England let off the hook.... now we need to bat well

Dhoni and me think very similarly. Yesterday when I was returning home I thought to myself that Dhoni should handover the gloves to Mr. Wall and bowl some few overs. As I entered the house I saw Dhoni bowling his military medium. Not effective but some breather and rest for the other bowlers especially Praveen. England has now taken the upper hand as we did not have Zaheer the whole of yesterday. Thanks to Praveen Kumar we could some what restrict them. Now all India has do is play their natural game get some good batting practice. Sorry to be pessimistic but an Indian victory is ruled out.

The last few-test matches at Lords have not provided any results. Hope that happens here again and India is able to acclimatize the English weather conditions for the rest of the series. MSD and his senior colleagues need to think about the the weak and thin bowling resource. With Zaheer's fitness in question and Bajji not able to provide that sting and killer instinct in his attack We need do some very serious introspection on our bowling combination. You cannot just continue with Praveen and with Ishant still getting used to the English weather and pitches we need to address and fix the bowling department. Incidentally somebody needs to talk and mentor Ishant on how to bowl on English turf. He needs to focus on accuracy, length and line. Extra pace may not help him so much.

With third day today lets hope that India's willow shines on a Saturday afternoon where it will be full house at Lords.

Bigger than ashes the India England Series

England's tail is up after their recent win with Sri Lanka and the great ashes victory they had last winter in Australia. But that will not frighten MSD's team as they are the world cup champions and also just won a series in West indies. So as the firs test kicks of at the mecca of cricket all eyes will be glued towards this series. Since we are playing in second half India should be better off as the weather should be good.

We will miss Viru but our old guards will play a key role and hopefully this will be their last test series in England. And hence these old guards will have to put their best foot forward to make this series very memorable and should be a great parting gift for these the 3 greats by winning the series. As I write this blog the toss has been won by India and MSD has put England to bat under over caste condition. Hope our seamers are able to leverage this condition. Good luck India. Good luck MSD.

Dhoni silences all his critics

Here are some of the top of mind criticism I recall during this WC

- Inclusion of Piyush Chawla in the WC squad.

- Piyush Chawla being given too many games in the initial matches

- Not getting in Ashwin at all

- Giving the final over to Nehra and not Baji against South Africa

- Including Nehra and not Ashwin against Pakistan

- Including Sreesanth in the finals when he hardly played any matches.

Well he proved it wrong and showed us how he stood by his decision. What’s more he was frank and forthright in all his interviews and that truly demonstrates what a great captain and leader he is. A born leader who really stood tall and solid.

And finally he hit the final nail on the coffin in playing a very highly responsible innings and taking India to win the world cup.

Yesterday’s tie is a warning signal.

Everybody was smiling when India scored 338 at Bangalore. But that was not the case after a great dogged batting by the English captain and the middle order bat Bell. Yes Bell was lucky to get away a with a crucial decision for leg before but at no point we had any command or control on the match. The body language of the Indian players and the incisive bowling attack is a cause for concern as we enter the rest of the matches of the world cup. Captain Dhoni really made it clear that our fielding was shoddy in the post match interview. Yes that’s fine Captain but what are you doing about it? You need to act now and come with some winning solutions.

It is time we pull up our socks for the rest of the matches and bring in the killer instinct in the fielding and bowling departments. The captain has to seriously think of playing 5 specialist bowlers to trouble and make some dent in the opposition. The part timers will not be an answer for some really tough matches. I hope Dhoni is thinking on the same line as we move forward to the rest of the matches before the quarters.

Our specialist bowlers need to deliver if we need to make any mark in this world cup.

Utterly Butterly….. Amul in a new avatar with cricket

Historically brand Amul was always connected with some humorous or funny hoarding message as part of their tactical campaign in all form of sports. Most of them topical and catchy. I never knew Amul would get into cricket directly but in very interesting and tactical manner by just sponsoring the sleeve of the courageous Dutch cricket team. While it paid of well for the first match with England which came as a big shocker for the English men but a boon to brand Amul which caught lot of eye balls.

Well it is a real smart move from Amul to sponsor this and also there is some connection with the brand and the Netherlands as the country is a dairy nation know for some great milk products. A good strategy on the part of Amul is to get maximum mileage without shelling out megabucks for this sponsorship. Only time will tell us if this was a sensible buy for Amul. Amul will be just praying for the Dutch team to play well to capitalize on good viewership for the future matches.

How one great innings can increase your equity and market value?

No guesses I am just referring to Gautam Gambhir who got the highest price at the IPL auction. For a moment I thought it looks like the stock market where you acquire a company or declare a good quarter results and the barometer in the share market shoots up.

It really took everybody by surprise when Gauti was given the highest price for the next IPL.I would like to attribute one of the factors to the fantastic second innings knock at New Lands. The life saving inning played by Gatui has also raised hopes of him being a solid and reliable opener in long run in all forms of cricket. With Sewhag failing consistently in the opening slot for quite sometime the responsibility now wrests in Gautam’s shoulder to give India solid and sound opening partnership. Many critics have pointed out that he does not have the grace or style but end of the day his grittiness has delivered results for him and the country.

And the beauty of Gautam's batting is his great art of playing the spinners. Ideally he should be a good middle order bat but instead he has cemented himself has a reliable opener. We hope that he quickly recovers from his injury and we will have wonderful opening stands in the world cup tournament between him and Viru.

Just for everybody’s information Gauti’s grand uncle is my neighbor who stays above my flat. I met him this morning during my walk and he was so thrilled about the highest bid that GG got at the IPL.

India needs a good spinner all rounder for test matches.

It is high time India finds a good holder preferably somebody who can bowl good spin and bat well. In today’s world no team is including two spinners in the team and as a result one end becomes weak when the wicket is assisting spinners. Taking one extra batsmen to bolster the batting attack has not paid off at all. Take Raina or Pujara…. both of them have miserably failed in that slot.

After Kapil’s departure we have not found any body in that slot. We had Irfan Pathan who showed promise but vanished in thin air. His brother Yusuf not suitable for test matches. The selectors watch from a close quarter and spot this all rounder. This will really help us win matches. Today if Bajji had a good support who could bowl spin from the other end the situation would have been different.

Hope the selectors will hear to this and move fast.