A peep into the Aussie dressing room

Here.

No balls to you!

By the 49th over, India was 349/4. After that, Fall of wickets 5-352 (Dhoni, 49.3 ov), 6-353 (Raina, 49.5 ov), 7-354 (Kumar, 49.6 ov)

Where’s Ravindra Jadeja - Padded up on the bench.

The kid has a first class double, a highest of 232* plus one more century, an average of 38. Compare that to Bhajji and PK: both have fifties but no century. Bhajji’s first class average 19, PK’s 23.

It wasn’t just the last over, it was a few balls in the last over. India was past 350. Bhajji and PK had crazy quick Domino’s delivery runs in the last game. They were expected to deliver again.

I don’t have much against that, esp after seeing Jadeja all at sea in the first ODI.

But just imagine what it does, when you see the bowlers bat before you – luckily for Jadeja it was only a few balls, imagine the scars had Bhajji and PK gone in earlier.

Then again, imagine what those few balls could have meant to Jadeja? That too with a license to throw Shastri’s proverbial kitchen sink at everything.

Looks like I’ll have to give Jadeja a net in the Kotla. Bhajji, try and stop me.


On Bored: The day this Jadeja will be called Jaddu

Blessed by Bhajji.

Did you see Bhajji and Ravindra Jadeja bat together? How could you, they did not bat together. Jadeja was in awe of Bhajji, Bhajji was in awe of himself. He was the senior batsman, so what if he batted lower than Jadeja. In the time they spent together, Jadeja unlearnt all the batting he ever knew.

How he craved Bhajji’s approval. He even ran out of turn excitably, only to be admonished with a wave of Bhajji’s gloved hand. That was communication, Bhajji had, in gesture spoken to Jadeja. It was time to get out. Which he did.


On Bored: How to survive seven

Ten more Sikhs

Today, even Bhajji the bowler couldn’t put off Bhajji the batsman. If one Sikh could achieve this much, imagine what eleven can. Here is the BCC! Turbanator XI, as always, way before the game. But as always, falling on deaf years. How dumb can they be?

Chances are, you will also enjoy, the longest single cricket blog, Cricketers who can Singh

What is Anthony Puttick?

It is a cricketer that captained the Cape Cobras. That would be the obvious explanation. But I think there’s more to it. In today’s post match interview for instance, it did not bare its fangs, barely opened its mouth.

The other day in Bangalore at the delayed toss, Puttick was all set to fly with cape, cobras, fangs, cruel intentions et al. His eyes were all over the place, his words were bouncing off the light towers. If it wasn’t obvious, the ladies in the box even mocked him.

Sure, on the face of it, Puttick does look weird. He took over from Graeme Smith.

But that’s just the surface tension. Deep down I’m sure Andrew Puttick is a normal South African, who does what they do best: Get knocked out in knock out games.

But then again, those fangs. And I just checked out some old Anthony Perkins’ pictures.


On Bored: It's not easy being Henry Davids

Embrace the wronged one.

You are Saurav put to the sword
You are Dravid gone downhill
You are a captain without a team
You will find in him a friend
You will in the Jatman
Find a friend

You are a nobody wicketkeeper
Neither here nor nowhere
You have no comfort zone
And then you find a place in merchandise cricket
As a keeper, higher order batsman
How Dinesh Karthik bats
When he knows he’s found a friend
Found a friend
In the Jatman

You are countless Delhi openers
You are Aakash Chopra
You are Gautam Gambhir
You are all those in between
You did not find the gospel
In the books or in the nets
In a coach or in a prophecy
You found it in a friend
In the Jatman

You are the wronged one
You are Amit Mishra
You are the wronged one
You are Dinesh Karthik
You are the wronged one
You are Gautam Gambhir
You are the wronged one
You are Virender Sehwag
You will find a friend
You are the wronged one
You will find a friend
In the Jatman


Happy Bored Day Jatman! You're invited here!

If DD didn't make the semis...

DD can't lose the semis.

Interview with a vampire.

ICC speaks to BCC! here.

Why the IPL got knocked out of the Champions League

There are far too many conspiracy theories to this, most of which are way off the mark. Fact is the knockout was pre-planned.

The three IPL teams sacrificed a spot in the semis and finals for the greater good of Indian cricket. While Daredevils have four players (Sehwag, Gambhir, Mishra, Nehra) in the one-day side, Royal Challengers have two (Praveen Kumar, Virat Kohli), only the Deccan Chargers have none.

The Champions League Finals are to played on 23rd October (8 pm) in Hyderabad, while the India-Australia one-day series begins 25th October in Vadodara (9 am), giving next to no time for any pre-match conditioning to IPL players.

Even though there's no Deccan Chargers’ player in the one-day squad, and the Finals will be played in their backyard, such is the bonhomie among the IPL players, that Rohit Sharma and RP Singh (dropped from the ODI team recently) refused to play in the absence of their archrivals Royal Challengers.

As for the Daredevils, they sacrificed a semi-final slot.

Champions League Joke

This is hot from the Bushrangers-Royal Challengers game. Top scorer Manish Pandey 39, next highest scorer Rahul Dravid 33. And look who lost? The Jokers. Special mention, extras 21.

Go Trinidad & Tobago!

Go! Trinidad & Tobago
You may lose all ten wickets
But you will not lose hope
You may lose all hope
But you will not lose the cape
You are a super hero side!
You are a super hero side!

Go Trinidad & Tobago!
You have in your midst so many brothers
Bravo and the Holy Ganga!
They come with their brothers
Such a joint family side
All the good old Indian values
Stick together enjoy the ride
Stick together enjoy the ride

Go Trinidad & Tobago!
Even though Brian Charles Lara has hung his boots
His blessings will long be with you
Go Trinidad & Tobago!
You are the team, you are the dream
You are so good, it’s not what it seems
Go! Trini! Go Trinidad! Go! Tobago!
You are the team, you are the dream


You can also read: Here's looking at you, T&T

Yusuf Pathan: out of his comfort zone.

There’s only one way to go at 53/5 with 38 overs left to play: Lofted drive straight down mid offs throat. Yusuf Pathan did not disappoint, he had an appointment with a talk show host.

Another zero, but this was in the lowly Challenger. It’s the zeroes in the ODIs that bother him. But you can’t call it bad form, he hardly played at all, out on the third ball he faced.

Of course you didn’t see him bat yesterday, with 300 runs on the board: he hit four consecutive fours, and big bro MSD was smashing away at the other end.

Today, it was different: MSD was already out, as were four others. There’s no way he was going to bat out of his comfort zone. And who does anyway, that’s just the name of another cricket book.

"Hello, Warnie?"

If you haven't had enough of Yusuf Pathan, here you go

Sehwag prepares for cricket after life.

In the last few months Sehwag has lived a little. For that he had to die a little first, what with his emergency exit from the Twenty20 World Cup.

But after that, Sehwag found his voice, his calling, his self. From a maverick taking on the DDCA, to shooting from the hip in one interview after another. Prior to this I do not recall ever reading a Sehwag interview; there might have been the odd sound byte, but nothing on such a scale.

It was as if Sehwag was the funky new cerebral side of cricket. Humour and commonsense, honesty and straight talk, that was Sehwag’s cricketing grammar.

Till last year, I wondered ‘how do you solve a brand like Viru’ – and did he have any PR people, or for that matter any people working on brand Sehwag. It’s obvious most Indian cricketers do, and these brand managers work overtime keeping their stars shinning even on starless nights.

With Sehwag it was the opposite. No matter what he did it was never enough. He needed to score twice as fast, twice as many to be a blip on the radar.

Then what changed? I think the IPL was a huge factor, it showed Sehwag on a very marketable stage – top boss, all batsman, and pitted him against MSD, Yuvraj, Sachin, not just as a player, but as a brand. From an invisible brand, Sehwag at least registered. If not across India, definitely in Delhi.

Good for him, the kids like him, at least at the adidas store. Then there was the emergence of Gambhir, suddenly it was 1 + 1 deal, Sehwag + Gambhir.

The two get on like Bonny and Clyde, there’s a similar frantic-rush from raiding bowlers. I think by 2009 both Gambhir and Sehwag realised that, and in that realisation came the need to communicate – vital, if you learn one thing from Sachin, it is important to say it. You could be great, and all that, but it needs to be known, repeatedly.

So Sehwag went on overdrive talking about his triples, his favourite innings in Galle – all this needed to be said. Top that Sehwag spoke about his favourite player Gambhir, their vibe, ditto from Gambhir.

After missing a World Cup and a Champions Trophy, where India failed to make the semis, Sehwag returns in the Irani trophy – he opens in the first innings, not so in the second. Before this, the last innings he played was in IPL 2.

From that innings to now, I think Sehwag’s travelled a fair bit. While in the IPL he was content to make Warner open, play mentor, captain, senior Delhi player, he will now play purely as an opening batsman.

While the mind will be clearer, he still returns from a lay off. What Sehwag accomplishes in the next few months will decide where both the player and the brand go. Get Delhi beyond the semis for once, win a 7 ODI series against Australia, it can happen. If Sehwag happens. If MSD makes him happen.

This is wrong.

Cricket demands that two captains, a match referee and one other bloke make it to the toss. What did we see today: There was a match ref, that one other bloke, Ricky Ponting and a clown masquerading as the Kiwi captain: Brendon McCullum.

What’s got into Daniel Vettori

He wasn’t always like this. Once upon a time he was clean shaven, almost invisible. He looked so young, nobody took him seriously, not even him. There were times Vettori tried to have a word with Daniel or vice versa but one or the other would brush the other aside.

It was confusing business. What was Vettori’s role – a sidekick at best. There were ten players, he was the eleventh. This may not always have been the case with the all balcks, but at the Daredevils he wasn't even the eleventh. He was the twelfth knight. Too bad he wasn't playing for the Knight Riders.

Delhi also has Amit Mishra, you can ignore him, but then so will the results. And somehow Delhi prefers not to play two spinners, like the Indian team, better to have 3-4 quicks even if they go at 7+ rpo, at least you got the power play covered.

But these exclusions were getting to Vettori, and the Champions League is nearly here. Vettori has a beard, a deeper voice, and I will be taken seriously way about him. He's even winning matches.

He wants to play, and he’s ready to do the hard work. Like perform with bat, ball and beard.


Also read: Denial Vettori no more

How old is Munaf Patel

Older than the hills, older than Sanath Jayasuriya, even older than Sachin Tendulkar. But how old is he? Does Munaf age, does he have an age – when did he make his debut? Did he make his debut, do you recall any game he played?

Isn’t it strange that he’s called Munna? He looks old enough to be your uncle. But again, that doesn’t answer the question, how old is Munaf?

Whatever age he is, surely too old to play for India. Not like RP and Ishant who get younger by the day.