Sunday, March 20, 2011

Too clever by half

Opening the bowling with Ashwin and then bringing on Harbhajan in the 6th over, is a little too clever for me. Ashwin has a wicket now; lets see how the rest of Dhoni's bowling changes work.

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7-50 is better than 9-29, n'est-ce pas?

Well, well, the race is on. I thought I would quickly put this post up to mark India's collapse, and see if I could get it up before India were bowled out. But I didn't make it. For India are gone again, unable to use their 50 overs. So, who is going to buck the pattern? The West Indies to stuff up a run-chase or the Indians to stuff up a defense of a reasonable score (268, after being 218-3)? Another race is on.

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Breaking the mold

Well, by batting first, India have set up the first part of their template against non-minnows in this World Cup: bat first, get off to a good start, collapse at the end, and then fail to defend adquately. The early loss of the openers means there is a small blip in the template, and hopefully, there will be others. Otherwise, an unconvincing campaign will look even more insipid.

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

A new Bish

My first sight of Devendra Bishoo, the West Indies' latest spinner. A leggie no less. So far, so good. A nice leg-break, good flight, some turn. And two very, very useful wickets - Trott and Morgan - thus far. I'd like to see more of him in this Cup.

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Cartwheeler!

Well, that was worth waking up in the morning for. Kemar Roach, perhaps the consistently, quickest bowler in the world, comes back for a new spell in the crucial England-West Indies game, and sends Ian Bell's off-stump flying with a peach of a delivery, that cut away just a bit. A nice cartwheel; if I was a gymnastics judge, I would have given it a couple of extra points.

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Saturday, March 12, 2011

Skipper not at the helm

A curious display of rudderless batting by Cap'n Team India, MS Dhoni in the final stages of the game. And, yes, India 296 all out in 48.4 overs. Unfreakingbelievable.

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Lekker fightback by South Africa

After being 267-1 at one stage, India have made a sub-300 score (bowled out in less than 50 overs) a possibility.

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Friday, March 11, 2011

Redundancy alert

David Lloyd says Bangladesh are off to a "cacophony of noise". Aren't all cacophonies of noise? Unless its being used metaphorically, as in "a cacophony of conflicting fashions". Or am I missing something?

Correction: Oldest error in the book, confusing a redundancy with an oxymoron. I did it in the older title. Thanks to Maithreyi for correcting me.

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It should feel like a World Cup game

The choice of which game to watch this morning (Ireland v. West Indies or England v. Bangladesh) was a no-brainer. Ireland are playing in an empty stadium at Mohali; Bangladesh are playing a home game. Doughty underdogs, yes, but this is a World Cup, and I like watching games that remind me I'm watching one. And hopefully, if Tamim gets off to a flyer, things will get really exciting.

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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Stitched up by Taylor

Brendan Taylor is playing an absolute gem of an innings against Sri Lanka today. I don't know how many people would have thought that today's encounter would have been anything but a blow-out, but Taylor has ensured that the Lankans will experience at least a few scares. 95 off 16 overs for an opening stand.

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