Why India can stay No.1 !!

Well..Well..Well.. So finally India have become no.1 in Test cricket rankings.. Test Cricket, the mother of all game forms in cricket. Sachin Tendulkar poignantly put the importance of this achievement in his own dignified manner by saying that he had waited for this moment for a long time. Perhaps 20 years is a long time. Perhaps some cricketers underplay statistics and don’t really believe in rankings, but as Rahul Dravid said, rankings do provide a good and fairly accurate indication of the way a team has been playing. So with the statistics part taken care of, all of us, the whole of India, can be proud of this monumental achievement. Few people, who generally have the inability of savouring any occasion, would like to point out that India is yet to win in “bouncy and hostile pitches” like Australia and South Africa and so being ranked as no.1 isn’t very accurate and appropriate. However, I would say, let us see what happens when India get to Australia and South Africa, for I have a hunch, that India is now ready to embark on a journey that its predecessors wouldn’t have really imagined. What exactly is my opinion based on and what is the source of this confidence, you will ask. Well read on and you will definitely have an idea of what I am talking about here.

Opening Combination:
The marauding West Indian sides of the 70’s and 80’s had the legendary opening pair of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes. The pseudo “Invincibles” of Steve Waugh and Australia had the towering Matthew Hayden and the fox-like Justin Langer. India finally seem to have cracked this puzzle as they now have Jai… urr.. Gambhir-Veeru at its helm. They are only 500 runs, 506 to be more precise, behind India’s most successful opening pair ever, that of Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan and have a handy 16 innings in which to get those runs. However even without quoting statistics, I can very comfortably say that the rate at which the former pair scores would take some beating by India’s most successful opening pair. Every partnership needs understanding and trust to develop, and having played for Delhi for such a long time, these two have developed an almost telepathic understanding between them. They frustrate the bowlers by pinching singles at will and can match each other for shot to shot as and when they want. Each of them has a calming influence on the other and like any good pair, also stand up for their partner, when one of them is struggling a little. Also they have the intelligence of letting one partner go hammer and tongs while the other one prepares to slice open the opposition like a rapier. The rate at which they score, generally sets up the match for India and they go a long way in denting the psyche of the bowlers, which is then well exploited by the Fab-Four(Fab-three to be more precise, now that Dada has retired), which brings me to India’s middle order or more famously known as the “Fab-Four”.

Middle-Order:
Talking about the Fab-Four is pretty useless actually, for anyone who has watched cricket or read commentary on cricinfo for even 1 test match, would know who they are. Even then for those who came in late, this term was coined for the Quartet of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly. All of them combined own almost all the batting records, barring a few by Ricky Ponting, in all the relevant forms of cricket, and have the experience of tackling almost anything thrown at them. The more interesting point is that all 4 are totally different in their execution. While Dravid is the obdurate stone-waller, Sachin is the charismatic genius, picking and choosing who he wants to destroy on any given day. Very Very Special Laxman, as the name suggests gets those wonderful wrists into play and generally has more than 3 shots for one single ball. As for Dada, he simply put, was the “GOD” of off-side, though later he did improve his on-side play to a remarkable extent. Although Dada has now retired and the other three are in the twilight of their careers, as long as they play, India’s middle order would continue to be the best in the world, if not the best ever. And since this article is all about the future, I would like to point out that there are suitable replacements in place. Whatever little the world has seen of Murali Vijay, I am pretty convinced that this guy has what it takes to become India’s next wall. Though traditionally an opener, he has a wonderful technique which should allow him to play at one-down with least amount of difficulty. Yuvraj Singh, who has been Sourav Ganguly’s replacement for as long as I can remember, will start performing to his potential in the years to come. Now that he is secure of his place in the test-side, he should be able to express himself more freely. Then we have the Sharmas and Rainas, who need to iron out a few technical faults before they are back on the international circuit again, ready to stake a claim for a place in the side. This brings me to Dhoni, the wicket-keeper.

Wicket-Keeper:
Mahendar Singh Dhoni, is very easily, the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket in the last decade, or more modestly, since the turn of the new millennium. This guy can break plastic chairs with his long hits and can play just like the Wall to grind out a draw with equal ease. Like Laxman’s supple wrists, his bottom hand is a marvel of nature. How they generate so much power will soon become a case-study at some god-forsaken university. His wicket-keeping skills, though not in the league of Kirmani, have improved drastically over the years. Add to that, the genius of a cricketing brain and a heart driven by impulse and intuition and you have the complete captain charisma package. Standing behind the wicket is a help as it allows him to keep tabs on everything that is happening on the field. He is generally cool and composed on the field, but can be violent and raging like the fast bowlers when he wants to. From here, we now move onto India’s fast bowling resources.

Fast Bowlers:
Zak, Ishant, Appam Genius (Chutia no more..), RP, Munaf and the list goes on. Zak aka Zaheer Khan is India’s bowling spear-head and has developed into a wonderful leader of the pack. His expertise with both the new ball and old ball has won India some important matches, both at home and abroad. Ishant, though has dimmed of late, probably due to burn out, is a mighty fine bowler, someone the players respect world-over. Anyone who can make Ponting dance like Rakhi Sawant and that too at his home-turf is no ordinary Turk. Sreesanth has returned and returned with vengeance. His wonderful seam position was never in doubt and with the BCCI not showing the “Laaton ke bhoot baatoin se nahi manten” attitude, his temperament has also improved. RP Singh and Munaf Patel complete the fast-bowling resources and both of them are really good when they want to. However inconsistency continues to plague them and hopefully they will improve and shine for India at the highest stage, sometime in the near future.

Spin Department:
This is the only weak-link in my opinion (how ironic is that. India, the land of Chandrasekhar and Bedi having scarcity in spin department). Though Bhajji has shown good form abroad, which is a welcome sign, he generally needs a wicket early in his spell to impose himself and dominate the batsmen. However if the wicket doesn’t arrive, then his trajectory soon becomes flatter and faster which doesn’t help much. However he is India’s no.1 spin bowler by a distance and should continue to be no.1 in the years to come. Ojha is one for the future as he has good control over his variations and also has the dip and loop which his legendary predecessors had. Amit Mishra, the constant changing and chopping notwithstanding, needs to work on his control and patience. However the pressure of filling Kumble’s boots might be a deterrent.

Coach:
Becoming Indian team’s cricket coach is no mean task as the previous coaches would have found out. The pressure to deliver results is telling and can throttle and cloud an individual’s judgement, thereby causing his downfall. However Gary Kirsten and his support staff have done a tremendous job. He has dealt with the egos of the senior players, having played international cricket with some of them, with comfortable ease, while he has also managed to keep the youngsters grounded amidst all the chaos bought on by IPL and too much money. He knows when to put his foot down and is not afraid of raising his voice on any issue that he feels might affect the team adversely. Having been a top opener of his time, his little insights into batting has helped a lot of players overcome the small technical faults that creep into the game unnoticed and later cause havoc and he also enforced a strict health regime, which keeps the players fit at all times. All in all he is super coach in my opinion, who by staying outside the lime-light performs all the dirty but important work.

So we see that India does really have the fire-power to stay at no.1 if they really put their minds to the task at hand and not look ahead of them. The senior players who have yearned for this position for a long time, would ensure that complacency does not creep in, which would also be looked after by Gary Kirsten and his support staff. While the young legs would ensure that the oldies stay fresh with a different perspective towards any situation (something which wears down with age and experience where you tend to think only in one particular direction). India have a very good blend of youth and experience and with a super coach at the helm of affairs and a super cool captain in charge, I am pretty sure that India can stay no.1 for some-time to come.

P.S. India can lose the no.1 ranking to Australia if they white-wash West Indies or to South Africa if they beat England 2-0.

Did India Deserve it ??

Well, after an insipid performance like this, tongues will definitely be set wagging and you will surely have esteemed experts like Chetan Chauhan, Ajay Jadeja and with due respect, Mohinder Amarnath rip the Indian cricket team to shreds. Yes, we have lost the series with Australia taking an unassailable lead at 4-2 with only one more match to go in Mumbai. But the crux of the matter is not whether India was complacent against a supposedly “weakened” Australian team or whether Sachin Tendulkar should retire from the game for he cannot or does not have the so-called “genius” ability of finishing off matches. The Crux of the matter is where from here and did India actually deserve to lose this series.

My friends call me the “Usual” because I make the same mistakes again and again and hence a monotony of sorts sets in and I guess a lot of you will also label India’s performance in this series as the “Usual”, that of having come so close yet so far, in fact far enough to be in the danger of losing the series 5-2, a series which they could have actually won 5-2!! But I choose to look at it with a different perspective.

First n foremost, I do not understand the term “complacent”. What does this word mean and why is it used so frequently? Whether India lose to Bangladesh, New Zealand , England or a “weakened” Australia, it is all down to that god-forsaken word. Fine, the team could have been complacent after the 1st match(although Harbhajan and Praveen Kumar did provide a fantastic rear-guard action) which they lost, they could have been complacent after taking a 2-1 lead, but how the hell can any team be complacent after being already behind 3-2 with only 2 matches left to play. And probably every possible Indian cricketer knows the fact, that Australia, regardless of the playing XI is fiercely competitive and ruthless, then how the hell can the team be “complacent” ? It is as if, the low-on-English experts couldn’t think of any other word and hence chose the one word which is like the combiflam of cricket-performance literature. A word for all defeats, no matter how close or how comprehensive.

Secondly, I agree that Australia lost a lot of players during the course of the series, so much so that they were in danger of having to call a few Indian players playing Ranji trophy, to come play for them. But the core of the team was still intact. Any batting line-up having Ponting, Hussey, Watson in the top 4 calls for serious consideration. Now people will say Watson is still new to International cricket, but then so are Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli and Praveen Kumar. Having looked up Cricinfo’s database, I have just learned that all three of them have played less matches than Watson!! Their fast-bowling battery had Mitchel Johnson(who was voted ICC player of the year), Peter Siddle(voted emerging player of the year), Ben Hilfenhaus who had a fantastic Ashes series and the upcoming Doug Bollinger who at best only bowls at a lowly “90″ miles an hour. Surely they would have missed Lee who has often been a thorn in India’s flesh, but compare them to an all-of-a-sudden-Irfan-Pathan like Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar who often bowls the first 7 overs for 15 and bowls the next 3 for 51 and Munaf Patel who at best always looks sleepy on the field even while bowling! Only Nehra had been performing up to the mark and India missed Zak more than Australia missed Lee. India definitely had a better batting attack on paper, but that has been the case for ages now. Sehwag does not want to learn percentage cricket, which means you can also block a few deliveries or take a few singles once in a while, Gautam Gambhir suddenly looked out of sorts after having had a phenomenal year and with Yuvraj you never are quite sure what he would produce, such is his swagger and body language. So that leaves you with only Sachin and Dhoni as the 2 most reliable players and who could match up to Ponting, Hussey and Watson. What people often forget is that it does not matter which player is missing from the team, for the names on the team-sheet have a job to do, and whoever goes out and does it to the best of his abilities often decides the course of the match. In the Australian outfit, there were players who put their hand up and performed, while the Indian counterparts floundered just at the wrong time.

If you do a final analysis of the series that has transpired, 4 out of the 6 matches have been really close in which 2 of them could have gone India’s way had the players maintained their calm and played with what Geoffrey Boycott calls the “common sense”. As much as my heart pains to write this, But still Sachin should not have played the infamous Misbah scoop. He just didn’t need to. India required 18 of 18 at that stage and Jadeja was already on suicide-mission mode. However, I still cannot take anything away from that innings, for it was one of the greatest ODI innings of all time and for some it would even better the one that he had famously scored at Sharjah. Similarly Harbhajan after playing an exhilarating innings by anyone’s standards should not have gone for that mindless heave across the line of Siddle, which left the off stump out of the ground and severely dented India’s chance of scooping the first one-dayer. Having already scored 49 of 31 balls, 8 of the last over wouldn’t have been that difficult, had he shown more application. However, the match reached that stage only because of the mind-boggling partnership that he shared with Praveen Kumar and thus he is also acquitted of all charges of losing his head. Such has been this series that Dhoni, apart from 2 matches, would find it difficult to fathom as to where India seriously lost it. Apart from the toothless batting in the first 15 minutes at Guwahati, India had matched the Aussies, stroke for stroke, move for move. I personally feel India’s middle order lacks a calm head, something in the Dravid mold, for we have too many flamboyant players and Dhoni cannot be always expected to act as the cooling balm during those intense situations of a crisis. Apart from that, I cannot really pin-point any major chinks in India’s armor. Now people will say that India’s bowlers were not up to the task and they leaked a lot of crucial runs. But then at least they did not concede 80 odd runs in 10 overs to a set of tailenders nor did they give away 350+ runs in a single ODI innings. And this is exactly what I am talking about. Australia raised their tempo just when the situation demanded them to, and that is why they are the no.1 side in the world at the moment. Hauritz came good in the first ODI, Bollinger turned into a beast in the 6th and in the middle Watson and Hussey took over.

However, not all is lost for the Indian team, especially Dhoni who will be in the firing line for the series loss. A captain’s job is a poisoned chalice and the poison starts to take effect once the team starts losing and the entire blame surprisingly always lies with the hapless captain. But once the initial resentment dies down, he can get down to business with his strategy for the next series which is a long one against the Islanders(SL). The situation is similar to what generally happens in the English Premier League, where my room-mate often feels that just because Manchester United have lost to Chelsea, they are doomed and would do no good. But Manchester United have often lost to Chelsea and still managed to win the Premier League(4 freaking times on the trot) in the past and India have their own Rooney in Dhoni and Ferguson in Kirsten. They just need to pick up their Fletchers and Carricks and go about their task and the “Premiership”(Read:World Cup) wouldn’t be far away.

Is One-day cricket dying a slow death ?

Champions Trophy starts on 22nd September, which is less than 2 days away. A tournament which sees the coming together of the top 8 cricketing nations, the hype and buzz surrounding an event of such enormity has been surprisingly lull and moribund. And with players of almost all cricketing nations complaining of too much cricket these days, Champions trophy might have come just at the wrong time. What will unfold in the coming fortnight, will hold very important cues to the survival of cricket’s second most glorious format( TEST matches being the first), for ODIs has been ravaged by T-20, a format that has taken over the imagination of most cricket lovers and has also helped the cricketing Boards rake in the moolah in times of dire financial conditions.

It all started with the dull and yawn-provoking cricketing extravaganza in the Caribbean, the Cricket World Cup ‘07. What was supposed to be a spectacle turned out to be a damp squib, with the WICB(West Indies Cricket Board) copping most of the flak. They banned the people from carrying musical instruments inside the stadium and also hiked the ticket prices to suit their own selfish interests. They forgot that audience also forms a part of a cricketing spectacle, and a Caribbean stadium devoid of any music is like watching Rocky without Sylvester Stallone in it. It just ain’t the same. What compounded matters was the fact that India and Pakistan, two of the biggest crowd-pullers anywhere in the world, got booted out in the first round itself and their positions were taken by the lowly Bangladesh and the unknown Ireland. Thus began an ordeal so painful that even the end was anti-climactic and Farcical

An interesting blame game ensued and the ICC and WICB traded hefty blows, but 50-overs cricket was at a loss in the bigger picture. A lot of other reasons have also contributed to ODI’s inglorious fall from its heights and none of them have been more damaging than its blood-brethren, Twenty-20 cricket. What started as an experiment in England to bring in the crowds again to the stadium, has now blown into a money-tree for the ICC and the respective cricket boards. The 3-hour time frame and plenty of 4s and 6s thrill the crowd no end and the intensity of the cricket is also generally very high for in a short time, the entire game can change, a piece of magic with the bat, ball or on the field and the game has turned turtle. The Twenty-20 World Cup ‘07 that followed the Caribbean debacle, suddenly took the world by storm as India emerged from the ruins of a disastrous World Cup campaign to secure a fairy-tale victory in the final against arch-rivals Pakistan. India, being the land of shrewd opportunists that it is, suddenly decided to take advantage of the situation. BCCI, in a committee headed by Lalit Modi, launched IPL(Indian Premier League), a cricketing extravaganza which saw bidding for players, for the first time in the history of cricket. IPL was lapped up by the audience world-wide and it opened up a stream of cricket that lay hidden for so long. IPL revolutionized everything from the brand of cricket being played to cricket as global business model. Having watched BCCI become the financial top-dog on the back of a successful IPL, other cricketing boards decided to opt for the same model and suddenly ODIs started to lose its charm.

Although the cricket-purists scoffed at the prospect of T-20s becoming the next big thing, the game did alter boundaries and filled up stadiums like never before. With ICC categorically denying to open a window for IPL, players for the first time had to face a situation where they had to choose between country and IPL. With the cricket calendar already packed, a lot of players after withstanding the grueling IPL, broke-down while on tours, earning the wrath of their respective boards. MS Dhoni, India’s captain, interestingly decided to withdraw himself from the Sri Lanka test series, citing too much cricket as a reason although he had just played out the IPL without any apparent discomfort, which set a lot of tongues wagging. Marcus Trescothick, the maverick England opener, then came out in the open with his reasons for quitting cricket. He attributed it to too much cricket and staying away from home for really long periods of time. With the atmosphere brewing of discontent among players, the issue of too much cricket came up and with it came the harbinger of ODI’s doom, for Test matches could not be done away with in any case and T-20 was the new favorite son of Cricket. So only ODIs was left with the option of either re-modeling itself or stand the risk of getting wiped out of Cricket’s history forever.

It opened a Pandora’s box and a lot of negative things flew thick and fast, further damaging ODI’s reputation. The experts chimed that the passage of play between 15-40 overs was becoming very dull and boring and hardly any action ensued. People didn’t want to watch 8 hours of something, that they could very-well have in 3 hours and finally cricket boards agreed that Twenty-20 generated more money than One-day cricket. However there were others who felt that the different forms of cricket could co-exist symbiotically and would in fact influence the style of cricket being played in all three, the game of cricket being the winner in all this.

However, the recent events do not augur too well for One-day cricket. Even though England’s One-day record has been no-where close to their test match record, and they have also managed to lose 6 of their 7 matches against Australia in the on-going ODI series, yet ECB(England Cricket Board) decided to bump off 50-overs cricket from their domestic calender and would instead have a Pro-40 overs competition, a move which was openly criticized by Andrew Strauss, England’s captain. Sachin Tendulkar on his part decided that One-day cricket could be broken down into 4-innings of 25 overs instead of the regular 50 overs a side match. And since it was the legend talking himself, the ICC has decided to look into the matter and see if anything can be done.

I am an ardent cricket fan and my fantasies were set on fire the day I watched Sachin Tendulkar whack the hell out of Sri
Lanka in a world cup encounter(‘96). ODI cricket has given us so many memories, with the image of Kapil Dev holding the 83′ World cup trophy aloft imprinted in the minds of most cricket lovers. Who can forget Sachin’s superlative knocks in Sharjah against Australia or South Africa’s mind-boggling, successful chase of 434. In my opinion, a one-day match combines the excitement of a Twenty-20 match and the tenacity of a test match in a perfect manner, for you don’t have the option of coming back another day and setting things right, nor do you have the assurance that a spectacular 30 or a 2-wicket burst would win you the game. And for those who feel that One-day cricket lacks action, pick up a video of any India-Pakistan match, and you would certainly realize that cricket would be lesser with the loss of One-day cricket.

Federer = Sampras + 1 ??

This is the question that is on everyone’s mind, at least the people who follow tennis have been consumed by this question for some time now. And it is that time of the year when the red dust gets replaced by the gorgeous looking grass and the French wine with the mouth-watering combination of strawberries and cream. It is the abode where King Federer dwells and with his nemesis gone, read Nadal, owing to a dodgy-knee, only the Spiderman Movies-loving clan can hope for a miracle. Yet this is the beauty of sport. Just when you expect the script to be predictable, something turns up totally unexpected and mind-boggling. So who are the people who can upset Federer’s applecart and claim a slice of history of their own.

As I write this piece, I have just learnt that Novak Djokovic, the genius mimic expert has been dumped out of Wimbledon by the resurgent Tommy Haas. With this, my options get further trimmed down to something manageable. For starters I have a hunch that this would be Britain’s year, meaning Andy Murray’s year. England has been starved of any sort of success in their home slam, with the media resigning themselves to the fact that Tim Henman would never win Wimbledon and eventually he proved them correct. But this fellow, a Scot, is a little different from his predecessors. He is dogged, has an all court game and more importantly, has had Federer’s number on more than one occasion. And the way he has been playing so far has done little to douse the mountain of expectations riding on him.

Then you have Tommy Haas, who has a back-hand which is as good as Federer’s if not better than Federer’s. He has been on a super run and might have enough motivation and gas left in his tank to diffuse Federer’s flair when he faces him in the semi-finals. Then you have Andy Roddick, the perennial Wimbledon faithful, who does everything right, but somehow chokes right on the threshold of Wimbledon acquisition. He faces a tough and a pumped-up-again Lleyton Hewitt in the quarter finals. Their styles are as different as chalk and cheese, with Roddick relying more on his booming server and fore-hand while Hewitt is the counter-puncher of Agassi mould, just that he is even quicker on court. Whoever wins this titanic struggle might have the fire in their belly to reach the very end, the finish line, where the announcer proudly shouts, “Game, Set, Match and Championship…”

Now shifting focus to the another man who can ruin Federer’s party and that is Federer himself. How would he be feeling, standing on the cusp of a feat so monumental, that might just end the debate of the greatest player of all time, once and for all. He has shown no signs of nerves so far and has continued from where he left at Roland Garros. The demolition of Robin Soderling and the ace-machine Ivo Karlovic shows that he is focused and determined to usurp the tournament he loves the most back from Nadal. If he does manage to win it, it will be a fitting end to a glorious pursuit which started here at this hallowed land itself. A lot of anti-Federer supporters(including me) would cry their throats dry, suggesting the fact that Nadal wasn’t there, but then he also wasn’t there when Federer had shot out Pistol Pete in an innocuous looking 4rth round clash, which started all this in the first place and created an enigma now called “King Federer”.

The Great Indian Cricket Drama..

Before delving deep into the heading let us first accept the fact that India were outplayed in the World Twenty-20 cup by teams who were better prepared,  who had done their home-work and who executed their thought-out plans to perfection. India lost all their matches in Super 8s as West Indies bounced them out, England pummeled them with short ones and South Africa gave them a taste of their own medicine by deploying two highly-crafty spin bowlers and one pseudo spin bowler who had had some success in IPL. Having accepted the fact let us now dive into what I call the Great Indian Cricket Drama.

Ever since time immemorial which basically means since the historic ‘83 World Cup win, the expectations of the cricket fans in India has always been highly irrational and impractical. The fans expect the team to win, in any given condition against any given opposition. If the team wins, they are put on a pedestal and worshiped like any other Hindu-God. However a loss brings out the other extreme, with the fans sometimes destroying the houses of the cricketers, like it happened to Dhoni’s mansion after India was booted out of the ‘07 Cricket World Cup. If that was not enough, a lot of times, even effigies of players are burnt, putting them at par with the wise Ravana, who is burnt every Dussera. This obsession with cricket and the players is a malaise that is present in almost half the Indian population and this is exactly what is now being exploited to appalling levels by the morons on television i.e, the news channels and the print media.

I call it the Great Indian Cricket Drama, because it is the news channels together with the print media who have given rise to this drama. No sooner than India loses a match than the old wounds are opened up. I shall take this twenty-20 World Cup as my case-in-study. After India lost their match against the formidable South Africa, a hugely popular news channel(Times Now) showed a video clip where Yusuf Pathan, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma and Pragyan Ojha were shown sharing a lighter moment, moments after Gambhir had got out. The caption of the video clip was “Is it just the Casual Attitude or the Lack of Intensity”. The clip was shown repeatedly and a stupid news reader lamented the fact that Team India’s approach had been very casual all through the tournament.Okay, perhaps, I might not possess the same IQ level as the one reading the news on Times Now, but I cannot still find anything wrong with what happened in the clip. Is it blasphemy, that the players were a cracking a  little joke to release the tension of the gruelingly fought match or are they supposed to sport a glum look through-out the match. Next, in this particular match, MS Dhoni(he must be wondering, what has suddenly gone wrong with his stars, for he can do nothing right at the moment) had a huge mix-up with Yuvraj Singh while going for a non-existent single and was run-out by a long margin. Yuvraj Singh had a stunned look on his face because he didn’t expect Dhoni, who generally is such a fine judge of a run, to go for that suicidal single. This expression on his face was however broadcast by the news channel with the headline,”Yuvraj unhappy with Dhoni”. Ridiculous, you bet it is. I do not even need to explain this, for the callousness of the news channels is self-explanatory here. There are more such examples, but that would nit-picking and nothing else. However, in a broader spectrum, this just orchestrates the levels the news channels go to, in order to increase their TRPs. I do not blame them, for every one of them is doing just the same.

Once the news channels are done, the ex-cricketers pitch in with their inspiring comments, which just acts as fuel to the already burgeoning fire. These ex-cricketers do a fantastic job of highlighting the areas where the team had gone wrong and in most cases, a majority of them blame the defeat on team-composition, complacency, lack of intensity and lack of effort on the field. Is this not known to the team already, the reason of defeat, and is it really necessary to rub it in so blatantly, when most of these retired cricketers cannot even fathom the revolution that the game has undergone. Most of these cricketers are actually jealous of the fact that these youngsters are earning much more than they could earn in their entire careers and so they are always looking for an opportunity to lambast the players. I hate to personalize this, but I just hate it when Atul Wassan, a player who played a measly 13 matches(4 test and 9 ODIs) in his stellar career of 3 years and Nikhil Chopra, a worthless off spinner once to have represented India, sit down in a news channel report and break down a match. What I want to know is who gave them the credentials to comment at what’s happening. They are not even fully qualified to comment at a colony-level tennis-ball match, let alone an international one.

And so the news channels and the ex-cricketers blow things unnecessarily out of proportion and influence the general public into thinking that there actually is something wrong behind the scenes and there starts the great drama. Fast forwarding to the present scenario, there have been reports of an internal bickering between Dhoni and Sehwag. But that is just part and parcel of the game. Are team-mates not allowed to have a disagreement on anything? Perhaps not, but what was surprising to note was the way Dhoni totally turned on Kirsten in saying that fatigue had not hampered their chances. Whether fatigue had affected their chances or not is something nobody will ever find out, but if that was the case, Dhoni should have gone with his coach and at least shut up the gossip-mongers for good. But he chose to do the opposite instead and in doing so only fanned the fire even more. So the third angle of this great Indian Cricket Drama are the players themselves who sometimes forget that whatever they say or do in public generally holds a lot of importance and any wrong comment or action would only make their own condition worse.

As a cricket-lover it is very frustrating to go through these sequence of events whenever the team performs badly. But I guess like the players, we need to get habituated to these events and trash out the parts that we do not like, for the news channels would continue to blow events out of proportion and the ex-cricketers would continue to find faults every now and then. However, it is for an individual to remove the chaff from the grain and for that you don’t need to be an Atul Wassan nor a Nikhil Chopra.

The World Twenty-20 Crown Affair..

Australia, Netherlands, Scotland and Bangladesh. The 4 historic teams that got booted out of the tournament. “Historic” I say, because the indefatigable, gum-chewing, sledge-popping Aussies too went out with them. Ponting said that he had no idea about how all this transpired. Siddons, Bangladesh’s coach lambasted the insipid performance, while Netherlands and Scotland were more than happy to just make up the numbers, although Netherlands did jolt England from their deep slumber by stealing victory from underneath their very nose. Anyways, all the digressions apart, lets get down to the real deal i.e, Super 8s. India, West Indies, South Africa and England complete group E whereas the others fall in group F which is Pakistan, New Zealand, Ireland and Sri Lanka. Since it is the World Twenty-20 crown that we are talking about, there must be a few favorites for the hallowed piece of metal, few dark-horses and rest just present to provide stiff(that came out of sheer respect for the teams and not out of sarcasm) competition.

Few Favorites:

South Africa:

This team is a scary combination of guile, ruthless efficiency and more importantly confidence to finish the job at hand. The batting is well served by AB DeVilliers,a man who is in the form of his life and who cannot hit the ball any better these days, Graeme Smith, the captain courageous who produces the goods every now and then and the classy Kallis whose inability to score at a “faster” rate was mocked at not so long ago(The IPL changed all that for good). Then there is Herschelle Gibbs, who keeps fighting the demons within and suddenly explodes one fine day. The bowling is equally strong with Steyn spear heading the pace attack, tutoring the young and impressive Parnell along the way. Where the bowling transforms from good to better than most is the presence of 2 spinners in Roelof Van Der Merwe and Johan Botha, who according to me is the most difficult bowler to get away in this format of the game. In Albie Morkel they may not have a substitute for Lance Klusener, but then he doesn’t need to be. At the moment, he is one of the best all rounders in any format of the game as he can belt the ball a fair distance and also make it talk while bowling his medium-pace. Add to that South Africa’s electric fielding and you have a complete package here. Also the final group match in which they defended a meagre score of 127 against the Black Caps(NZ) would have given the team just the right amount of confidence to take them all the way this time.

India:

Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni. If in a team of 11 players, 5 of them can belt the ball like these fellows do, the captain can have many a night of sound sleep without having to bother about his team’s batting. MS Dhoni is lucky to have bequeathed such an exceptional bunch of individuals who can turn the match on its head at any given time or situation. If at all anything was missing from the batting order, then it was the presence of a sheet anchor who would guide the innings in the right direction. Gautam Gambhir fits the bill perfectly and his more than happy to let his big-hitting team mates hog the batting limelight, whereas he goes around, collecting runs quietly without much ado. Spinners have been playing an important role of late in Twenty-20 cricket and India are blessed to have Harbhajan and the up-coming Ojha, who was so impressive in the game against Bangladesh, in their ranks. The pace-battery is led by Ishant Sharma in Zaheer Khan’s absence and is well complemented by Irfan Pathan and Praveen Kumar, both of whom can utilise the English conditions to the maximum. I would put my money on India taking on South Africa in the finals, but then cricket is not governed by what I write or say, is it?

Dark Horses:

Pakistan:

They are an enigma, a mystery of its own kind and this is true for other sports as well. Pakistan’s inconsistency and erratic form is their biggest weapon. Exactly when and where they decide to play like a champion team, can only be determined by Heisenberg’s Uncertanity Principle there by proving my point. Another team full of match winners, especially with the ball. Afridi has transformed from a batting sensation to a leg-spinning sensation and he is very much in the Kumble mode. He does not turn the ball a long way, but the speed of the delivery and the bounce that he gets because of the top-spin imparted to every ball are two of his most potent weapons. The other day against Netherlands, he bowled a delivery at 126 kmph which would put even India’s bowling coach to shame(Yes, you guessed it right, Prasad it is). Umar Gul, the yorker-machine is another one who only believes in dismantling the stumps every time he comes onto bowl. The batting is what is a little vulnerable at times, with Salman Butt unable to find his range of strokes and the rest of the batsmen throwing their wickets away to unnecessary shots. If the batting can show some restraint and play around any one of the batsmen, the bowling is strong enough to blow any oppostion away, as Netherlands found out the other day.

Sri Lanka:

Muralidaran, mystery spinner Mendis and slinger Malinga form a formidable bowling attack, one which can give sleepless nights to many an oppostion. The batting is led by the inform Dilshan, the IPL stint doing a world of good to him, and the ever-reliable Sangakkara. Though Jayawardene is yet to find his bearings, Sri Lanka would be happy with the fact that Sanath Jayasurya returned to his old ways in smashing a violent 81 againt the hapless West Indies. The Sri Lankan team bowls and fields like tigers and if their batting clicks,  it would give India and South Africa a big head ache as neither of the teams would want to face them in the semi-finals.

Stiff Competition:

England, New Zealand and West Indies:

I hope I am proved wrong for either of these teams are pretty unstoppable on their respective days. Australia and Pakistan tasted their fury and South Africa almost tasted it. New Zealand however have a long injury-list with the coach currently struggling to put together a team of 11 players. Jesse Ryder is out with Groin Injury, Taylor has injured his hamstring and the captain Vettori hasn’t recovered fully from his shoulder injury. These players are currently being monitored and if deemed fit, they should add a lot of teeth to the squad. West Indies are as erratic as Pakistan, only that their frequency of playing poorly is a little higher. Gayle is injured , having copped a delivery flush on his knees from Mitchel Johnson, which erodes their fire-power at the top of the order significantly. Chanderpaul the crab has seamlessly slipped into a rough patch with runs deserting him all of a sudden and Bravo still hasn’t answered the questions of Will he or Won’t he. England has the dubious distinction of sucking at a game that it invents and you don’t have to look beyond twenty-20 for any further proof. They have talent in their batting, with wristy Bopara forging a fine opening stand with Luke Wright every now and then. But they have this Kamekaze button, which they press once too often and self-destruct spectacularly, just like they did in the match against Netherlands. Nevertheless, if they play the way they played against Pakistan, then an unpset is surely on the cards, for they could take out either of India or South Africa on their day.

The gist of writing and analysing so much, lies in the fact that Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainities and even though some things might look very simple and obvious, they don’t usually turn out that way. India and South Africa have the strongest teams on paper but so did Australia and they didn’t even clear the first round. So going by conventional standards and wisdom, the very fact that I’m vouching for an India-South Africa final, means that neither of the two teams would make it to the final or so my dear friends would say. But will it really turn out that way will only be decided after the finals, and by that time my new post would have come out, one in which I would be glorifying the victorious and changing my stance cleverly without anyone noticing it.

England bounce back against Confused Pakistan..

The dramatic defeat against the minnows Netherlands had rattled England no end. When England, the creators of Twenty-20 cricket, tumbled to defeat against the little-known Dutch, the daggers were out against a team that had set its focus too far ahead of the present moment(to be more precise, according to the England captain, their focus was on the Ashes than on the World cup). Such statements from the captain, fanned an already burgeoning fire into a destructive blaze. The British Media went crazy and former captains slammed all of Collingwood’s tactics. The English players however went back to their sullen looking dressing room, sat on the defeat and moved on. And moved on they did.

Their performance against the hapless Pakistanis would gladden the hearts of their fans. Not only did the team outdo their opponents in every department of the game, but they also looked eager and desperate for this win, something which was lacking in their previous match. Desperation is an emotion that can drive even the most innocuous of creatures into doing something that is totally beyond its normal reach. And in this case, England only needed to find a higher gear to operate on. Put into bat by Younis Khan, England lost Ravi Bopara early. But Luke Wright kept up the momentum  by pummeling anything and everything in sight to the boundary. Wright’s contribution was taken to the next level by a certain Pieterson, who only a few days ago suddenly realized that he wasn’t pretty good at this game. He smashed the ball to all corners of the park and while England hadn’t managed a single six against Netherlands, Pieterson himself cleared the ropes thrice this time. The early momentum created by Luke Wright was maintained by all the batsmen following him, especially Pieterson and Shah. With some telling contributions from the lower order, England managed a healthy total of 185.

A simple calculation would tell you that the required run rate would be over 9, which is generally a big ask in any form of cricket. But Pakistan instead of coming out all guns blazing, played as if the target was below 100. Singles were taken as and when required while the big shots never really materialized.  Shoain Malik and Younis Khan forged together a decent partnership, but their over-reliance on singles, took the game away from Pakistan. If that was not enough, the rain came pelting down for a little while and the electronic scoreboard suddenly started flashing D/L scores. However, even the ominous rain could not awake Pakistan from its deep slumber and they sleep-walked their way to quite a heavy defeat. None of the batsman went for the big shots and when Boom Boom Afridi ended up scoring 5 off 12 deliveries, the writing was there on the wall.

So while England were highly-charged up, Pakistan just didn’t turn on the field today. England gave a rousing performance while Pakistan were confused and lacked any central thought whether it was on the field, with the ball or with the bat. England have given themselves a good chance of qualifying for the next round, something which seemed unlikely only a couple of days back. In fact such was their margin of victory today, that suddenly the damocle’s sword now hangs on Pakistan’s head, because their net run-rate is pretty poor. Netherlands have the simple task of losing respectfully and that should ensure their passage into the next round, while Pakistan need to thrash the Dutch contingent in a manner akin to England’s mauling of Pakistan. And Pakistan as we all know can run hot and cold any time. When they run hot, they scythe through teams like knife through hot butter, but when they are cold, they are as poor as only a Pakistani team can be, regardless of the sport. And it is for them to decide which role they take up when they meet the re-juvenated Netherlands in a few days which will decide their further participation in the tournament.

Federer’s Best Chance to the holy grail of Tennis..

Holy grail of tennis stands for The Career Grand Slam, the only slam that Pete Sampras didn’t achieve in his sterling career. The Career Grand Slam incorporates winning all the four grand slams, which is a humongous task given the variety of surfaces on offer. This feat has only been achieved by 5 men so far, with Andre Agassi being the latest(what a career did he have!). Most of the wonderful players that the game has produced, didn’t achieve the Career Grand Slam for 2 basic reasons:

• their careers were too short
• ill-suited to playing on a particular surface(the orange clay brought out the worst in Pistol Pete, time and again).

Roger Federer is a name in tennis that people associate with finesse and perfection. At least they used to until last year, when the resurgence of a certain Rafael Nadal began. He has dominated the sport like no other. Even Tiger Woods was threatened by Vijay Singh and Ernie Els for some time. However, there was no such warrior to challenge the might of Federer. Roddick was thumped mercilessly, Safin was happier breaking rackets and Hewitt was more prone to producing verbal assaults and pump-fisting, a trait common in most of the  over-rated Aussie athletes(Read: Andrew Symonds). All that changed, when a young man with fore-arms like a WWE wrestler and the spirit of a matador, took to the clay courts. He won the French open 4 times in a row, equaling the great Bjorn Borg’s feat of the early 80’s.  His dominance on clay equaled Federer’s dominance on other surfaces, especially the grass. Federer’s hopes of clinching the French Open to complete that elusive Career Grand Slam was fast disappearing. When Rafael Nadal stole the Wimbledon from under Federer’s breath and then thumped him in the Australian Open final(now made famous by Swiss star’s dramatic bout of tears), Federer was on the brink of total capitulation. But, no matter how cliched the old adage sounds, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”, it is proven true time and again by ones ,who as Pete Sampras put it in his auto-biography, have “The Gift” from God. Roger raised his game and beat Nadal in the Madrid Masters final, ending the Spaniard’s unprecedented run of 81 unbeaten matches on orange dust. And now the emperor of Clay, has been booted out of his favorite tournament by Robin Soderling, leaving the door ajar for Federer to complete his long-pursued target.

As I write this piece the line-up for the semi-finals is almost complete. Roger Federer will play Juan Del Potro, another upcoming player, whose stock has risen astronomically while Robin Soderling will play the big-serving Chilean, Fernando Gonzalez. Apart from Federer, none of them have ever won a grand slam in their respective careers, and that might make a difference or two in the final analysis. Though Federer dropped a few sets on his way to the semi-finals, his performance against the dangerous Gael Monfils in the quarter finals, showed that his game was only improving. Juan Del Potro has had an exceptional tournament, where he has dropped only a set on his way to the last-4. He has looked very assured on the red clay and has all the shots in his armory to go all the way. Robin Soderling who had gone unknown till he shot Nadal out of the French Open orbit, has had an amazing run so far, where he has played with only one strategy, serve hard and if the ball is there to be hit, belt the life out of it. This was something he did pretty effectively against a counter-puncher like Nadal, in fact the sheer accuracy and frequency of his winners enabled him to come through in that match against the world no.1.  His opponent, has matched him for shot to shot, Gonzalez also dropping a lone set, which came in the 4-set walloping of the ever-optimistic-but-flattering-to-deceive Andy Roddick. Federer would back himself to beat the young kid and if he does get to the final, the slam is there for the taking.

So the draw has been decided and the rumour mills have been set abuzz. Federer would be licking his lips with the very thought of the trophy in his hands. But the fall of Nadal might also prove to be an anti-thesis of sorts, giving rise to a new champion instead, one who might inflict even greater pain on Federer. For if Federer fails to wrap this one, he would have realized that his chance is gone for ever.

Can the Champions Defend their crown..

Now that the euphoria of Deccan Chargers’ IPL win has died down, this is just about the right time to introspect on India’s chances in the upcoming Twenty-20 World Cup, the one crown which changed India’s cricket landscape for ever. The expectations surrounding India’s chances this year couldn’t have been more contrasting. While last year, when Dhoni’s boys boarded the flight to South Africa, not even a butterfly fluttered across the whole of India, this year the same butterfly has led to a butterfly effect with the entire nation assuming that the crown is as good as theirs again. Now doing a SWOT analysis isn’t really my forte, so I would go with the traditional way of discussing the probable squad at length, taking their form and recent performances into consideration.

Opening Combination:

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir would generally strike fear in the hearts of  bowlers across the world, but somehow, the duo has failed to fire of late. Gambhir and Sehwag both experienced a wretched IPL, with runs drying up and the timing and placement going for a toss. While Gambhir’s walk down the pitch exposed him to the seaming ball time and again, Sehwag was his own nemesis as is his wont. Falling to ludicrous shots is part and parcel of being Sehwag, but the alarming frequency with which it happened had a lot of tongues wagging across a whole lot of dressing rooms. However, I expect both of them to regain their touch and destroy the bowling attacks like old times, individually if not as a pair. Expect the opening combination to be left untouched during the world cup.

Middle-order:

Coming at one down should be Suresh Raina who had a stellar IPL yet again. Not only was he fourth in the run-scoring charts, he was also quite handy with his off-spin as well, as he proved in Chennai’s matches against Kings XI Punjab. That his cover-driving is special is given, but what was also special during this edition’s IPL was his backfoot play, especially the brutal use of pull against anything short. Though he got into a tangle a couple of times while executing that shot, most often than not when he connected, a new set of balls came out on the field. Add to that his electric fielding in the inner-ring and he becomes almost indispensible. Following Raina should be the angry young man of Indian cricket, who recently announced that captaincy was making him angrier on the field. Yuvraj, though he collected a decent amount of runs in the IPL, it was no where near what his talent demands, given the fact that he had massacred bowlers last time around(ask Broad, who saw his innocuous deliveries all disappear into the crowd in one pathetic over). The 6 hitter would like to the set things right in the world cup and there could no greater bad news than this for bowlers in the opposition ranks. Dhoni, the floater, could move himself up or down the order according to his whims and fancies which tragically and almost miraculously work most of the times. He has been in good form, though his ability to accelerate has been under the scanner for a while now. The brutal and raw Dhoni has transformed into the grafter Dhoni and somewhere down the line, the fine balance between the two has been lost. Completing the middle order should be either Bevan-like Rohit Sharma or the dasher Yusuf Pathan. Their finishing qualities were brought out to the fore in this year’s IPL with Rohit belting 26 off the final over to snatch a win against the luck-less Knight Riders and Yusuf clubbing the same opposition to snatch a win in a dramatic super over. Both of them have the gift of switching gears effortlessly and are equally adept at keeping the batsman quiet during the middle overs with their brand of part-time spin. Their selection should give Dhoni a head-ache, but one which he would relish.

All-rounder:

Though his inclusion in the squad for the world cup had raised a lot of eye-brows, Irfan Pathan’s performance in the IPL shut everybody’s mouth for good. The swing was back and the sight of the ball curving into the right-handers was a delight to watch. He was also the captain’s Go To man, and more often than not, he did not let his captain down. Picking early wickets at will, he also stuck a few lusty blows with the bat lower down the order and for me is the obvious choice for the much-vaunted allrounder’s berth. Ravindra Jadeja would be made to warm the bench, and though that would be a tad unfortunate, given his big-hitting and left-arm spin, which only adds variety to the bowling attack, the experience would only make him a better player.

Bowling Attack:

Given the fact that the tournament is being held in England, where the ball generally does a bit both in the air and off the pitch, I expect Dhoni to go in with 3 fast bowlers and the lone spinner in Harbhajan Singh. The turbanator picks himself, and he has bowled a few breath-taking spells recently which should augur well for India. Amongst the fast bowlers, RP Singh and Ishant Sharma are sure to make it to the final XI. While RP singh makes it solely based on his stunning performance in IPL where he ended up winning the purple cap for taking the most number of wickets(23), Sharma makes it based on his performance over the past one year, where he has been India’s most improved bowler in all formats of the game. But for the injury to his bowling shoulder, Zaheer Khan would have surely completed the fast-bowling troika. However, since his condition is being kept under wraps by BCCI, Praveen Kumar and Pragyan Ojha could come into the picture, and between the two the chances of Praveen Kumar making it to the playing XI are higher, given his prowess with the new ball, notwithstanding Ojha’s fine form of late.

So there it is. We have more or less decided on the final playing XI which should look something like this:

1. Virender Sehwag
2. Gautam Gambhir
3. Suresh Raina
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. Mahender Singh Dhoni
6. Rohit Sharma/Yusuf Pathan
7. Irfan Pathan
8. Harbhajan Singh
9. Zaheer Khan/Praveen Kumar
10. RP Singh
11. Ishant Sharma

The playing XI has a lot of talented stroke makers, bludgeoners of the cricket ball and some mighty fine bowlers. That however only adds to the expectations. But given the squad that Dhoni has at his disposal, it would not be foolish to pin hopes on this outfit. And if everything goes according to plan, then the crown would have been successfully defended, and another bus-ride to the Wankhede would have to planned.

Deccan Chargers pulverize Delhi Daredevils..

Well pulverise is an understatement, perhaps shock and awe are more appropriate. A team that was awarded the wooden spoon last season for finishing at the bottom of the table, came up with a performance, that would have the stupid commentators on Set Max screaming with delight(calling it a Citi moment of success and what not!!) and for the more experienced ones, a performance that they would remember for a long long time. Twenty-20 they say is a young man’s sport, that it is not cricket in its purest form and that it is too short to allow a player’s attitude and temparament to come to surface, like it does in test matches and to some extent in limited overs cricket. But if only anyone had seen the pure delight on Adam Gilchrist’s face when he was making a mockery Nannes’ reputation or giving Sehwag a lesson in six-hitting, they would have realised that it is as much an old man’s sport as it is for the young, and that even in a such a short format, players do get the oppurtunity to prove their mettle to the entire world and undergo their own baptism by fire. Adam Gilchrist went through one today and so did Sehwag.

Losing 2 wickets in the very first over of a semi-final is hardly an ideal way of starting any match, let alone a match with such importance riding on it. Yet Delhi Daredevils managed to do that and more. They lost Gambhir and Warner to a certain Ryan Harris, who according to some hadn’t done justice to the faith that Gilly had shown in him, in the very first over. But then Sehwag and Dilshan launched a counter-attack in their own inimitable style, a way of cricket which only they can play. Delhi recovered spectacularly to post a more than par score of 153 and at the innings break, Sehwag would have been quietly chuckling to himself and licking his lips in anticipation of booking the ever-elusive berth to the finals. However what transpired was something that Sehwag hadn’t expected, and not even in his wildest of dreams, would he have dreamt of a beating like that.

Pete Sampras in his auto-biography, A champions mind, mentions about this phase of the mind which he calls “The Zone”. He says, that a lot of times when he was in the “The Zone”, every shot would fall into place and every serve would land in exactly the corner, where he wanted it to be. Adam Gilchrist, today, was in “The Zone”. Gilly as his team-mates lovingly call him is a living legend and an entertainer par excellence, someone who would walk into the All time XI squad in any format of the game. What is also special about him is his big-match temparament, where he just unleashes himself on big occasions. He has won Australia, 2 world cup finals almost single-handedly with his stroke-play and that is what he did today. He attacked Nannes, the most potent weapon in Delhi’s pace arsenal, and blunted him in a way, which made him almost impotent for the rest of the match. When you walk out of the dug-out and spank the opposition bowler for 5 consecutive fours in the very first over, it sets the tone for the rest of the run-chase and demoralizes the opposition. You could already see a lot of shoulders drooping by the end of the 4rth over itself, such was Gilly’s impact. Although Nehra pulled one back when Gibbs played an atrocious shot to see his furniture disturbed, there was just no letting off today. Gilchrist treated Sangwan, who replaced Nannes with utter disdain and to Sehwag he showed just how brutal his fore-arms could be. In a nutshell he gave Sehwag a taste of his own medicine, one that I am pretty sure, Sehwag wouldn’t have relished much.

Although Gilly treated Dilshan with an iota of respect, but such was the fury of his blade and the damage that it caused in the first 4 overs, that it allowed Deccan Chargers to sleep walk to victory. Gilchrist’s slam-bang mode of attack just pulled the rug under Delhi’s legs and by the end of the 6th over(in which Sehwag conceded 25 runs) there was only one winner. At one point of time Gilly was hitting it at over 300(strike-rate is what I am talking about) and when he finally did top edge one to point, he finished with an incredible 85 off just 35 balls.  It was game,set and match for Deccan Chargers and Symonds, after the strategy break, took away whatever little hope Delhi had harbored of pulling this one back. Symonds, who has been hurting following his axe from the Ashes squad, belted the hapless Nannes over mid-off and followed that up with a savage pull over mid-wicket which landed just inside the ropes. Although, he also holed out in the deep off Amit Mishra, who bowled a superb spell of controlled leg-spin, the match was a mere formality by that point of time, and was taken to its due end by Rohit Sharma.

So Deccan Chargers have scripted an amazing turn-around by ensuring that they finish at least second having finished last in the previous edition of IPL. This semi-final victory might just give them the push to go all the way now and they would really fancy their chances in the final, regardless of whoever they play. While for Delhi Daredevils, it would be an all too familiar case of so close yet so far. But if I were Sehwag, I wouldn’t really be smarting under defeat, for it was brought about by a man, who was playing cricket after a gap of one year, and one who even the most cynical of cricket lover would agree to be the greatest Wicket-keeper batsman the Game has ever seen and probably shall ever see.