Virender Sehwag

You say that he is not responsible. You say that he has no technique. You say he is just a slogger. You say that he cannot play in bowler friendly pitches. You say that his feet don't move. You say he is lucky. You say he is a flat-track bully. And you keep saying.

He has scored two triple centuries in test cricket. He holds the record for the highest score by an Indian in test matches, 319. His T20 highest is 119. And now he also holds the record for the highest ODI score by any batsman, 219.

So stop saying and take a bow! Take a bow for the man who scored only the second ever double hundred in the history of ODI's. Take a bow for the man who scored 219 today. Take a bow for Virender Sehwag!

I am sure Sehwag ki Maa will be constantly on phone tonight.

India Wins the Battle of Mediocrity

Regarding yesterday's match between India and West Indies, Cricinfo rightly said that India somehow managed to win a match that neither team was interested in winning.

The match was no doubt a thriller, but a thriller that could have and should have been avoided by India. Needing only 212 runs to win a match at home, India won in the penultimate over and that too with only 1 wicket to spare. If you saw the match, you would know that at several stages during the chase, it looked as if India would end up losing the match.

The bowlers did a good job in restricting the WI side to only 211 runs. Even though the opposition was a West Indian side, it takes a commendable effort from the bowlers to restrict the opposition to such low scores on the subcontinent pitches. Given the fact that the Indian bowling attack in yesterday's match was very inexperienced, they really did a good job.

The chase started well with Sehwag and Patel going all guns blazing. But once Russel had Patel & Gambhir out in the same over, the trouble started for India. Both the batsmen were caught trying to cut a short and wide delivery. Both the shots were very careless and you expect any top order batsmen to avoid such shots. Patel gets limited opportunities at international level because of the presence of Dhoni. And he blows away most of these opportunities by playing careless cricket. Not that it would matter because even if Patel plays well, its hard to find a place for him in the side. He is not that good a batsman to be in the team purely for his batting. And as a wicket-keeper batsmen Dhoni is better. But Gambhir is one of India's best batsmen in the ODI format. His careless shot was really uncalled for. Considering the Australian tour coming up after this series, it would be best for all the Indian batsmen to find good form before they leave down under.

Sehwag also looked edgy yesterday. I have never seen Sehwag complaining about anything while he is batting. He doesn't bother about field  placements, about the sight screens and other nuances. He does what he does best; hits the ball and scores boundaries. However, yesterday he was constantly bothered about the movements behind the sight screen. He was acting much like his 'guru' Sachin Tendulkar. I agree that movements behind the screen are really irritating for the players. But seeing Sehwag yesterday was really very surprising. I am sure it affected his concentration as he was stopping before every ball and waiting for the people to move.

One good thing that came out in yesterday's match was Rohit Sharma's performance. The guy has a lot of talent but somehow has always refused to perform. His patience and cool head yesterday helped India win the match. It helped his long term prospects in the Indian team even better. However, we must not forget that this innings came against a West Indian side that did not have any world class bowlers. The bowlers also lacked experience. He was also playing on a subcontinent track which was not very troublesome for the batsmen. He needs to continue such performances against better quality oppositions and in tougher conditions.

A mention here for Ravindra Jadeja. He supported Sharma very well though fell well short of the target.

Overall both the teams played mediocre cricket. Its just that India were better at mediocrity than WI and they won. India needs to take the up coming matches seriously as practice for down under. If they can't beat WI at home convincingly, then their chances of beating Australia in Australia are really slim.

It Has Been A While

It has really been a while since I wrote anything on this blog. As a matter of fact, it has been some time since I last visited this page. Blame it on the hectic schedule of a b-school or my laziness, but I did not spend any time on this blog. But today, for reason unknown even to  myself, I happened to stumble upon the blog that I had created. And what a shock I got! The design of my blog was destroyed like some German city after world war II. The background had been distorted, the pictures were deformed, and many links were broken. And so I decided to bring back to life the blog that I had created.

It was not an easy job though. It took me some time to figure out how to edit this blog. You see, the last time I had visited this blog was when India became world champions. Google has done a lot of changes since that day. And it took me a while to figure out those changes. Anyways, now that the changes are made, I am happy to see that Crickosphere has sprung to life again.

Now that the blog is up and running again, let's get back to the job. A lot has happened after India won the world cup. India got walloped in England and could not win a single game they played. However, the Indians meted out a similar treatment to the Brits when they were here and won the ODI series 5-0.

Australia and South Africa produced a thriller of a series in South Africa. Australia got bowled out for 47 and were 21/9 at one stage.

Zimbabwe are back to playing test cricket again.

Three Pakistani players got sentenced for spot fixing.

Harbhajjan Singh has been dropped from the Indian team. Ashwin and Ojha have made the most of their opportunities in the series against WI.

And a lot lot more.

Starting tomorrow, India take on West Indies in a 5 match ODI series at home. Even though Sachin and Dhoni are missing, winning this series should not be any problem for the Indians.

Meanwhile down under, New Zealand are touring their neighbours Australia.

The above series agains WI and NZ will become India and Australia necessary practice for when they play each other in Australia.

A hell lot of cricket is going to happen over the next few months. And I really hope that this time I will not be taking any break from writing.

India beats Pakistan; enters world cup finals

Five times in a row. Yes, five times in a row we have nailed Pakistan in the World Cup. And definitely a match to break the long sabbatical that I have taken from blogging.

The second semi-final of the world cup was as good as it can get. A match full of twists and turns, just how an Indo-Pak match always is.

India started off well with Sehwag and Tendulkar in full flow. Sehwag took Umar Gul, probably the best bowler of the tournament, to cleaners. However, soon after he fell, Pakistan were quick to pounce back restricting India to 260. It looked as if India were well short of a good total and with the weak bowling of India, Pakistan will have an easy entry into the finals.

Dhoni however had other plans. His captaincy today was great. The rapid bowling changes didn't allow any batsman to settle down. Nehra whose inclusion was very hotly debated before the start of the match, was the best bowler for India. He brought all his experience into play and varied the pace well. In the end, it was a good bowling and fielding performance by India to reach the finals in Mumbai.

Tendulkar's luck in todays match is worth a mention. Apart from the two reviews, he was dropped four time, yes four times by the Pakistanis. He went on to score 85 which was probably the turning point of the match.

Another player worth mentioning in this match is Wahab Riaz from Pakistan. He bowled his heart out during the day. His wicket of Sehwag pegged India back after their flying start. He bowled fast and reversed the ball well to take 5 Indian wickets.

Its now India and Sri Lanka for the finals. After defeating Australia and Pakistan, India should definitely beat the Lankans. All the best to India for the finals in Mumbai.

Is IPL getting too big to handle?

The clash between IPL commissioner Lalit Modi & Minister of State for external affiars Shashi Tharoor can really be dangerous for future of IPL.

It all started with Lalit Modi publicly stating the ownership details & percentages of the Kochi IPL team. Though it is high time that all these details about all the teams be made public, the way he did is what is questionable. He should have probably called a press conference or made an official statement about it first. But doing it on his tweet feed is something uncalled for. He was making a public statement and twitter is probably the last place on earth to make a public statement.

As far as clarifying the names of the stake holders is concerned, i think not only Kochi, all the other franchises should now start making their share-holding patterns public. When there is so much money involved, it should be very clear as to where the money is coming from and where it is going. Also with the IT department coming out with many possible money laundering cases, it is even more important now. Moreover, if the owners of a team like Kochi which has not even started playing has been revealed, then why not about the other teams which have been playing and minting money since the last two years. Hence I don't see anything wrong with Modi disclosing the names of the stake-holders of Kochi team other than the way he did it. It would be really good if he does the same with other teams like Kings Eleven or Rajasthan Royals.

On the other hand though, Shashi Tharoor's aides have accused Modi of forcibly trying to make Rendezvous Sports give up their IPL bid in order to satisfy some of his other corporate friend's desire to win an IPL team. Modi is also accused of offering $50M to RS to give up their bid. If any of this is true, it is very dangerous for the future of IPL. IPL has become the biggest cricket tournament in the world & has the potential to become the costliest & the richest sporting event in the world. A huge controversy involving the commissioner himself along with the country's politicians at this stage has the potential to kill the tournament.

BCCI has called up a meeting and has given a chance to Modi to explain. But only an explanation is not enough. Action has to be taken. Whether it is Lalit Modi or anybody else who has done anything wrong, has to be punished. The problem has to be crushed now or else it will only become bigger & more dangerous.

The value of IPL is getting bigger each passing day. The sponsorships, the broadcasting rights, the TRP's, the value of each franchises is getting bigger. Just hope that it is not too big to handle.