Batting woes sans Dravid, Brainless Bowling & Sehwag's thrust !!
India lost to Australia in their virtual Quarter-final match at Mohali by 6 wickets... Despite a decent batting effort on a pitch that wasn't easy to bat on...a scrappy 50 by Sehwag and a Dravid fifty, played the way a batsman should under the conditions...but the minute Dravid got out...India's batting problems reappeared out of nowhere. India lost the match between the 36th and 43rd over of their batting, when they should have started to accelerate...instead Brett Lee bowls a wicket maiden in the 43rd. Pathan maybe could have come in ahead of Raina, who was clearly struggling to take a single...and got out on the first real aggressive shot he played.
The bowling was disgraceful...it makes you wonder if the Indian bowlers were actually watching the game when McGrath was bowling to Tendulkar...pitching the ball up is the best option. The Indian pacers are around McGrath's pace and they should have done the same keep the ball up instead of trying to bounce the batsman out...the Aussies were struggling on the few times when the ball was kept up...that's how Ponting got out...to a spectacular catch by Tendulkar in the slips.
Dravid's captaincy is also not up to the mark...he seems to be waiting for something to happen instead of trying to make it happen...which should be how he has to work. The fielding also needs to be improved...the one instance that stands out was when...Munaf Patel a 23 year old lad was applauded by all for restricting the Aussies to a single at square leg...after having conceded a couple on the previous ball. Patel has to do a lot of sprinting exercises and improve his throw as well...It doesn't augur well, when your pace bowler has to work on his throw. Also Mongia bowling as many overs as he did was baffling...he wasn't getting any turn off the wicket...did not look like taking a wicket either...why was he on for so long?
Sehwag...the batsman who is supposedly the thrust to India's batting is also a paradox. As an opener, he averages around 33, which is to say the least "awful"...so he has a strike rate of around 95...that is useless if you score 20 in 22 balls at the start of the innings. He has to be much more disciplined...that is something that he seems to lack completely. Surely he needs to be more consistent to be called a professional cricketer...a fifty or hundred once in around 4 games is the benchmark, whereas Sehwag has one is every 5.3 games as against Sachin who has one in 3.2 games, Dravid one in 3.35 and Ganguly one in 3.3 games. So he better get more consistent and stop playing like a part time opener/pinch hitter.
All this seems to indicate that Indian cricket has a lot to worry about going into the very arduous tour to South Africa and the World Cup next year.
Hope Greg, Rahul and he boys pull up their socks and get professional and more importantly objective about their performance and start acting like they are professionals. The fans will surely support them...but they need to act like they appreciate the support!
Back in the Pan...& Cartosat-2 launch postponed
Well...after a long gap was back in the kitchen cooking..made some pasta with tomato sauce...turns out am still pretty good..though my bro & SIL had little option to refute my claims..as they were made to wait till half past ten and must have been starving enough to eat the penne "raw"...anyway it was nice to be able to enter the kitchen...hope to be able to do this more often....Aubergine is next on the menu !
Indian Space Research Organisation has put off this month's launch of Cartosat-2, the advanced remote sensing satellite, to January due to problems faced during the testing phase.
Carrying on board a single panchromatic camera capable of providing scene-specific spot imageries for cartographic and a host of other applications, the 650 kg spacecraft was slated to be launched this month by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
The panchromatic camera has been designed to provide better than one meter spatial resolution imageries with a swath of around ten km.
Well...heres to a successful launch of Cartosat-2 and a return of "The Master Chef"...
Kill Bill..
Well It was the weekend with Diwali... Has lot of fun with crackers, after a long time had fun. Being not too excited as I am about crackers, it was pleasantly surprising that I enjoyed it.
Also saw Kill Bill Vol I, it was much better than i expected...albeit gory & terribly gruesome..it was very gripping and kinda sucked me into it, can't wait to go get Vol II and watch it...Uma Thurman was admittedly very very good.
Anyways, that all for now...later...
India wins but after the usual jitters…
In the first match of The ICC Champions Trophy, India beat England by 6 wickets. India won the toss and bowled extremely well, with the exception of Agarkar who was off colour. It was very good to see Pathan back among the wickets. His opening spells are very important for India and in Munaf Patel; he has a very able opening partner. They bowled very well and wrecked the English top order. The spinners then took over and finished off the job. Powar is getting better with each game. He is not afraid to toss the ball up and invite the batsman to attack, which is a good trait.
The batting, though was very fragile. For a team that notched up a record number of victories chasing, they seem to have forgotten how to chase… They sure gave the fans some jitters before Harbhajan whipped the ball to the square leg boundary to finish the game that should have been finished at least 5 overs earlier.
I somehow am not yet completely convinced about sending Pathan at number three, that spot belongs to the best batsman in the team and that is Dravid. Pathan as good a batsman that he is, cannot be a number three. He should be moulded as a bowling all-rounder and that is where he can contribute more to the team.
And Raina is not doing enough to justify a place in the team. The manner in which he got out today was appalling. He is talented and a darn good fielder but the way he gets out is really very disappointing.
Anyway, India is off to a winning start in the tournament. They now go home to celebrate Diwali and play their next game in about 10 days. Hope they improve on this dismal batting performance.
Broncos Win NRL 2006...
Brisbane beat Melbourne 15-8 to win the Australian National Rugby League grand final at Sydney's Olympic Stadium.
Brisbane led 8-4 at halftime.With 20 minutes to go, the scores were locked at 8-8, but the Broncos finished strongest with replacement Corey Parker kicking a penalty, centre Brent Tate scoring a try and captain Darren Lockyer landing a field goal to seal the victory.
Lockyer also booted two first half goals while fullback Justin Hodges scored Brisbane's first try.
Hooker Shaun Berrigan won the Clive Churchill medal as player of the match.Darren and Shaun were the two standout players last night for the Broncos.
Melbourne, who won the premiership in 1999, went into the match as slight favourites after finishing the regular season eight points clear at the top of the table.
They scored an early try through winger Steve Turner and a second half touchdown from centre Matt King to draw level, but were unable to respond to Brisbane's late surge.
The Broncos claimed their sixth title in 15 seasons and their first since 2000 making Wayne Bennett the most successful coach in Australian rugby league history. Shane Webcke got the fairytale ending to his illustrious career.
The game though was marked with some dubious decisions that all seemed to go the Broncos way. Even the Broncos will admit it.
The NRL grand final should have been a great match, but the fact that it wasn’t had nothing to do with the players, their coaches or the fans. It all came down to dud refereeing.
Paul Simpkins had a shocker. Several rulings in the first half were questionable, including an early penalty to the Broncos that gave them a 2-0 lead. But nothing was as bad as the one in the 60th minute.
Plenty of grumbles came, too, minutes later when the video refs Bill Harrigan and Chris Ward ruled against a Storm try because of a knock-on. Storm fans disputed it, but at least the ruling was properly checked even if plenty believe it was wrong.
Matches hinge on such blunders, particularly late in a close game as confidence acts to overcome tiring bodies.
All this kind of left a bitter taste, though it was a very competitive and thrilling game.
Broncos Rock, Guys !!!
