Pointless Punter's tamed team..

It's quite usual to find Ponting, who Australians call a cricketer, come up with strange issues totally irrelevant to what he is involved in at that point of time. When the first test between India and Australia ended in a draw, Ponting started throwing ridiculous comments at the Indian cricket. When India won the second test in a great style making way for the second biggest victory in terms of the difference of runs, Ponting's nerves felt the chill and he was desperate to antagonize the Indians through his comments during press conferences. The first allegation proved that Australians are no more with their minds on the ongoing series but have started concentrating on proving the world not that they are the best but India is not the best. Now, it was time to make a big move and Australians knew they could do nothing about the game since the series was almost out of their reach. This time, they had no reasons to point to India since the Indians were flatly flawless in the game and the backstage comments during press conferences as well. Indian press conference saw replies from the Indian captain staying at the peak of optimism for the next game while the Australian captain left his mind wander along the past where Indians and Australians almost had brutal statements for each other. While Indians changed their mentality to quit making childish allegations against their opponents, Australians were never in a position to grow up and learn the word 'MATURITY'. Finally, the grand knockout blow from India came in the last test, which most thought would go the Australian way. The game was carried on till the last day and at last, Aussies' tombstone was erected right in front of a large crowd and what came with it was the downfall of Australian attitude and negative aggression. Now, Indians have prove to the world cricket is really a gentleman's game.

Slaughtering the kangaroos..

While the Australian batsmen are struggling hard to keep their ten pins intact, Indian batsmen are finding it really easy to give the Australians all the harsh treatments, which they missed to experience for all their arrogance behind their backs, they deserve for their negative attitude towards the game which was once called the Gentleman's game. It is no more a gentleman's play because Australians have stepped into the ring. Now, everyone will be wondering how Ponting managed to reach the magic triple figure in the first innings of the first test match because he was nowhere closer to a score that can be considered to be decent after that innings. Every time he stepped in, either Bhajji or Ishant made sure he walked out to the pavilion with his head down, similar to the way a graphical duck walks with a bat in its hand whenever a batsman throws away his wicket without adding anything good to the scorecard while playing against Australia in Australia. It's quite tough to ignore the delivery that Ishant bowled to Ponting which left the latter wondering what was that Ishant just threw at him, while producing a list of deliveries of the century. Ponting should understand only pitches are important when it comes to cricket. He should also realize silly body languages, funny taunts, senseless criticism, violent sledging and bubblegum shouldn't be given thoughts when a team is hunting down the other one in a game of cricket, similar to the way kangaroos are being slaughtered in front of millions by the tigers!

The God with a bat..

When the whole nation is worried about the gloomy twists the economy has been going through, a momentary relief came in the form of a guy from Mumbai. When he was as young as 17, he stepped into the world of cricket and started his journey as the most successful cricketer ever. The cricketer of the millennium, Sir. Donald George Bradman, had met this young cricketer so many times after his extraordinary performances. Thus, he made sure he meets The Don of Cricketing world habitually by holding on to his class in cricket. Sir Don Bradman had also mentioned that if there could be anyone who is capable of bringing down all his records in cricket, that would be this young boy who he met frequently. Such is the talent of this boy who has been ruling the bat and the ball for more than 18 years now. He is now 36 and he still looks the way he appeared when he first entered the ground. Today, he is the reason behind the smiles and joy millions of people in India. He is now the God of Cricket and I respect him more than anyone else in the business. So, it's appropriate for me to stay away from using this God's name which is my attempt to pay the rightful respect the God deserves. Today, he managed to cross the magic figure of 11,953 and the nation had been waiting for more than two test series for the master batsman to achieve this landmark. It has never been easy for this legend to stay at the crease for a long time because the opponents would always be keener in making him remove his helmet, which he does in the dressing room only after throwing away his wicket, than winning the game. That makes him more precious than the game. But, he is a skillful sculptor who carefully shaped every single innings he played. That makes the job tougher for the opponents. No matter how hard and efficient a bowler is, unless luck saves him, he can't even think of toppling the Little Master's wicket. Today, he has proved his worth yet again by becoming the highest run scorer in test matches, surpassing another legend's record score of 11,953, who is from West Indies. A single blog post is extremely meager to talk about the achievements of a cricketing legend who is set to break almost all the possible records with the bat. But, by not addressing to him on my blog, I would be doing an injustice to the nation and a really talented cricketer who has all the recognition one needs in the world.

Arrogant Aussies..

Unfortunately, the first test between India and Australia ended in a draw. As an ardent Indian cricket lover, I expected the match to go India's way after the great recovery produced by Zaheer and Bajji, who had been burdened with the extra responsibility to prove their worth with the bat. Zaheer stole the show from the Australians who seemed venomous and strong but proved that they are a bunch of 11 clowns who lost their course after the Turbanator and Zaheer took charge of the bat. When top order batsmen like Sachin and Laxman couldn't hold on to their crease for long, these two boys who are on the side just to take care of the bowling department did more than what was actually expected from them and proved the world Australians aren't as hard as they used to describe themselves. Had Bajji not been affected by the first degree cramp on his left leg, he would have stayed for a much longer time at the crease and would have even made efforts to reach his first test match century. To avoid making him feel lonely, Zaheer would have jumped in the party to put up another 3 figure individual score on the scorecard. Australian bowling lacked the vigor that was found in it when bowlers like McGrath occupied a spot in the team. Also, the side lacked basic courtesy and respect for the game and the opponent players as well. Even after ICC warned players to stay away from on-field sledging, Shane Watson tried to play dirty tricks on Zaheer who was in a great touch with his bat. Watson was totally unlucky because all his efforts went up with the flames and Zaheer moved steadily towards a half century. Australians were totally lost and Ponting would have started weeping right in front of the Bengaluru crowd for being such an ineffective captain and failing to capitalize on the initial breakthroughs in the form of Sachin's and Laxman's wickets. His frustration burst out at the end of the game and he took it on Zaheer for a general press statement released by the latter. Now, the entire Australian nation is frustrated by the way Indians stole the limelight and the Australian media found this as a better one than a good reason to drag the Indian team over the coal. The media came up with whatever issue was available which can rightly be defined by few words like senseless, stupid, absurd, insane and everything more close to these. Allegations are totally against Dada, who, according to Australian media, forced the umpires to consider stopping the play temporarily due to bad light. I never knew Australian media are so stupid and I thought Indian version is the worst in the world. A batsman can request the umpires to consider dropping the play for few minutes in case the quality of light becomes too low. They proceed by saying that Ganguly took 5 minutes to enter the field back again after all the Australian team members came out to the field. Hey, what were the Australians doing the whole day? Were they waiting for these 5 minutes to bag the 6 wickets that were left at that time? 6 wickets in 5 minutes? Are they trying to tell us Australians made it a part of a big plan to make a world record by capturing 6 wickets in 5 minutes after giving up all the time they were left with on that day? This forces me to conclude with only one statement.

'We've been watching our Indian players play against a team of 11 jesters for the past 5 days who were trained by a master jester in the name of a coach'

Debacle and stabilization..

The Australian tour of India kicked of couple of days back with the first test. Australians started their campaign by placing Hayden on the front line. But, Kangaroos slipped off the course with Hayden throwing away his wicket to Zaheer Khan in the very first over of the innings. Ponting claims that Hayden never managed to make a contact between the ball and his bat which sounded absurd after watching the replay several times. This wasn't the first time Australians were found getting their hands on dirty tricks to psychologically strengthen themselves. This seemed to work at the beginning of every series Australians play. But, at the end of the series, Ponting will be found biting his nails during presentation ceremony when the trophy will be handed over to the opponents. History repeats itself and I strongly feel history repeats itself in this series again. Indians always used to be the jittery during the first match of the series. After that, they manage to pull up their socks and put up great fight backs that would almost make the opponents, especially Australia, feel they are nothing more than minnows to India. Australians in the past had faced so many such shameful defeats in the hands of Indians and still they brag they are the best in the world with no one behind them to treat them that way. This is called the Australian attitude that has been prevailing in the Australian dressing room for more than 4 decades now. The so called mighty Australians piled up a total of 429 on day 2 at a run rate slower than any other established team would have managed to come up with and started to greet the Indian batsmen by making them take most of the deliveries across the rope. Ponting was clueless since the openers took the score to 68 in no time and that was when luck came Ponting's way. India lost the first wicket. After that, wickets were lost at regular intervals and Australians were found rejoicing even for removing batsmen like Sachin and Laxman who are completely out of form. This reflected Australians' desperation after toiling hard under the hot sun to remove the batsmen from the cards. When Ponting was about to have a sigh of relief, the bolt from the blue came in the form of Bajji and Zaheer, who pulled up a partnership of 78 out of the bag. I saw Ponting sweating out all his efforts to remove them but everything went down the drain. Bajji was found walking down the pitch at few occasions and take Lee and Watson to the task. Finally, Australians started sledging and Haddin set on the Australian tradition of negative sledging by making an attemp to annoy Zaheer who was never seemed to be kept down by the Australian bowlers. The bowlers were treated like small boys who play at Marina early in the morning. At the end of day 3, India lost 8 wickets for 313. Kumble and Zaheer are at the cross. I am eagerly waiting for day 4 since I want to see Zaheer irritate the bowlers by positive sledging , unlike Australians,which is legal according to ICC.

Lords of Cricket

“Let them do the talking. We’ve come here for playing cricket” was the comment of Australia’s cap, Ricky Ponting Then what are we, Indians, here for? For hardening and making the pitch flat for the Aussies to play on it? For all his words and harsh comments against the Indians, which doesn’t stop with Indian cricket team, but also seems to extend towards all the citizens of India , a strong reply has been given, though after two setbacks.But, it’s never too late.

With three games left in the series, India came back very hard on the kangaroos. Dreams shattered for Ponting, the human with an iron tongue. This man, for his aggression, would have expected his so called supreme cricket team to win all the 7 ODIs. The first one was washed out by rain. They had the luck going their way in the next two matches. But, now, after being pushed into the pits, he wouldn’t have expected the Indians to come back fiercely.

The 3rd ODI was a nail-biting thriller at the end when Aussies lost control of the match which was supposed to be their game. A team, which claims to be the best in the business, shouldn’t lose a piece of cake like this. When Aussies were 229 with 4 wickets down, nobody would have even thought of India’s chance of winning the game. A splendid spell from Bajji and the new boy in the team, Murali Karthik, snatched the game from the ‘safe hands’ of the Aussies. It was an awesome effort from these two slow bowlers when Hayden was striking the ball really hard and Symonds, at the other end, gave the former a very good support.

Though the fast bowlers weren’t so effective, Indians were extremely delighted with Rudra Prathap Singh’s efforts to send the two crucial batsmen, Symonds(Bowled out) and Hogg(magnificent run out with a great reflex)back to the pavilion, at the extremely critical time when Indians were in urgent need of wickets to survive the war. With the loss of these two settled batsmen, the kangaroos lost their stability and the tail-enders couldn’t get the best out of the Indian bowling attack.

This is an example of how people or a team of people with ‘beyond the limits of self-appraisal’ attitude go down the drain as a penalty for the same attitude. We may now expect Ponting to try hit back with these words: “We’ve just lost the war. We’re here to win the battle”

Champs in Blue

It was an eight match series. The first one was washed out. Thanks to the gods of rain. The 2nd and 3rd ODIs went the Australian way. Nothing to lose. Still Indians had a chance of winning the series. They knew the 4th One-Dayer was a crucial one and the match was evenly balanced by the wits of the two teams. The tigers came up roaring leaving the kangaroos down. That was the moment when all the Indian Cricket fans started living their hopes of India winning the series with a great come back.

Then came the 5th ODI. The truth is that, it was a humiliating defeat for the Indians from an Indian's perspective. Looking at it from an Australian's point of view, the Tiger's teeth were crushed to pieces after a knock-out punch from the Kangaroos. And, this was the ODI that gave a momentum to the series when the Vadodara crowd were blamed by the Australians for making 'MONKEY NOISES' at Symonds. After this issue hit the surface, even the Australian media started abusing the Australian Cricket team alleging that ACB is afraid of BCCI, the world's richest cricket body.

The 6th One-dayer was a thriller. It was a perfect tug of war between the two teams. The head-on clash was equally matched by the teams. Until the end of the 46th over of the Indian innings, who was chasing a target of 311, nobody knew that it's a match that would end up in Australia's victory. It was a good fight which the Indians put up. A great kick-off from Sourav and Sachin did the trick and took the Indians very close to the target, though they couldn't reach it exactly.

The 7th ODI was another unexpected one-dayer. The so called MIGHTY Australians were bowled out for 194. But, the Aussies really proved they're indeed mighty by making India struggle hard to reach the golden figure of 195. Murali Karthik and Zaheer Khan staged a great show and brought down the Australian bowlers. When Indians were struggling at 143 with 8 wickets down, few of the Indian supporters would even have switched off their television sets. Zaheer and Karthik put up a big partnership for the 9th wicket that paved the way for an effort-filled Indian victory.

The series ended there with 4 matches in the Aussies' bag and 2 in the Indian pockets. With that, the Australians won the Future Cup series. Though Indians had lost the series, something that could bring a chilling effect on the tiger's wounds is that the Indians gave Australians a bitter send-off back to their lonely continent with a defeat in the final ODI.

The war is over. But the battle isn't. A bigger show is in the yard with the Men in Blue preparing themselves to meet the Australians on their own soil. It's going to be a tough time for the Indians since the Australians are known for their 'BEHAVIOR' towards the touring cricketing nations.