Arm Ball

“Karachi: A senior Sindh minister Tuesday accused India of influencing umpires to get Pakistan ousted from the Champions Trophy semifinal in South Africa.

Muhammad Ali Shah, the minister for Sports and a member of the Pakistan Cricket Board governing council, suspected India’s role in the sub-standard umpiring, leading to Pakistan’s defeat against New Zealand.

Champions Trophy 2009

“Definitely, it is clear that India were miffed at not qualifying for the semi-finals after Pakistan lost to Australia and they took their revenge in their own way. They influenced the umpires to favour New Zealand,” Shah told reporters.

Australian umpire Simon Taufel had wrongly adjudged Umar Akmal leg-before-wicket at a crucial stage of the match and even admitted to the mistake and apologised later.

Shah said he would not refrain from pressing the PCB to see that the International Cricket Council impose at least a one-year ban on Taufel.”

Butt pressed for ban on Broad, now this lad wants Taufel banned. There should be some sanity at least. If you guys lost, accept it with grace.

Laugh it out. It made my day. Had a horrible day in the office.

I am a bit stung by the anon attack from Saitama, Japan. Do Japanese understand cricket ?

But Ambani does. And fielding coach of India is now Mumbai Indians coach. Paras Mhambrey is the bowling coach.

What does Polly do then ?

Btw Mumbai Indians skipper would skip the Challengers trophy.

First time in 12 months of this blog I am stuck for the words. Ki bhai log kya kahenge blog padh kar. Lankan, Pakistani, Prabhus and Rajs along with now Japanese would laugh at me.

Really. I am scared of criticism. Comments hardly bothered, but criticism bothers me. Everybody I know who blogs has a pasandeeda item of target. For most its Ponting, for few its Dhoni, for few its Younis and for me its Mahela, Butt (lol, he evokes laughter) and Rohit Sharma. So me being targetted.

Some of us dont like Australia, some of us dont like India, some of us dont like Poms, some of us dont like Kiwis. But when I dont like SL (for their brand of cricket to be specific), I am criticised. Unfair. Bad taste ?

Whats bad taste ? Butt being ridiculed or 11/26 being laughed at ?

I feel laughing when anonymous users have no guts to show their names or tell it all to comment on a post which you dont agree on.

As they say in Hindi

“Bhaiya blog padhna koi majboori nahi hai. Nahi pasand to nahi aao. Koi jabardasti nahi hai. “

It reads

“No forcing reading my blog. If not likes, then dont reads. Eggzactly”.

Alright.

Thats the cost of the defeat to former Indians and now Pakistanis.

Exit out of the champions trophy.

Pakistan showed a lot of Sangakara’s character to take the battle in the end and spared Ponting not chewing his all nails else he would have got an upset stomach– julaab.

Lol.

Match was a bit amusing. Australia 4/171 to 8/206. Hajmola khai lekin baat hajam nahi hui.

One game they score 302, next they score 205. Ummmmm. Iqbal Kasim and Sarfaraz Nawaz could be thinking to open their mouth here. I wont be surprised if there are some murmurs in next few days over return of something Lahore Badshahs did.

And Indian channels were bemused over Pakistan’s gaddari. Lol. Gaddari ? Kyu bhai ? Why would Pakistan lose for India ? Never in million years. Younis Khan ke against there would have been a fatwa for losing it for “mohajirs” and…….

In the end its India who go out n Australia go in semis.

Dont worry, its very soon for India to take a revenge of that rain curtailed game.

4-2 for India.

For a change, now I would root for England.

There have been suggestions on Dhoni to be sacked. People are furious on his decision to bowl himself or blame bowlers. Yup. An Indian captain is an easy object to be fixed. If he wins he is lucky, if he loses sack him. And make whom the captain ?

A man who is yet to lose a bilateral ODI series or a single Test match yet should be sacked.

Dancing baby made other 30s in 80 balls. He thought he is back to the Tests opener role. Lol.

I now hope this was the last tournament he plays for India and stops jumping for the ball like a dog like he did today morning when the ball seemed to go to the best slipper in the world…..

Niki ben, now Dancing baby is all for you.

Its a 12 ODI home season now. First time in 2009, first time since PC made shambolic announcement on not to provide security for IPL. I wont write the obvious issue here for security reasons here.

December comes and lot of character descends on Indian soil. When the tour would end the character rich men would be bare losing Tests 0-2 and ODIs 1-4 or 0-5.

For now its a month long break for the team to go back to the nets and work out the glitches…..One tournament exit wont make India a bad team.

And for those who are now asking what Gary would now suggest India on “sex”, let me say he didnt say that except that some idiot journo in the media twisted what he said.

Dancing baby put me to sleep with his batting, so much so that even 8 or 9 hours after he got out I am yawning.

Just 206 needed for Australia to win and go to the semis.

Younis Khan confirms India;s fears.

I dont feel everything was usual when they batted. Strong hunch that something was unusual. A slight bit.

There should never be a dependency on anyone for your aims and success. It always bounces back.

And thats what precisely its happening….

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….

I thought this 2 lads would have their egos killing each other and another wicket was around the corner. Damn that was too much to ask for. The greens didnt press self destruct button. I believe MS and his team had got a dossier from Manmohan Singh and his supremo to lose the game for goodwill and enable his government to go for “peace talks” with the mischieveaous country again after…………

I had got the defeat in my stride. Goddamn, yes. It was all good. Till I read Megha’s post. That kicked me again. Manmohan Singh is to be blamed for this defeat. He wanted the world to show we can lose it to them in every single occasion.

Losing to Pakistan and Sri Lanka is a shame for India. India almost set the Sri Lankan agony alright by thumping them in 9 of the 12 games. But this lads from Pakistan, many of which even hadnt played India made mockery of players in Blues.

What is RP Singh doing in here ? IPL – 2 and WCT2007 are gone. Reputations are afresh. England 2007 is gone too 2 years back. RP Singh of 2007 and 08 is no more existing. Let Dhoni figure out what he has to do with Amit Mishra. He is not being played by many teams around and he excelled in the only game he played in Lanka series. Plus he has had a needle over Aussies as his maiden 5-for came against them.

And somebody please pray that India meets this Pakistan once again in the finals and someone out of the team assumably Gautam takes out the fire and agony out of that womenizer Pathan Shahid Afridi.

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….

Best remembered for Ajay Jadeja’s clobbering of Waqar Younis, Javed Miandad’s last international game, Chakarram’s last minute exit fuelling match fixing and the famous spat between Aamir Sohail and Venkatesh Prasad.

Tension was greatest in that game. Pakistanis had stepped on Indian soil after 7 years (1989 Nehru Cup) and this was for World Cup.

I remember dancing out to glory on my scooter till Rajwada and the atmosphere then was electric in the night. Entire city was on roads. Loud cheers of “Bharat mata ki jai” and what not.

And 3 of the 4 victories in World cups have come under Mohammed Azharuddin. The tension was just unparalleled. And damn the next game the …………ruined Indian world cup party!!!