What's Happening

Not quite finding time to blog regularly at the moment. So trying to take a quick recap here and then will go on to more specific topics.

Down Under West Indies make an encouraging start to their tour dominating their practice match against Queensland. Significantly Hayden flops on both occasions and Powell impresses with the ball. Most important however, Marlon Samuels smashes 267 and makes a VERY strong case for an immediate entry in the playing X1. With Gayle, Smith, Sarwan, Lara and Chanderpaul sure to occupy the top 5 slots it will be interesting to see if Samuels fits in at 6 or West Indies stick with Bravo in that position. I remember writing a few days ago that Samuels' selection is encouraging and have been somewhat justified so far.

England have not got off to a great start to their tour of Pakistan. For those English fans who are so confident about a victory following the Ashes, this comes as a wakeup call. However England have flopped miserably in tour openers to come back strong in recent times - the South Africa series last year being a prime example. Trescothick was the shining light in England's dismal first inns of 256/9. Tresco scored 124*. The bowlers did pretty well - Plunkett and Udal took 3 wickets each - encouragingly so did Anderson. But after bundling out the Patron's X1 for 211 they find themselves at 39/6 in the second innings in a match that is apparently being played in an atmosphere of great frivolity.

Now coming to the big one - the India v Sri Lanka home series - since I last posted India have notched up 2 more consecutive wins. What can I say ? In Mohali the bowling effort was top-class and in Jaipur Dhoni played an absolute blinder. I am still not sure he is going to be India's Gilchrist but he seems a very talented striker of the ball. Also he seems to have a decent brain, which I admit I was not too sure of initially, and a lot of heart . Wonderful as his innings was, and great as those sixes were, I do believe the most heartening thing for me was the way he followed through and saw India home. Also the fact that he played Murali out so intelligently and with great skill. While Dravid and Sehwag were not all too comfortable against the champion offie, Dhoni was very much at ease and played the ball late. The way he destroyed the others was great. It has been a great tragedy of Indian cricket in recent times that we have been giving undue respect to bowlers of the calibre of Chandana, Dilshan, Maharoof etc. I am not trying to single out the Sri Lankans here - there are others - Shoaib Malik is one that springs to mind immediately. I do believe such mediocre medium-pacers and dibbly dobbly "spinners" have no place in international cricket and Dhoni has shown them where they actually stand. They deserve only one kind of treatment that is to be thrown out of the ground once every over and that is exactly what they got. Hopefully Atapattu has got the message and he won't ever dare to put Dilshan in front of Dhoni again.

Let us also not forget to acknowledge, in our excitement and celebration, a masterly innings by Kumar Sangakkara - that wonderful batsman and a delicate contribution from Mahela Jayawardene. That reminds me - Mahela is getting married this week - congratulations to him and will be missing the match at Pune. That reminds me - I have bought tickets worth Rs. 3000 for the Pune match and I pray we win that one to go up 4-0 .... I mean sure we are in great form but I just hope the Law of Averages does not catch up. Having said that, Pune has always been a lucky venue for India particularly against Sri Lanka - it was here 15 years ago against Sri Lanka that Sachin Tendulkar scored his first score of 50+ and in 1999 Ajay Jadeja stroked a wonderful century in a match that India won convincingly.

Going back to the Southern Hemisphere for just a little bit, South Africa take the series against the Kiwis by winning the first 3 matches - nice stuff !! And what great revenge. Last times the Kiwis had won 5-1 and I was so happy because that brought the feet of the cocky Proteas firmly down on the ground. Now the situation was somewhat reverse. New Zealand were just beginning to consider themselves as a powerful team and looking to break away from the pack and they have been brought back to Earth. The ICC rankings also reflects that after Australia the teams are very closely matched. A week or so ago, Sri Lanka were 2, NZ 3, Pak 4 and SA 5. Now SA beat NZ 3-0, India lead SL 3-0. Suddenly the table reads SA 2, Pak 3, SL 4, NZ 5. Not sure how long it will stay that way with SA touring India soon. That is going to be another exciting series. Now the battle between Dhoni and Kemp is going to be a great one. Both are giant-hitters and match-winners. Of course Dhoni has been given extensive coverage. I also mentioned Kemp becoming a force to reckon with in an earlier post. The other day I saw him hit Shane Bond (I repeat Shane Bond - yes that deadly fast bowler who has made several great batsmen dance to his music and has taken wickets at less than 18 runs so far in ODIs) for a MASSIVE 6 over long on that not only cleared the stadium, the ground and the road but kept going beyond that. Quite frankly I have never seen anything of that kind before. People in India have got to be careful if they are hanging around in a radius of a few kilometres of the wicket when he is playing.