My Words...

My Thoughts In My Words

Showing posts with label Cricket World Cup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cricket World Cup. Show all posts

Team India, Beware of the Aussie Sledging Action

♠ Posted by Abhijit Bangal in ,,,
It is a repeat of the India-Australia knock out match of the 2011 World Cup. That was the match when India had not only stopped the winning spree of Australia in World Cup, but also knocked them out of the tournament not making it possible to defend their title. Also remember, it was India who had stopped the winning spree of the Aussies in Tests too by winning the Perth Test after the controversital Sydeny Test.
And now is the replay of the same old match four years later. The entire world knows that it is the Australian team that is highly involved in sledging and provocating the opposition players.
They have always done it against England during the Ashes and whichever player or team is playing against them. Especially the key players in a certain team are always targeted. What business had Mitchell Starc to ask if Wahab Riaz of Pakistan sees the ball or not? This incident happened during the knock out match between Australia and Pakistan recently.
When India played against Zimbabwe in the league series, Brendon Taylor was punishing the Indian bowlers and literally fours and sixes were raining all over the ground. Did M S Dhoni even try to upset him by throwing a few words? Indian players (someone especially like Dhoni) never get involved in such (down market) activities on the field.
By the way, Australia has already begun their mind games in a bid to ‘disturb’ India’s winning spree. And by the way, it will not be easy for India to take on Australia in their own backyard. Though India gets support wherever they travel, this will be an acid test for them now.
There are only two matches that India really needs to win now after remaining unbeaten in the tournament so far – like New Zealand. It must be admitted that India’s bowling hasn’t really been tested by a strong opposition batting line up like Australia.
The Indian fans will be hoping that “#won’t give it back” becomes a reality soon!
Read More

Why M S Dhoni Is Really a Great Captain

♠ Posted by Abhijit Bangal in ,,
We have always talked or read about our Team India cricket captain M S Dhoni on various occasions. He is Mr. Cool of Indian cricket. And he has proved this on more occasions than one. There are countless examples of why Dhoni is the greatest of all captains.
Let us keep out the figures that he has now second on the list of captains who have won the most consecutive World Cup matches – 11. He has also won his 100th match as a captain for India when India defeated Bangladesh yesterday.
There are many more such examples to his credit. But, let us look at the bigger picture.
It is really sad to mention that Australia gets involved in sledging when things aren’t going their way. They try to disturb the attention of the opposition by saying those kinds of things that aren’t expected from iconic players like Ricky Ponting and Co. The entire world knows this. What’s more, even the current young players in the team have adopted this culture.
This does not make it a gentleman’s game. After all, they should learn to play in the spirit of the game unlike what they did against India in the (in)famous Sydney Test match.
But when Zimbabwe’s Taylor was going after Indian bowling in the last league game for India, Dhoni was visibly looking worried. Ravindra Jadeja was taken to the sword. However, there was not a single comment from Dhoni to disturb his attention.
Going in the past a bit, when Misbah-Ul-Haq was threatening to take the final match of the inaugural T20 World Cup away from India, then too he didn’t speak a word that would be termed as sledging.
On the other hand Bangladesh captain Murtuza was getting so agitated with his players when India started the run flow in the quarter final match yesterday. This man, Dhoni, is all up to himself planning and guiding his team.
Playing mind games is alright. But, sledging cannot be the mode to do that. And there are some players who seriously need to learn this.
Read More

Kumar Sangakkara Sets New Records in Scotland Match

♠ Posted by Abhijit Bangal in ,,,
Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan legendary batsman set a number of records when he batted against minnows Scotland. Sangakkara scored a century that led the foundation for a mountain of runs that was impossible for the Scotland batsmen to overhaul.
Sangakkara scored 124 in just 95 balls. The knock included 13 fours and four huge sixes. However, the century registered Sangakkara’s name in the record books that no batsman has achieved so far – scoring four centuries on the trot.
Yes, Kumar Sangakkara has scored four centuries in the last four times that he has batted in an ODI. To add to that, Kumar Sangakkara also now sits at the top of the list in highest run scorers in this on-going ICC Cricket World Cup.
Reports are doing the rounds that Kumar Sangakkara, will retire from all from of cricket after the end of the World Cup. How ironic it looks for a batsman to call it off when he is experiencing one of his best times in career. Or, we can say that he wicketkeeper batsman is making a perfect end to his scintillating career.
Sangakkara has also crossed the 14,000-run mark in one day matches. He is now second only to Sachin Tendulkar in terms of individual ODI runs.
In the last edition of the World Cup, it was Kumar Sangakkara who led the side that lost the finals to India. This means Sri Lanka are the runners up going in this World Cup. And with Sangakkara looking in ominous form, it looks like they may lift the World Cup for the second time, after 1996.
There is no doubt that Kumar Sangakkara remains one of the top batsmen cricket and Sri Lanka has ever seen.
Read More

ICC World Cup schedule needs to be reconsidered

♠ Posted by Abhijit Bangal in ,
The ICC World Cup 2015 is currently underway. In all 14 teams are playing in the Cup divided in seven teams in two pools. As usual there are ICC full member teams and minnows like Afghanistan, Scotland, Ireland and UAE as well.
But what’s more important is the (strange) schedule that the ICC would have looked better into. India played their first match on the second day of the tournament – on February 15, a Sunday. The next match that India played was on the next Sunday – on February 22, which means India played India played only two matches in eight days.
However, New Zealand had played matches on February 14, February 17 and February 20 – three matches in seven day. It does not look too pleasing. Well, I have nothing to advocate this as an Indian fan. But there could have been better symmetry in the fixtures.
Exposing players to matches so regularly will certainly take a toll on their body. The upside is that the team like New Zealand, which is still undefeated in the Cup found the going soothing as they had the winning momentum.
But had it been vice versa, any team would have needed a break to get together and find match form again. As far as India is concerned, they have got too many off days in between. This also puts players out of competitive cricket at a World Cup level.
Read More

“Why Only Me?” M S Dhoni Asks

♠ Posted by Abhijit Bangal in ,
Team India captain M S Dhoni, also popularly known as Mr. Cool, looks to have lost his cool now. Enough is enough he feels. He has finally spoken out and looks like that’s out of frustration. “Why only me?” Dhoni feels. He was actually referring to the controversies that he always finds himself in.
Well, we will not go in those details or speak about the controversies at the moment. These days are very crucial for the Indian cricket team. Team India has been performing really very badly.
However, what we all need is proper and full support to all the team members. There is no doubt that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a numero uno captain. He is irreplaceable. He has carved a niche for himself in Indian cricket in a very short span of time.
He is one captain who has given India both the T20 World Cup – the first ever such mega event – and the 2011 ODI World Cup.
There was a lot of hype created in the run up to the 2011 World Cup and India was one of the top favorites to win the Cup. And India proved so by beating teams like Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to win bring the Cup back home for the second time.
If India is to defend the cup like West Indies and Australia have done before, we need to first keep the difference back immediately. There should be no controversial news and nothing negative that can hamper the players. There moral could already be down by stinging defeats recently.
India performed very badly after winning the Cup 4 years ago. Now too, it’s the same result. We just hope, things are vice versa now.
Read More