Arm Ball

There is an excellent post by Achettup on his blog on the media getting ridiculously hyper over not so big deal of India’s ouster from the T20 world cup. Here it is. Then we have Times Now and CNN-IBN going madly behind India’s decision to field first in the game against England. A lady reporter / fashion model / cricket expert constantly bantered about how wrong the decision to field first was. Then we have Bishen Singh Bedi claiming that Dhoni’s cricketing acumen is poor cos he hails from Ranchi and that his thinking is street level. Nonsense.

Then there are self proclaimed anti India bloggers who find sadistic pleasure in everything bad happening to India, be it the 26/11 or the WT20 loss.

Then there are some really derogatory comments like Mr. 3 liters Doodh a day for MS by one of his famed critics. What about the Dancer in the reality show sir? Is he good enough to pip Doodh drinker from his spot ? I would really wish to watch out this folks what they say when India gets next success – be it in CT or be it in WI tour or whatsoever tourney. Being MS is so tough this days. It doesn’t matter if you have won everything you captained, it doesn’t matter you won a test series against 2 of the most dangerous oppositions without losing even a single test. Doesn’t matter if you won 2 on the trot ODI series in Emerald Isle, which no other captain of India was able to do. Doesn’t matter if you won a ODI series and a Test series down under in NZ in 33 years. Doesn’t matter if you won the CB series for the first and final time in history. And doesn’t matter if you won the WT20 – 2007. The fact that he lost WT20 crown and the IPL – II, he is in for a serious hit. Brand Dhoni, honeymoon Dhoni, lucky Dhoni, Doodh peeta Dhoni. What not.

Former Test stars are blaming Gary on his hinting to IPL as one of the reason for fatigue that finally led to the loss. That’s on cricketnext.com.

IBN cricket “Expert” has following analysis :

“The decision to bat Suresh Raina at number three in the batting line-up despite his obvious weakness against the short ball was also hard to understand. With the asking rate (required run rate) not too stiff, could the skipper have given himself the role of seeing the initial England burn out and kept Raina in the dugout for an assault on the spinners?”

Not so long ago MS was reeled for coming at 3. So there is a problem. MS comes at 3. Criticise. Raina at 3. Criticise. Whats MS supposed to do? Bat Nishant Arora or any journo there. I doubt if the journo would even know the rules of the game.

Yes Jadeja at 4 was a mistake. Accepted.

Then there is this generalized article from PTI on what went wrong :

http://cricket.ndtv.com/cricket/ndtvcricket/WT20/storypage.aspx?ID=SPOEN20090097586

“Matches at home, the below-par attack of New Zealand and fine performances on the worn-out pitches of South Africa during the Indian Premier League (IPL) camouflaged the young Indian batsmen weaknesses against quality pace attack of West Indies and England, who were prepared to dig it short.”

Since when England and West Indies had a quality pace attack? If they had they wouldn’t be at 7 and 8 positions in the ODI cricket and at 5^th and 8^th position in Test cricket. One off victories for both the teams don’t make them have a quality pace attack. Matches at home? Does that mean India should not play matches at home?

“Individually, captain Dhoni’s admission that he can’t hit sixes as of yore is welcomed, but his assertion that he is working on it isn’t true as the team hardly practices. The jibe at media for making an issue out of the team’s absence from practice sessions is misguided.”

Didn’t media create an issue out of the supposed rift between MS and VS ? Is media’s role glorified here? When the journos who never would have stepped on the cricket field rig the Indian cricketers, they assume they are the rulers of the game and have the audacity to pass the verdict on the topics they hardly know of.

And on one hand the lesser ex stars of Indian cricket – Patil, Borde and Rajput are reeling MS, the legends of the cricket in country who actually made it the way it is today have backed up MS. None other than Sunny Gavaskar. He has backed the skipper. There is nobody better than MS to lead India in any form of the game. And if there are polls and discussions on whether MS should resign on any tv channel or newspaper, then its just simply ridiculous. MS has accepted his fault, he has apologized. What else he needs to do? We need to move on from this defeat of course with lessons learnt. And the first lesson is that the T20 defeat shouldn’t be taken seriously. Something Younis Khan suggests.

Entire media circle has gone haywire on this loss. And till the next success this topic would be red hot and even small moves by the team would be monitored and aired as Breaking News. And not to wonder if some more derogatory synonyms pop up for MS. Yeah somebody sitting in Al Manamah, Middle East is so good at doing it.

1. Non stop cricket : India have been playing since Sri Lanka 2008 series. Tests, ODIs and then IPL. IPL was the final straw in the coffin. It saw a fatigued outfit play in the world t20. Injuries to key players like Viru and Zaks, false dawns for likes of Mr Useless, Suresh Raina and DK. Fresh ideas didnt come and even if they did they dint succeed.
2. Media : Media in India is ass. They showed smoke when there was no fire. Virender Sehwag vs MS controversy was uncalled for. Even if Sehwag didnt inform team about the injury, i care two hoots. He is too good a player to be missing from a tournament like this even if its a T20.
3. Missing Sehwag
4. Slow batting : In super eights major hitters of the game played slow and low. Strike rates were similar to ODIs and thats why Indians lost. Gambhir, MS and Raina never clicked. if they did they were too slow.
5. Poor fielding : You cannot expect tired cricketers to field well and today that cost us our title.
6. Overconfidence in Mr Useless : Goddamn this is national team. This is not IPL. 2 or 3 good innings in IPL doesnt mean you are good to open for your country in a world series. And when you lack the temparament and you are overrated, this happens. 2 okish innings in warm-ups (Pakistan) and one 50 vs Ireland made people think Mr Useless is replacement for Sehwag. Mr Useless showed how fucked up he is when he got out cheap to freakish shots against stronger teams. Time to dump this man.
7. Poor mid over bowling : Ishant Sharma could be a good Test bowler but he is not a good T20 bowler. And this is a fact. Blame it to KKR or blame it to his Test mode, the Delhi dude isnt a T20 material as of now.

Time to look beyond Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan in T20. Rohit Sharma isnt a talented guy. Lets accept the fact. He could be a star of IPL, be a part of defending champs Deccan Chargers, but when he plays for India, he is an ass. Worst part is he doesnt learn from his mistakes. Doesnt matter if he plays for Mumbai or Madras or Melbourne, he doesnt perform, he doesnt get in.

MS is a natural victim for criticism. And people would be ridiculous in criticising him. They would blame him why was DK not played. May be media would reel him. “Luck and honeymoon” have ended for him. But still he remains the best man to lead India. I think IPL should have been shortened or scrapped. But then money power. Isnt it.

Next assignment for India is CT and India are in red hot ODI form. They should take a well deserved break now and get freshen up for the CT and the home Test series against SL followed by West Indies.

Its disappointing loss, but its not the end of road. Certainly its not 26/3/2007. Arm Ball would be alive and would continue to be behind Team India and its skipper MS. I now favor SA to go win the tourney. Semi finalists : SA, WI, Pak/NZ, SL.

England would anyway join Australia and India on Tuesday night. Time for madness in Indian media, Indian blogs (few) and few commentors…..

Wait till India wins the world cup and the same media would fall upon each other to hail MS as Captain Kewl.

Lets have some accountability for the media and let them be answerable to some body for the “raaita” they spread everytime. The tendency to show smoke when there is no fire must stop.

I must say here the media in India is real jerk and it needs lot of maturity up its ante.

English media cannot leave its typical attitude, the rants on the Ashes and the quality of innings of Sehwag played. Here is the media trail :

David Hopps in Guardian

All that planning, all that concentration, all that toil. England had labored for nearly four days to force an impregnable position in the Chennai Test and then along came Virender Sehwag. In his wanton presence, all logic was lost, all outcomes were imaginable. Now anything is possible. England set India 387 to win in a notional 126 overs, a fourth-innings total far in excess of anything achieved at the Chidambaram Stadium. It should have represented absolute security, but Sehwag the batsman is consumed by disobedience. He responded with 83 from 68 balls, with 11 fours and four sixes. India, 131 for one at the close, need 256 on the final day. England’s bowlers, Andrew Flintoff apart, were mugged. If Sehwag played like this at Lord’s, a shirt-sleeved constable would probably stroll on and serve him an Asbo for rowdiness in a public place. Someone should have told him that the one-day series is over. Such is Sehwag ‘s reputation that England stationed their best fielder, Paul Collingwood, at third man for the uppish carve. On 26, he hacked through Alastair Cook’s hands at gully, the place where Collingwood would normally have been standing. Over-theorizing perhaps.

Sehwag ‘s disorderly magnificence was entirely out of keeping with an enervating first two sessions in which England moved somberly towards a declaration. Andrew Strauss and Collingwood completed immensely worthy hundreds, all temptation was eschewed and India indulged in shameless timewasting. Harper made a few efforts to chivvy things along, but the umpires generally looked impotent.

Lord Snooty Mike Atherton in Times Online.

Will he ever learn to look at non English stuff with praise and with a neutral’s eye ?

If Test cricket is about sending messages to the opposition, and to a large extent it is, then India and England spent the fourth day of this game sending each other mixed ones. A typically meandering third-innings performance from England contrasted with the most thunderous message of all, which came towards the end of the day from the frenzied blade of Virender Sehwag. His blistering assault on England’s bowlers means that both teams return today in the knowledge that all results are possible.

An Indian victory remains the least likely, given that they will have to make more runs to win in the fourth innings than anyone has made in India before, and 232 more than any team have chased successfully in Madras (Chennai). With only seven wickets falling yesterday, a draw is still a possibility, although India do not enjoy batting in a defensive manner. This may play into England’s hands since wicket-taking opportunities are more likely to present themselves against batsmen taking a chance or two.

That India have been sucked into a run chase at all today is solely down to Sehwag, who blazed away in exhilarating fashion, so that by the close India had managed to reduce their deficit by 131 in a little under a session’s worth of batting. Sehwag fell 17 short of what would have been one of the most brilliant of Test hundreds, but his failure to reach three figures, perishing leg-before while trying to paddle-sweep Graeme Swann to fine leg, should in no way diminish his achievement. There were two other hundreds to celebrate, but Sehwag played the innings not just of the day but of the match.

He played with glorious freedom, unconstrained by the situation, the reputation of the bowlers and the pitch, at one end of which the topsoil is completely worn away. England’s batsmen had managed two boundaries throughout the afternoon; within 15 balls, Sehwag had found the rope six times. The merest hint of width outside off stump saw the ball skimming through the arc between backward point and third man, mostly along the ground, and once all the way over the rope for six. If England’s plan is to bowl short and wide at Sehwag, it needs revisiting.

To restore some sanity, he acknowledges Indian crowd’s petite for the Test cricket :

Test cricket is a remarkable game because of the speed at which things can change and until the mid-afternoon slackness, England were in total control thanks to an epic performance from Strauss, who added another hundred to his burgeoning collection, and a typically doughty century from Collingwood. Strauss’s second hundred of the Test occupied 394 minutes, giving him more than 12 hours at the crease in total. Without match practice for two months, he is making up for lost time. He became the tenth Englishman to score two hundreds in a Test and the seventh to do so against India. It was a feat of extreme endurance and high skill and rarely can he have played better than he did from lunchtime on the first day onwards. The “Little Master” Sachin Tendulkar thought so, too, offering a handshake in congratulation. High praise indeed

Simon Wilde in Times Online says Sehwag is most exciting player on plant just cos he scored runs against England possibly defying them of a sure win.

OPENING the batting in all forms of the international game has to be one of the toughest jobs around. It must take a tremendous mental toll tailoring your game to the many situations these different formats throw up and the recent emotional problems of Herschelle Gibbs and Marcus Trescothick bear testimony to this. Unsurprising, then, that there is something slightly unhinged about the way Virender Sehwag, India’s 24/7 opener, goes about his business. He certainly plunged England into shock as he tore into their bowling. Sehwag has not so much pushed the envelope containing the rules on how to open the batting as punch it to shreds. His great gift is synthesis of approach. One minute he is batting as you would expect someone to bat in a Test match, the next he has flicked a switch and has gone into one-day mode, or rather one-day mood, and every ball looks set to end up in the stands.

Earlier this year, on this very ground, Sehwag spent most of the first day of a Test against South Africa batting as though he were in the first powerplay of a one-day game, and raced to the fastest triple- century in Test history. He beat the previous record by a cool 84 balls, so it was something of a Bob Beamon moment. He is also the owner of three of the seven fastest double-centuries in Tests. Like Trescothick and Gibbs, Sehwag has had his ups and downs. He went through a bad trot in one-dayers in 2004 and spent most of last year unwanted in Tests. You could pick a pretty good World XI from people who were not playing Test cricket this time last year, given that Andrew Strauss (this game’s twin centurion) was left at home while England were touring Sri Lanka, and Andrew Flintoff was still in the rehab room.

Now, the idea of leaving out Sehwag seems like an act of lunacy. Apart from his huge effort against South Africa, he also made important runs in the series against Australia, but unarguably his finest innings of the year was a double-century in Galle when the rest of the Indian batsmen could make neither head nor tail of Ajantha Mendis. Sehwag ‘s risk-taking approach seems contrary to his modest background. Raised in Nafargarh, a satellite town of Delhi, as the son of a storekeeper, he might be forgiven for adopting a thriftier approach to his day job. Yet it is actually the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, middle-class children both, who calculate every risk three times over before taking it.

But Sehwag now deserves to be properly recognised for what he is: since the retirement of Adam Gilchrist, the most exciting batsman on the planet.