on the hosts and characterless men now made bare in back to back defeats….

Keep blabbering Sanga Silva and Mahela Jaywardhene.

I am relaxed that this guys now would shut their ass up and go sit in the corner with mouths taped.

And adios to Sanath Jayasurya.

A refreshing and candid read from Younis Khan. I rate him and MS as the 2 of the best speaking captains. Very honest, very candid and refreshing.

Thats a sea change frm the character rants and projection of how good we are and process oriented from Lankan chaps. Fit in Sanga or Mahela, they would just sound shit.

Contrast this in the above interview where Osman Saimuddin asks Younis about the extreme nature of Pakistan — sublime to ridiculous. And the chap candidly admits that this is in the inherent nature of the country.

Ditto for MS when he quotes about the fan and media pressure.

One more place where YK goes candid is the reason why he was not willing to accept captaincy post 07 world cup loss. Another place he is awesome is when he suggests how much he had to pump every player for the Australia series which in the end burnt him out and he lost the focus.

I mean in this era of self marketing who would admit the mistakes openly. That takes a big heart to do that. MS, Younis have it. Thats why they are the best of speakers and make it a refreshing read.

I dont bother about the lose twangs like Gayle or Ponting here. Strauss is not even considered. Vettori is too good a man to rip him apart on this area. He is a work man who is trying hard to carry his team on his own shoulders just like Sachin did in 90s.

Who captains Bangladesh, I dont know. Is it Asharhalf or Shakib or is it 650 million dollar baby who was KKR’ed ? I have said the best, I have said who I dont care and I say the worst speakers are Sangakara and Mahila Jaya…..

BAW WAW Mendis took 3 wkts or 4 to prove that Saffers cannot play spin. Is Mendis back ? Ask Pakistanis or Indians. Answer aiwai mil jayega.

Unfortunately for Saffers, time wasnt theirs as AB and Dale Steyn said. Mahila, supposedly an abundance character man sparkled once in a million times and his time was today. So the next games now he would be back to his scoring pattern.

Sanga Singh who is now the “aaankho ka dulara” for every sub continental cricket writer (exclude Indians) was among runs too. I havent digged his post match interview. I saw the scoreline in the office on my iPhone and first word i said was “Damn” when SA scored read 4/121 in 21 overs.

A lot of euphoria has been generated around the statements made by Sanga Singh and people call them as mind games. Whatever they are, they are most boring and repititive. He should learn some new stuff before saying the same stuff which in a short is ” We are trying to win every game , have a process and have a long term goals”. Give us a breather man. We aint robots to listen to the same shit every time you open your mouth.

Learn something from Dhoni who would be ruthlessly honest in stunning the team, media and fans by quoting that bowling was bad, batting was good, XX player was fine or bad. Ah man. India boosting. Yup.

Saffers, as Q says are hopeless in multi team tournaments. I believe this is one game SA played with SL after 2003 tie game which kicked them out of the tournament and ended Pollock’s captaincy.

If thats true 6 years and no game in SA. Alright thats true. SL havent toured SA since 2002. Amazing. Have toured Bangladesh 3 times and Zimbabwe 2 times. No wonder they have inflated averages.

South Africa wont be affected that much as they next play England and New Zealand. SA and SL should be good to go to the semis, though I would hope England and NZ show a bit more character in taking out the character out of the SL team.

Yusuf flopped.

Mendis flopped.

Akmal bros clicked, so did Misbah and Naveed Al Hasan. Who s he ? Is he Rana ? ICL man ?

Other hand NZ lost. West Indies lost.

Perhaps BD would have been better……

Australia would win in another practice game vs England C in England to begin their defence of the title and finally lose it to India in the semi final.

Who said cricket is for youth ?

Perform and keep persisting.

Age doesnt matter. Its just a number. Much for hysteria of the buffoons who know nothing on the game and for whom sustaining the limelight is the only purpose.

How does it matter if you are 25 and keep scoring 20s and 30s remain in the team but a batsman who has had just 5 bad ODIs is dropped for 2 long years. And the man who scores 10700 ODI runs, only 3rd or 4th man in the history to have 10k runs in both formats goes out just cos he is 34. Was 34.

A 40 year old man scores a 98 in the game against India and the 32 year old scores just 1 and 17 and 31 year old hits himself out. And 37 year old takes 5-for in almost every 2nd or 3rd inning and a 26 year old fails after the initial hyesteria.

The top 4 wicket takers are the ones who blossomed in the later years of their careers. The drug abused blonde star who took 40 wickets in losing cause took close to 400 wkts in 2nd part of his career. A jaw broken bowler took 350 wkts in his last 5 years of career when people had written him off.

A 36 year old batsman has scored 9 international hundreds since May 2007 and 7 90s. Out of which many were wrong decisions.

Age is just a number. Fold the number and flush it in the commode of your loo.

v Australia 2004-2007 4 274 104 34.25 1 – - – - 3 0 v

Bangladesh 2006-2009 4 304 166 50.66 1 – - – - 6 0 v

England 1998-2006 7 511 119 42.58 2 0 – - 0 11 0

v India 2005-2005 3 255 71 51.00 0 – - – - 1 0 v

New Zealand 2005-2006 4 194 141 27.71 1 0 – - 0 4 0

Pakistan 1999-2009 9 684 240 42.75 1 2 1/7 24.00 0 15 0

South Africa 2000-2002 5 314 98 31.40 0 0 – - 0 2 0

West Indies 2003-2008 4 294 136 42.00 1 – - – - 3 0

Zimbabwe 1999-2004 5 253 100* 63.25 1 0 – - 0 13 0

Away record of the man. 3090 runs in 41 Tests and an avg of 41……

The averages read 50+ for Sanga and Mahila because they play most against weak Test teams. Sanga has played just 6 tests against Australia.

He averages 54 vs SA, thanks mostly to that ridiculous 624 run partnership with Mahila.

Very soon Mahila would be in 9000 run club and soon Sanga Singh would overcome GC Chappell and Saurav Ganguly in runs. Will that make him great than this players. Jai ho BD and Zim.

Every series they go in they have lotsa debutants. Lot of players get axed and lot many come back. But barring ageless Jayasuriya and to an extent Sanga himself, no batsmen has been able to do well for SL in this span.

So how could this team be considered a contender for the home world cup? Of course unless they turn around the tide and play well. Another worrying aspect for them is they have not won a single bilateral series against strong team at home. 2 series loss (2-3 and 1-4) to India and 2-3 loss to England in 2007 isnt a pretty picture for a team which had a formidable record at home. The management speaks of tough decisions. If the same is being followed, then the first one to get kicked out on that terms is Mahela Jayawardhena himself out of the ODi team. Hell he had 3 ducks in row against ZIM in the tri-series last year.

He doesnt play well against Pakistan. And besides in current season out of 16 games he has made 212 runs at an average of 14. Last 3 seasons he averages 14.13, 36.2 and 25.15. Pretty low for a man who speaks so loud on consistency and team building ethics. So when there are so many talented youngsters knocking the SL ODi team, why doesnt this man gets dumped unless he scores substantial in whatever domestic cricket SL has ?

What tough calls man ? Dropping Vaas ? When was he playing except the final Test which was a brokered deal to get rid of him for good ? Making Dilshan keep ? Was that a brave move ? Idiotic to say the least. You have lost your best batsman in LOI cricket to this inability of the captain to step up and keep when PJ was injured.

When did SL play breathtaking cricket to outplay Pakistan? SL won 2-0 cos Pakistan lost it in those mindless collapses. SL never played positive cricket to win the series. When they could play positive cricket they choked and gave up chance to win 1st test on their win without help from Pakistan batsmen or bowlers!!

Speaking for media for praising the team ignoring the realities is idiotic. And why is he even writing now ? He is no more a captain, he isnt in the greatest of form, so why is he blabbering? I dont know if Nuvan and Thilan deserved those 17 and 12 wkts without the help from Pakistan batsmen? I guess not.

Mendis is punctured for good and he wasnt even considered for the final Test.

When there was an opportunity for the new captain to set the pace for a win he choked just cos Dilshan was injured. So what if he was injured. If they would have gone for victory and lost then it was acceptable, but closing the shop 32 overs before the game is negative cricket. For negative cricket so much of applauds ? Not done dude.

History would be created when you guys win outside SL and sans BD and Zim. Thats when the history would be made for you guys. Until then keep making runs, they wont contribute an iota to your greatness ?