News from England

Harbhajan Singh has very mischievously signed on with Surrey from July. It isn't immediately clear when his term there would end.

With the Indian team having more unfit players than fit ones, he will fancy his chances soon. I'm sure Varindar Seewag Virender Sehwag is also on the look-out for a county side which would accomodate the tremendous starts he'd provide them as an opener in all forms of the game (for e.g., 23 in 21 balls in county cricket, 23 in 16 balls in a one-dayer and 23 in 11 balls in Twenty20).

Today is also the 75th anniversary of India's first ever test match (Lord's, 1932) and the 24th anniversary of Kapil flashing that toothy grin (Lord's, 1983).

I'm not going to claim I saw the World Cup final live. I was fast asleep. As an eight-year-old, I didn't know what was happening, except that there were a bunch of uncles and aunts staying up till late in the night to see India take on West Indies. The first time I knew about the result was when they excitedly shook me awake screaming something to the effect of "We have won the World Cup".

More than being a fly on the wall in the Indian dressing room after the win, I'd love to have been around in the West Indian dressing room! Of course, retribution was quick and painful!

Labels: 1932, 1983, england, first test, india, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Jagadish @ 10:53 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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Problems aplenty for Australia

Though the Aussies have just crushed every possible opponent and have won the World Cup for the third successive time, its not without a few problems. Infact, Rohit Brijnath aptly explains their problems and compares with India and also sees that India are better off even without the victories. He sums up brilliantly...

In short, the Australians play brilliant cricket but do not enjoy the game. Not like us. Which is why, one can now reveal, they sent Greg Chappell to India. But apparently en route he forgot his orders. He thought he was here to teach. But it was to learn.

He has infact written it even before the World Cup final victory, but does it matter at all?

Labels: 2007 world cup, australia, sri lanka, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Ganesh @ 11:56 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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World Cup final run-rates

Australia scored the quickest ever in a World Cup final; Sri Lanka had the quickest score for a losing team. Sri Lanka also lost their record as the only team to have reached the World Cup final and never lost. Winners in bold:

Year	Team	Runs	Wickets	Overs	RpW	RpO
2007	Australia	281	4	38	70.25	7.39
2003	Australia	359	2	50	179.50	7.18
1999	Australia	133	2	20	66.50	6.65
2007	Sri Lanka	215	8	36	26.88	5.97
2003	India	234	10	39.4	23.40	5.95
1996	Sri Lanka	245	3	46.2	81.67	5.29
1987	Australia	253	5	50	50.60	5.06
1992	Pakistan	249	6	50	41.50	4.98
1987	England	246	8	50	30.75	4.92
1975	West Indies	291	8	60	36.38	4.85
1996	Australia	241	7	50	34.43	4.82
1979	West Indies	286	9	60	31.78	4.77
1975	Australia	274	10	58.4	27.40	4.67
1992	England	227	10	49.2	22.70	4.60
1979	England	194	10	51	19.40	3.80
1999	Pakistan	132	10	39	13.20	3.38
1983	India	183	10	54.4	18.30	3.35
1983	West Indies	140	10	52	14.00	2.69

Labels: 2007 world cup, final, run-rate, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Geoff @ 8:57 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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What the rest of the cricketing world should not do

After yesterday's World Cup win, Glenn McGrath retired from international cricket, indeed from all forms of cricket, which makes him an automatic inclusion in the All-Star Book Cricket XI, in tests and ODIs. This means that the test XI would be: Mark Richardson, Michael Slater, Nasser Hussain, Damien Martyn, Graham Thorpe, Chris Cairns, Heath Streak (c), Jack Russell (wk), Cathryn Fitzpatrick, Glenn McGrath and Allan Donald. Fitzpatrick replaces Pearson while McGrath comes in instead of DeFreitas.

The ODI XI would be: Craig Wishart, Michael Slater/Nasser Hussain, Damien Martyn, Graham Thorpe, Michael Bevan (c), Chris Cairns, Heath Streak, Ridley Jacobs (wk), Glenn McGrath and Allan Donald. Once again, he replaces DeFreitas in the side.

Oh, for a good spinner to form two world beating sides!

What the other cricketing teams cannot and must not do is to wait for Australia's bowling lineup to disintegrate in the absence of Warne & McGrath. That may or may not happen. Even if it does, it could be short-lived. The onus is on the other teams to improve and become better each day - physically & mentally, at batting, bowling and fielding.

Australia have taken one-day cricket to a new level, especially after Ricky Ponting took over. New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa have, at different points in time during the tournament, looked capable of rocking Australia's boat. But these were unsustained efforts. To beat Australia now, opponents need to be at the top of their game across 100 overs, like I pointed out after the ICC Champions Trophy. Sri Lanka bowled well (barring Vaas) for the first half-dozen overs. Sri Lanka batted well for around half-a-dozen overs when Sangakkara and Jayasuriya stepped it up. It was never going to be enough!

Labels: 2007 world cup, book cricket, mcgrath, retire, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Jagadish @ 4:13 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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A fitting end...

Well, what can you say about the calamity, the debacle, the shamozzle that was the final of the 2007 World Cup other than, fitting.

The best team won - the most worthy challenger throughout the tournament made it to the final, Glenn McGrath goes out on a high, and the long drawn out, badly organised tournament ended in a debacle, in darkness, with wides being called, video referees making decisions, all this, after the batsmen had already left the field for bad light. This tournament will not be forgotten now and changes will be made. A thrilling cracker of a final would've pushed all the other nonsense to the background and maybe have smoothed some issues over - now, we will never forget it.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought once you went off for light of rain, you couldn't come back until the light improves or the rain stops.

If we believe the commentators, there was even talk of coming back the next day to complete the match, at one point - what a joke.

Anyway, the important points are - Sri Lanka were gallant in defeat, I guess acknowledging that they were probably not going to win anyway, but clearly could have been quite justified in being very upset at how their assault on a winning total was inhibited by lack of accurate information and organisation - and, that other point - Australia won the World Cup.

You beauty!

Labels: 2007 world cup, australia, bad light, gilchrist, mcgrath, sri lanka, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Stuart Helwig @ 7:09 am | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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One nice big laugh at Rudi Koertzen please!

Neither his country, nor he will be out on the field during the final tomorrow.

Steve Bucknor's presence in his fifth consecutive final is the clearest indicator of how crappy West Indies have been, especially in one-day cricket, over the past 15 years. David Shepherd umpired three consecutive finals (1996, 1999 and 2003). That shows how poor England were at one-day cricket! Zimbabwe have never had an umpire in a World Cup final, which is an obvious indicator of how good they have been!

Labels: 2007 world cup, australia, bucknor, koertzen, sri lanka, umpires, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:49 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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Go, the sub-continent

Sri Lanka: The last team to beat Australia in a World Cup final.

Pakistan: The last team to beat Australia in a World Cup game.

India: The last team to play Australia in a World Cup final.

Bangladesh: The last team I will mention here.

Labels: 2007 world cup, australia, bangladesh, india, pakistan, sri lanka, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Jagadish @ 9:03 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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Capitulation - Outplayed and out-psyched

I commented over on Will's site during the first devastating and match winning 10 overs of the Aus v SA semi-final, that I haven't enjoyed watching a one day match this much since 1999 - yep, that other semi-final.

Contrasting means, to the same end though. Many people say "we want good close, exciting matches". They must be supporters of other sides! When it's your side playing, I don't care how much they win by, and just quietly when it's South Africa you're thumping - I say bring it on! I'd rather that than a tie any day.

I sat down to take in this game thinking I wouldn't be able to stay up late enough into the night (with work the next day) to see anything too decisive. Especially when South Africa won what everyone thought would be potentially a match winning toss - I figured they'd post some sort of reasonable total and Australia would struggle. I honestly thought, based on what Botham and other commentators were saying, that 250 odd would be too much for the Aussie's to chase down, under pressure, late on a dieing wicket.

Well the wicket never got a chance to die, and by the time I was forced to retire to bed, the matched seemed fairly safe. Thanks mainly to a mind melt down by captain Graeme Smith, who seemed to think he was Matty Hayden, walking down the track - twice - missing both, the first nearly an edge and second taking off stump, then disintergration by Kallis, who was completely sucked in by the Aussie's talk. Kallis fell hook, line and sinker for the talk about "letting him occupy the crease and take up valulable deliveries", managing to strike one nice four then being cleaned up by a regulation, full pitched McGrath ball, while Kallis was stretching across from somewhere over on the leg side? Mind boggling! Even Andre Nell was seen to be shaking his head - no doubt because bowling to the looming low total was never going to leave him much room for sledging.

McGrath, who many believed shouldn't go on this tour, moved to front runner for taking out the player of the series. No-one will write him of now, even when he's been out of the game for 10 years! He cleaned up Kallis, was lucky when Prince chased what, had it not been for his thick outside edge would've been a side, then, possibly the most important one of all - Boucher - so often a lower order thorn in the side of the opposition, was dismissed by a ripper, moving away, taking the edged and finished off by big Matty Hayden. At 5 for 27, SA got another let off with Gibbs given not out, from what seemd like a fairly obvious inside edge. 6 for 27 would've seen a total around 50 I believe, as it was they only managed to limp to 149.

Australia cruised passed, the one concern - Gilchrist again failing. Surely now, he'll make up for everything with a classic Gilly ton in Glenn McGrath's fair well performance, a World Cup Final which could be a "three-peat" for the Aussies.

Labels: 2007 world cup, australia, south africa, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Stuart Helwig @ 8:22 am | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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Sri Lankan Party at Sabina



In today's first semi final of Cricket World Cup 2007, Sri Lanka stamped their class on the Kiwis and urged on by strong crowd support went on to crush the Kiwis by 81 runs. Winning the toss, the Sri Lankans, showing the bravado that has won them many fans, elected to bat first on a wicket that promised to assist New Zealand's pacers.

Captain Mahela Jayawardene's decision seemed to backfire in the third over, when star batsman Sanath Jayasuriya's stumps were clattered by a James Franklin delivery. Franklin bowled well at the star of the innings, but the same couldn't be said for Shane Bond, who picked the worst time to have a bad performance. His first over went for 9 runs as he strayed down leg side, allowing Upul Tharanga to glance the ball for a boundary down to fine leg. The day would get much worse for Bond.





Bond had his worst day of the tournament.


After Jayasuriya's dismissal, Tharanga took the fight to the Kiwis, hitting 73 off 74 deliveries. He received little support at the other end, as Kumar Sangakkara consumed all of 42 deliveries in making 18, while not rotating the strike. When Sangakkara got out, Jayawardene replaced him and struggled the keep the scoreboard ticking over at the start of his innings. His first 25 runs came in more than 50 deliveries, at a time when Tharanga was going at more than a run-a-ball at the other end. In fact it seemed that Jayawardene was more content to block deliveries rather than to give the strike back to Tharanga. When Tharanga was dismissed, first Chamara Silva (21 off 33) and then Tillakaratne Dilshan, 30 off 27, continued where Tharanga left off. However it was Jayawardene who was the real star of the show. Breaking lose of his shackles, Jayawardene blasted 98 runs off the last 62 deliveries he faced. His first World Cup ton of 115n.o. off only 109 deliveries was extremely well placed as his first 19 deliveries had yielded only 2 runs. He received a little luck though in the 46th over when a top edged sweep burst through Shane Bond's hands at fine leg, only to land exactly on top of the boundary rope for six.

With every four and six of the Sri Lankan innings, the roughly 75% full Sabina Park cheered loudly, as horns blared, drums were beaten and music flowed from all around the ground. There were many Sri Lankans and Kiwis, but there were also English, Pakistani, Indian and West Indies supporters in attendance and the majority of them threw their support behind the dashing Sri Lankans. It was the kind of atmosphere that the World Cup had missed for much of the tournament.




Some Indian and Pakistani fans even united in their support for Sri Lanka.



Jayawardene's heroics had lifted Sri Lanka to 289/5 off 50 overs, presenting a challenge that seemed very steep for the Kiwis. The Lankans had scored 102 off their last 10 overs to reach the daunting total. New Zealand's ace Bond, had gone for 59 runs off his 10 overs. He had been averaging less than 3 runs per over previously in the tournament.



Lasith Malinga bowled with pace and venom.

When the Kiwis set out to bat, they were pinned down early by brilliant fast bowling from Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga. Malinga had New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming lbw in the second over. Vaas and Malinga took full advantage of the overcast conditions and Malinga in particular bowled at seering pace early on. In one stretch, with Malinga touching 94mph, poor Ross Taylor could not even get a touch on Malinga's deliveries as he was beaten repeatedly by pace and movement.


After the early damage had been done, a stubborn Peter Fulton and an attacking Scott Styris took New Zealand to 105/2 in the 22nd over. Styris' innings was threatening to bring New Zealand back into the game, before he chipped a tame catch to Jayasuriya off Dilshan. The fall of Styris' wicket triggered a collapsed for the Kiwis as they lost 5 wickets for 11 runs to the spin of Muttiah Muralitharan and Jayasuriya. Muralitharan proved to be more than a handful and his off breaks and doosras baffled the Kiwis.



Murali's 4/31 took him past the 50 wicket mark in World Cups and gave him 23 wickets in this World Cup, tying teammate Vaas for the highest ever total in a single World Cup.

The Kiwis' dramatic slide from 105/2 to 116/7 was too much to overcome and a tenth wicket partnership of 59 between Franklin (30n.o) and Jeetan Patel (34) only delayed the inevitable. When Patel holed out to Dilhara Fernando at long on, New Zealand had lost by 81 runs. The Sri Lankan bowling except for Fernando and to a lesser extent Jayasuriya, was stifling. After such an imperious start to the tournament the Kiwis' World Cup ended with two consecutive defeats in which they lost by a combined 286 runs.

Sri Lanka will now await the winner of tomorrow's second semi final between Australia and South Africa. After going for 45 off 5 overs, including 5 no balls and a wide and being warned twice in his first over for running on the pitch, Fernando will be hard pressed to be in the squad for the finals on Saturday, but otherwise the Sri Lankans will be looking to these same players to recapture the glory of their 1996 World Cup triumph.

(Croos posted from Rain, No Play)

Labels: 2007 world cup, new zealand, sri lanka, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Sean @ 7:44 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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Bucknor all set to have his wish granted, Rudi moves one step closer

Over two years ago, Bucknor made it amply clear that he didn't want West Indies in the World Cup final, and that is exactly what happened.

A year ago, Rudi Koertzen had a similar wish, and South Africa are one step away from increasing the chances of his dream becoming a reality.

Try my warped logic. Now we know why the BCCI has ensured that there is no umpire on the ICC's Elite panel. Given the high profile nature of Indian cricket, it is fairly obvious that other cricket boards would be waiting in a huge queue to get India to play against them (No tests please, we're the BCCI!). This therefore means that Indian umpires will not umpire lots of games. The solution is obviously to ensure that there're no Indian umpires around, because the other one (sending the Indian team to lesser number of tournaments) is clearly unacceptable.

Labels: 2007 world cup, bucknor, koertzen, umpires, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Jagadish @ 6:02 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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Staying in the present

One of my favourite cricketers, Martin Crowe, gave a very good explanation on a talk show with Harsha Bhogle a few years ago, about how on earth he managed to get out to Arjuna Ranatunga (16 test wickets) after making 299 at Wellington in 1991.

His answer was brilliant and, to me, it is applicable in each and every aspect of our lives. I'm not quoting him, but he said something like he was thinking about how he would celebrate becoming the first New Zealander to score a triple century, about how the crowd would cheer him, etc. He wasn't focussing on the next ball. His aim should have been to score a run (at least) if the ball was there to be hit, or to block it out if it was a good ball. He wasn't in the present, though. As a result, he got out, to Ranatunga.

Sri Lanka, if Asantha de Mel, their chief selector is to be believed, rested Vaas and Murali for the game against Australia to ensure that the two bowlers were preserved for the finals against Australia.

It was a decision, a ploy, to keep our key strike bowlers away from the Australian game. We wanted to bring the players out for the finals with Australia. We did not want to give the Australians a free dress rehearsal. We are saving our armoury for the finals,

de Mel obviously contradicted Jayawardene who said earlier that the duo had been rested to ensure that they didn't aggravate existing niggling injuries. I've admired Sri Lanka's cricket throughout the tournament. But if what de Mel says is right, I hope they don't even get to the final. I'm not necessarily saying so, since teams can have specific strategies. But you never assume you're going to get to a final, especially when you need to win a semi-final to get to the final.

de Mel's comments would undoubtedly fire up South Africa and New Zealand, assuming that South Africa play Australia and New Zealand play Sri Lanka like I wrote earlier today, since he implies that Sri Lanka will defeat New Zealand and Australia will do likewise to South Africa.

Labels: 2007 world cup, australia, martin crowe, ranatunga, sri lanka, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:11 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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This day, four years ago

Fans and followers of Indian cricket need to be alerted that today's must-win game against Sri Lanka is on the fourth anniversary of the 2003 World Cup final against Australia.

Labels: 2007 world cup, final, india, sri lanka, world cup, world cup final

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:46 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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