Why care about the Indian Oil Cup? (and some secret stuff…)
November 20, 2007 by Dinsa Sachan
Filed under Tennis
Pakistan skipper Malik feels that their win in the 5th ODI has “balanced” both the teams and raised his team’s confidence big time. We’ll know soon that he’s highly mistaken.
India called in the reserve bench on ocassion of the last trivial ODI, and as was expected, they took it easy. A friendly Indo-Pak match. Here’s to world peace.
In retrospect, although India-Pakistan fixtures mean good business for all — advertisers, BCCI, players, Bollywood (how they flocked in to garner free publicity for their movies?), this one lacked spice; everyone complained of Pak’s seemingly lack of zest.
From India’s side, we’ve got few questions:
* What are we going to do about Sehwag?
Barring a few flashes in the pan at England, Sehwag hasn’t has much to offer all this while. He’s been India’s trump card for a long time, so the team went over lengths to give him cover. He failed to live up to their expectations, nevertheless. Considering how rare is his type of class and talent, what are we going to do about him now? Move him up to the opening slot again? Everyone’s not a Dravid, and some players work best at certain spots. Or “rest” him, to use BCCI’s terminology. He’s a player you don’t want to lose easily.
* What’s Robin Singh being paid for?
Rameez Raja, remarked candidly (and for the first time in his life, rightly), “India and Pakistan are two of the world’s worst fielding sides,” India’s fielding wasn’t awful, to be honest, and they certainly dropped fewer catches than Pakistan, but the gliding, sliding characteristic of white men (call me racist, will ya?) was missing. Their throws could be smoother, and their direct hits on the stumps didn’t produce as many run-outs. Robing Singh is on board as their fielding coach. Either his North American accent is unintelligible, or well, let’s just say, he isn’t doing the job as well, which is queer, since the man does have international coaching experience.
* Ganguly: Gone with the wind?
If India had lost the series, Ganguly’s form would have spurred debates like dal sprouts. No one’s complaining since it’s a series win. But just because it’s a series win, Ganguly’s form doesn’t become above reproach. He was “rested” for the last couple of matches, I assume. This is the right time to cull him. The kind of morbid look he has on his face these days doesn’t do anyone any good. A respectable man would “quit”.
*Should we let Sreesanth have his way?
No discussion is complete at SixandOut without the angry young man of Indian cricket. He and RP are Indian bowling’s future. Despite his antics, you can’t downplay his prodigious talent. Though his frantic reactions at out calls still freak me out, I think we can accommodate him. People like Freddie Flintoff, Shane Warne, and Sreesanth do their best when you let them have their way.
New kids on the block
This was definitely a great opportunity to test the waters with the newbies. Pravin Kumar, although couldn’t snap any wickets, impressed with this economy and composed bowling in the death overs.
Robin Sharma’s half century might have gone unnoticed, but we can see there’s good raw material. We need to exploit him.
Fawad Alam kid looked great. Something tells me he’s not just another probot.
Individual Records and Achievments
- Sachin Tendulkar, with his 403rd ODI, equalled Sanath Jayasuriya’s record most ODI caps. Plus,with his 393rd innings, he also transcended Jayasuriya’s record of 392 innings.
- Zaheer Khan, who’s another one on the brink of culling, claimed his 200th wicket in his 144th ODI, his 200th victim being Shoaib Malik. He is now the fifth Indian bowler to have bagged 200 wickets or more in ODIs, joining Anil Kumble (337), Javagal Srinath (315), Ajit Agarkar (288) and Kapil Dev (253).
- With Shahid Afridi’s dismissal, Sourav Ganguly completed his 100 wickets and completed the triple of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODIs. He is only the third all-rounder in ODI history to have completed the triple, joining India’s Sachin Tendulkar and Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya.
Looking ahead
Test series comes next. I am curious if, and how, they are going to accommodate Singh, and whether Sreesanth and RP make it (chances are slim, but you never know). With Kaneria being roped in, it’s going to be interesting. Asif isn’t coming. And that’s bad.
All eyes, undoubtedly, will be on Dravid and Kumble, the two best friends.
India are definitely the clear favorites. 1-0. Whadya think, cricks?
Now the secret stuff
Gee, not so much of a secret, but it’s a really cool link I found today. This is what the Indian and Paki cricks were doing after the Green Park ODI. I’ve never seen Sachin so animated. And Ganguly is having his last laugh, for sure.
Um, Dinnie, the best fielder in the world is a black man. Andrew Symonds.
JR… symonds is good but I feel Clarke is equally good or better and there is also collingwood to compete. Dinsa’s points are valid…I really do believe the fielding and bowling coach are not doing enough
Time for Sreesanth to do some jigs in Mallu movies and perhaps a right time to do it now. The clown is injured and so is RP. And guess whom they have called. Munaf Patel. Another injury whizkid.
DBVengsarkar has certainly lost his balls.
you are right abount sehwag and ss…
for all their being enigmas we can not loose them so easily…
praveen kumar for his first outing looked good, not overawed by the occasion he if properly groomed can be our answer to dollys we throw at start and death overs…coz he bowls so straight and so close to stump that batsman have to think twice before taking liberties with him…yo miss i hit kinda a bowler…
what can be said about rohit…he is warming bench for past some months and gotonly two outings (ODIs i am talking about) but he has shown that he has it in him if persisted with…
the only thing is if SG take a clue and bid adieu gracefully…
all in all lots of pluses
Uncle J:
I was referring to white men in general. Oz, SA, and Eng., generally speaking, have better fielders than Indo-Pak (But yeah, you could argue that SL has good fielders too)
Scorpicity:
In the post Rhodes’ era, I think, there are any number of good fielders, and “best fielder” is really a matter of personal favorites. In fact, there are best fielders for different positions. Ricky Ponting is definitely the best point fielder. Symonds gets loads of run-outs (despite his huge build, and that never fails to amaze me).
Ashu:
Good one on Sree. But as you know, His handsomeness is unavailable at the moment:
http://www.sixandout.net/sreesanth-thinks-hes-a-hunk/
Straight Point:
I just hope Rohit gets enough opportunities to prove himself and that Kaif is brought back in. He’s so good on the cover.
Din, i see what your saying in general, but i think its more to do with Pakistan and India in general.
Roger Harper, Gibbs and Symonds are all amazing fielders.
Sri Lanka were awful fielders before Dav Whatmore got there, i think it has more to do with priorities than anything else.
Looking forward to the test series, I feel that the loss of RP and SS will affect India’s chances somewhat. The spinners should still be able to sway the matches our way, especially if the pitches are spin-friendly. However, if they are “patta” batting wickets, then we might struggle and Pakistan’s extra pace will come handy.
Abhishek,
Oh yes, I just saw Sree, RP have been ruled out. I think they are keeping Yuvi out, too, for the first Test. Good decision anyway. Whadya say?
There seems to be some kind of a problem with the comments here. I’d left a nice, long comment about how Yuvraj being out is perhaps the right choice.
SG and VVS are the incumbents in the test lineup whose place Yuvraj could perhaps have taken. However, YS has been given his chances and he really hasn’t taken them. It’s all very nice to talk about his one-day form and that he should be in tests. But, we’ve seen this before too. I think that SG and VVS will have the Pak series to prove their worth. After the series, the best line-up for Aus can be selected. SG may be the one who is most under threat, especially considering VVSs record Down Under…
Again, a problem with the comments – it’s detecting my comments as duplicate. Here’s what I had to say – “SG and VVS are the incumbents in the test lineup whose place Yuvraj could perhaps have taken. However, YS has been given his chances and he really hasn’t taken them. It’s all very nice to talk about his one-day form and that he should be in tests. But, we’ve seen this before too. I think that SG and VVS will have the Pak series to prove their worth. After the series, the best line-up for Aus can be selected. SG may be the one who is most under threat, especially considering VVSs record Down Under…”
So sorry to hear that, Abhi. I’ll go check the spam blocker in case it took your comment for spam.
No worries, we probably have the same reasons for appreciating the decision.
Here we go. Your comments have been recovered.
I guess Askimet doesn’t like Yuvraj, too, or maybe, it doesn’t quite agree with Abhishek.
Both Laxman and Ganguly have played their parts in this test win. If they keep up their consistent form in this series, it’s difficult to see Yuvraj getting a look-in…
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