Googlies: India's Twenty 20 Cricket Cup Win Over Pakistan

Hi Vivek,

Nice article. Although no matter how exciting the "hit the stumps" rule I still think it doesn't belong in cricket. I know, I'm old fashioned I guess.

BTW the mention of Sharjah was cruel :) The jumme-ke-jumme losses are just too painful to go back to.

For now lets enjoy the sweet flavor of victory...for god alone knows when we will have it again! :)

I think this bowl-out rule is crappy

Vivek

It was a great match but of poor quality. The Paks and most Indian batsmen batted unprofessionally. Our bowlers bowled quite a few wides and that is not OK at all. This being India's first match, this performance is accepted. However, they need to improve substantially to make it to the semis.

I'm certainly no fan of bowl outs either, but three misses out of three is just plain unacceptable, especially on Friday, that too in Ramadan ;)

Why? Is aim improved when you're hungry?:)

Zainub

Unprofessional is the right word :-)

Are you writing something on mohtarama returning to Pak on the 18th. Her deal making is sick and even sicker was Saad Hariri and the Saudi guy doing a Press Conf in Pak.

Sorry I digress.


rgds

considering the talent-pool of the two teams...this was a sub par performance by both teams that crawled (somehow) to an exciting end marred by a bawl out

maybe next time there is a tie ICC should devise a more creative way?... a dough nut eating competition?

100% betting involved,why do u think dravid quit?

haiN? dravid bechara kahaaN se tapak paRa beech maiN?

Sometimes bizarre events unfold in such interesting and unpredictable way that you can just sit back and enjoy. I guess the match and pre-match events were such:) Be it Asif and Shoaib, Indian batting collapse, Dravid's resignation, Inzy affair: the build up was weird.

Chandra: The format is new, and I guess I will let all the teams adjust to it with some sloppiness:). If Australia and West Indies could lose so easily, I guess the danger for India losing out against Pakistan was great.

Aditi: How can an Indian cricket fan forget the curse of Fridays? Even "Jumma chumma de de" was not able to heal those wounds.

Aaman: Bowl out is a good joke the first time around; I guess cricket will fare better without it.

Temporal a dough-nut eating competition sounds awesome. Perhaps both teams will be asked to place all their players in the inner circle, and a helicopter with throw a dozen doughnuts. Whichever teams 1) catches and 2) eats the most will win. In case of a tie, drop a dozen "karela" (bitter gourd) and check again. That will end up in a bittersweet victory;)

Lets see what happens next!

temporal: loved the "hain?" in #9 It is my inner reaction too to most disconnected comments but I never managed to express it in a comment with such few syllables. Hehehe.

Vivek: Haha. Kimi Katkar dancing around with AB could've never erased the Sharjah shame :D

hain hain ,bowl out = matchfixing = reason behind dravid quitting hain hain

kela: this article is not about Dravid's resignation...that is a different article.

jay:

flummoxing googlies:)

jay that match stunk of match fixing , and dravid is still a gentleman

If the match was fixed, the scriptwriter for the match should be hired by desicritics. For in spite of the flaws in batting or bowling, the action and drama was sound.

The question to ask is "Who after Dravid?"

Yesterday, before the match commenced..these were the two choices for India

India Lose: India is a useless team, bad players, bad captaincy etc etc

India Wins: Match is fixed

Either way India get screwed

rgds

What a crap finish to a great game. How can India's two top order batsmen, who are rarely used as bowlers end up winning a match for India with the ball!? This just goes to show the problems and stupidity that exists in the ICC to come up with the 'bowl-out' idea. And did anyone see the way the Indian players were jumping around afterwards as if they've never won a cricket game before? Such joy is only expereinced by teams that win WorldCup. Utter nonsense.

And did anyone see the way the Indian players were jumping around afterwards as if they've never won a cricket game before?

Um, so many jokes, so little time. :D

Man u screwed it ....i dint like the jumma part ..coz i m a muslim and these things get us on personal level ...and yes i am indian ...

so before opening up ur crap hole ...zip it when it comes to feelings.....

India lost to New Zealand. Lets take out out knives and forks and feast on the flaws of the playing eleven. Last four overs of our innings required atleast one big hitter to slog it out: lets hope for miracle next time.

Addi, I stated a simple fact about feelings of many Indians, and it has nothing to do with religion: Jumma was always considered more lucky for Pakistan in 1980s (& so many of my close friends are Muslims, my dear, that I understand where your line of thought comes from; yet they would agree as well, that maybe it was Sarjah talisman, or crowd, things happened in a particular way). Plus if you consider my writings come from a crap hole anyway, flush them, and keep your heart clear.

Vivek

The Indians are learning the art of 20-20 cricket and did a decent job to reach 180...their highest score in 20-20 cricket. There are huge positives- much much better fielding, explosive start and reasonable bowling. The big problem was in consistency and variation in the bowling and some usless shorts in batting. Need to be more patient with both batting and bowling.

rgds

Chandra,

I think all the teams, except maybe England have little experience with this format.

Personally I always allow Indian cricketers a fair share of flaws, my idea of hero is someone who gets beaten up most of the time, but knows how to fight back every now and then;)

Yes, the last four overs apart, I thought India did extremely well. But almost there is never good enough, is it?

Vivek

You will be surpised that while this was our 7th match, most other teams played a minimum of 10 matches and a number of local matches.

Ya, at the end of the day we did not win. Quite disappointing. Somehow I am persuaded that we will the next 2.

BTW, the Pietersen run out was wrong...clear case of impeding by Pollock.

rgds

Vivek, Funny really that you have to ask "Who after Dravid?" Because it's something that shouldn't have happened. Obviously it's should be (and should have been) Ganguly.

Is that so? The Ganguly war will begin again.
Line up your weapons folks; the turf of cricket off-field requires some mud-slapping and mud-slinging. Let the guy with most mud win (Ganguly); or longest hair win (Dhoni).

I think the time for Prince of Calcutta is over. The Prince, whose name is exactly what it should be to become a prince, Yuvraj could be a surprise but right choice for one dayers, and maybe in absence of a Ram, Laxman can take over the test leadership.

Dhoni for 20-20'
Yuvraj for one day
Laxman for tests

What say???:)

I would vote for Anil Kumble for a short period 6-9 months.

sorry, previous comment was mine

Agree with Chandra. Kumble for test team

Kumble???? hahahaha

That too when the best possible captain (Ganguly) is available? Ridiculous. I'm sure now someone will also mention Laxman. If only all good players automatically had leadership qualities.

Yuvraj cannot hold his place in the test team, Dhoni is a slogger who seems to have become popular, but has NO test achievements to his credit. Ditto for Karthik. And you want them to be captain?

It HAS to be Sourav or Sachin, for the next two seasons at least.

Dhoni announced captain for one days.
& Pak puts up an awesome performance, to defeat Australia.

One day Team: The team for first three ODIs against Australia.

M S Dhoni (capt), Yuvraj Singh (vice-captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Gambhir , Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Romesh Pawar, Piyush Chawla, R P Singh, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth , Harbhajan Singh.

hye,vivek!
the match fascinated me a lot. you can never imagine a 3-0 win of a cricket team . but indeed it's true
thindia has done this &over pak gre..........at.

vadiya chirag
team should not avoid Irfan pathan because he is one of the main bowler and he is always better than ajit agarkar,I think sehwag should be team out because he was not success since last few matches.

vadiya chirag
team should not avoid Irfan pathan because he is one of the main bowler and he is always better than ajit agarkar,I think sehwag should be team out because he was not success since last few matches.