World Cup turning into an Asia Cup

With Aus, South Africa and England bowing out, the World Cup is turning into an Asia Cup. The manner in which West Indies made their exit was quite pathetic as well. It was almost depressing watching England lose yesterday. I was hoping for an Ind vs. Eng final. 😦

Australia and South Africa, with the organized cricketing infrastructures they have, will take a serious look at their structure to make ammends for the future. It will be interesting to watch the developments on that front.

World Cup 2011: India turn chokers against South Africa

In what can be described only as a series of bizarre incidents, India choked in a typically South African fashion against the Proteas on Sunday.

One can list out various reasons for the defeat- not playing an e,tra spinner against spin-dreading South Africa, power play batting collapse, giving away too man runs up front, Dhoni’s captaincy, bowling Nehra instead of Harbhajan- but that would only amount to beating the “we-don’t-have-any-bowling” dead horse.

This defeat may not be too bad. After all, this may be what the thinking tank needs to fi, the problems. There are a good number of those, since match 1. Winning a match almost ensures that the “winning combination” will play again. Shortcomings will not be looked at. This defeat provides that opportunity. Will only have to wait and watch.

 

2011 Cricket World Cup off to sluggish start

So the World Cup has started, huh? Really, when does it start? The warm up matches were more interesting.

Barring the Ind-Eng thriller and superb Ireland – Eng match, the games seem to be just going through the motions. The new WC stats on the longest/biggest six seems irrelevantly annoying.

After the Ireland – England  game, I have become a fan of Ireland. In fact, so much so that I would like to see them beat India. Maybe Bangladesh should beat South Africa too. This World Cup needs more thrill. Waiting for that!

 

An IPL Semi Final at the Champions League – RBC vs. CSK

A cracker of a semi final awaits today where Kumble’s Bangalore will take on Dhoni’s Chennai. While much has been said about Chennai on paper, they have exposed some chinks this tournament.

Bangalore’s batting on the other hand has been a bit off color. Add to that a Kallis-shaped-hole, and the balance gets affected. Apart from Kohli and Dravid, the batsmen have not really lived up to their names. Uthappa has been a yo-yo behind the stumps.

One expects to see a decent match between two evenly matched sides!

Jai Bangalore!

Champions League begins!

Amid the match fixing spot fixing scandal, we have tournament. It would be nice to see some good cricket.

Mumbai play the Lions today. Since Lions are a South African side, this should be a good match. It’ll also be a good test for the Dhawans and the Tiwarys.

Here’s to good cricket!