Team India finally met with an accident.

After escaping two very near accidents, Team India finally met with an accident at Motera. Luck is one such thing which don't remain with you forever and that's what happen with Virender Sehwag and his team. Team India managed to win first two ODIs where luck played important part but finally luck went to the West Indies camp leaving India in all sorts of trouble. There is no surprise because this loss, expected by fans after the performances in first two ODIs. But one man who survive through these accidents is Rohit Sharma, who stood tall in all three games and helped Indian team in winning two games  and almost the 3rd one, had he got little support from one of the top-order batsman. As they say cricket is a team game and each and every player have to contribute,  if team wants to win. Rohit Sharma looked too classy in his three outings and I feel he deserves the place in test eleven ahead of Virat Kohli. Rohit Sharma is far more talented than any other youngster and this reflects in the way he approached this series.

Indian team must blame themselves for this loss because players like Sehwag and Gambhir missed the practice session ahead of this all important ODI and that lack of practice reflected in their performances where captain and his best friend scored duck. Winning combination also tampered with and Abhimanyu Mithun included at the last moment because Chief Selector K.Srikkanth wanted Abhimanyu Mithun to play this ODI, so tampering with winning combination is also one of the factor. 

Now West indies have tasted the blood and they will come hard in next two ODIs, so Team India have to play out of their skins to win this ODI  series but all depends on how well our top-order performs. I believe Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are ideal as an opening pair and with Australia tour near, they have to start opening together to build the rapport and momentum between them ahead of all important tour. Parthiv has done nothing substantial with the bat so far in the series, so he should be batting in lower order. 

Ideal No.3 is Virat Kohli and I think Rahane deserves to be in the team in place of out-of-form Suresh Raina who looked completely off-colour in his international stints in last few months. Ravi Rampaul is one man who haunted India badly in last 2 ODIS and Indian team have to find  out the ways to tackle this Rampaul factor. Sunil Narine who made his debut  for West indies looked quite impressive. He will definitely trouble Indian batsmen in coming matches, so Indian batsmen have to adopt simple policy of attacking this mystery bowler, if Indian batsmen play him defensively then he will definitely do lot of damage in coming matches.

Now two ODIs remained and selectors have included Irfan Pathan in the team who is in sublime form this Ranji season. Pathan has picked up 21 wickets at an average of 14 in 4 games, he played so far which includes 3 consecutive 5 wicket hauls. But I must say he is unfortunate to become the victim of selection bias as after performing so well in domestic cricket he is not selected for Australia tour. instead Abhimanyu Mithun got the nod ahead of him because Mithun hails from south zone and Chief Selector is also from south zone. So its a clear bias because Mithun has done nothing for Karnataka team this season. But since he hails from south and that went in his favour.

Team India have to work hard in remaining 2 ODIs if they want to win the series. If India lose this series and top-order batsmen continue to fail then team will go to Australia without any confidence which will affect their performance in Australia as well where they failed to win single test series so far.

Pakistan reached Semi-Finals after crushing West Indies in Game 1 of QF

Well, easy and comprehensive win for the Pakistan over West Indies at Mirpur in Game 1 of knockout stage. Now Pakistan sailed into the semis where they will face either Australia or India at Mohali. Its been thoroughly professional display by Pakistan where they dominated the game right from the start and never allowed West Indies to claw back into the contest. It seems that Pakistan carried the momentum with them from the league stage has helped them nicely in achieving this win.

To me Shahid Afridi was the hero of Pakistan's victory as he continued his good work with the ball in this match as well by picking up another 4 wicket haul. He lead Pakistan from the front and help Pakistan to achieve this victory.  Apart from Afridi all the Pakistani bowlers joined the party and picked up wickets regularly which reduced West Indies to only 112 runs which was not the total, Caribbean team would have thought before the start of the match. Umar Gul once again looked impressive and Saeed Ajmal also grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Apart from Ajmal, Mohmmad Hafeez stood out among all the players because of his all-round performance with bat and ball and hats of to Afridi who believed in the ability of the Hafeez and given him chance to open the bowling  It was terrific bowling performance by the Pakistan.  Tough time ahead for the team which will meet them in semis at Mohali. Today Pakistan played flawless cricket.

Finally West Indies played Shivnarine Chanderpaul and he proved their most successful batsmen as he hung in till the last for West Indies and helped them to go past 3 figure mark. It was really valiant effort from seasoned campaigner like Chanderpaul. Had he got some support from the other end then West Indies would have certainly posted the competitive total on the board but pathetic batting display by Caribbean batsmen spoiled the day for all the Caribbean fans.

After putting small total on the board it was evident that Pakistan will going to win this game but it was expected that West Indies will give some fightback to the Pakistani batsmen considering weakness in Pakistan's batting  but Caribbean bowlers proved more disappointing than their batsmen and given too many runs to the Pakistan's liking and in the end Pakistan won by 10 wickets. Now West Indies will go to home and have to analyse their performance of this World Cup.

Pakistan will now take on the winner of Australia-India match at Mohali and it looks like  Pakistan is determine to win the elite trophy just to bring smiles on the grim faces of Pakistanis who are going through tough times. If Pakistan wins World Cup this time then it will wash away all their sins and controversies. 

Team West Indies: Analysis and Odds for ICC World Cup’11

West Indies (Group B)

Group Rivals :-	South Africa, India, England, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands
Coach :-	Ottis Gibson
Captain :-	Darren Sammy
Best Performance in WC :-	Champions 1975, 1979
Highest Score in WC :-	360-4 (50 Overs) v/s Sri Lanka in WC’87
Lowest Score in WC :-	93 All Out 35.2 Overs) v/s Kenya in WC’96
Best Individual Score :-	181, Vivian Richards v/s Sri Lanka in WC’87
Best Bowling :-	7-51 W.Davis v/s Australia in WC’83
Matches Won/Lost/Tied/NR	35-21-0-1
The Odds :-	28-14
ICC ODI Ranking :-	No.9

MAN TO WATCH Chris GAYLE Chris Gayle is a man with pure Caribbean flavour . He is one of the devastating opening batsmen in the world cricket and capable of tearing apart any bowling attack on any ground in the pitch. He will relish playing in sub-continent where batsmen friendly pitches provides him opportunity to dismantle the opposition bowling. He is often gets involved into controversies but as a player he is big asset to his side. He can clear any ground in the world with ease. He can bowl handy off-spin as well. His lazy tantrums on the ground don’t speak volumes about his abilities but he is the man to watch when he is batting. He is entertainer to the core and entertains the crowd even without the bat and ball in his hand. Much of Caribbean hopes of winning World Cup this time lies on his shoulders. If he will succeed in providing good and quick start to the West Indies innings then I believe West Indies can fancy their chances. Watch big booming sixes from the bat of big Gayle in this World Cup. Career-best performance: Batting: 153* v/s Zimbabwe at  Bulawayo  in 2003 Bowling: 46-5  v/s Australia at St.George’s in 2003

West Indies is the team which was rated as the  invincibles in 70s and both of their World Cup championship victories came in that era when they won 2 consecutive World Cup in 1975 and 1979. After that West Indies reached the finals in third edition of the World Cup in 1983 but lost to India in finals and after that they never reached the finals. Also West Indies cricket is on decline since 1983. This time they have few good players who can do well and capable of winning the World Cup. They will highly rely on heroics of Chris Gayle, Adrian Barath and Keiron Pollard. I believe they have in them to do well in the World Cup but will they cross the final frontier is something which is  doubtful. They don’t have many known names in bowling but if they click as a unit then they can be dangerous to any opposition.

Key Players for West Indies:  Chris Gayle, Keiron Pollard, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kemar Roach and Sulieman Benn

Watching cricket from pavilion is punishment in Indian sub-continent....

Can see iron wires behind cheer girls

ICC Cricket World Cup, the greatest festival of cricket is around the corner and this time it will be celebrated in sub-continent as India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are going to host it jointly. If we talk about cricket then cricket is religion in the Indian sub-continent. It is life-line for the people of Indian sub-continent. people love and worship this game beyond anything. It is the biggest passion in Indian sub-continent. No other thing unites people better than cricket in Indian sub-continent. 70% of the cricket economy is funded  from Indian sub-continent.  In short Indian sub-continent is super-power of World Cricket but question arise here is that cricket lovers and passionate fans like us treated well at the cricket venues?  Do we get the facilities which we deserve? I must say that people like us who drives the cricket, who watch cricket on TVs and on the grounds and help the respective cricket boards and ICC to make huge amount of money are often treated shabbily and poorly by the authorities and security men. When we go to the ground to watch the match we feel like we are prisoners and watching the match from the jail such is the view of the ground from the pavilion as there is big iron  barrier between ground and the pavilion and if we move just one step towards the boundary wall then security men shout at us like that we are criminals and going to commit some crime.

Streaker hurting Andrew Symonds in Australia

If we see  in countries like Australia, South Africa, England, West Indies, New Zealand, Zimbabwe,etc.  spectators enjoy cricket without any barriers and experience watching cricket in these countries is far more pleasure then watching cricket in sub-continent. Spectators can easily chat with and take autographs from the players on the ground and there is constant interaction goes on between crowds and the players. Facilities at all the grounds in above mentioned countries are top-class and spectators are treated as a spectators and not like prisoners. In Indian sub-continent spectators are not allowed to take along their cameras, mobile phones, water bottles or food items in the pavilion sighting security reasons and each spectator is scrutinise like terrorist. In the mane of security cricket administrators force spectators to buy food and water from the contracted vendors who sell them at high price compare to the market price so spectators is cheated inside the ground as well and have to buy sub-standard food at high price. 

Streaker interrupting test match in England

Now I believe few people can give excuses that  the people of sub-continent don't have manners and also not civilised enough to get the freedom of watching cricket without any barriers but I must say spectators are  same everywhere and poor incidents happens on every ground in the world. Few people can also argue that if spectators in sub-continent get the freedom then they will run on the ground and interrupt the game and also harm the player and incident of such nature also happened in the past but to counter that argument I must draw attention towards the streaker and hooting problems in Australia, South Africa, England and New Zealand. Many times games have been interrupted in the past and players were also hurt by few streakers and mischievous spectators but authorities of these countries always controlled the situation and never tried to make the experience horrible for spectators by building iron barriers between cricket field and pavilion. So few mischievous spectators exist everywhere in the world but this does not mean that we should punish all the spectators but this happens in Indian sub-continent.



Security personnel watching match



Now we talk about security personnel. In countries like Australia, South Africa, England, West Indies, New Zealand, Zimbabwe,etc. security personnel always watch the crowd and keep sharp eye on spectators while security men in Asia just watch cricket rather than watching spectators and unfortunately no action is taken against them if any incident happens on the ground instead spectators pay the price of bad incident.

Spectator cheering his team from behind the bars

I must say  cricket administrators in Indian sub-continent have made the experience of watching cricket horrible for the spectators. Many cricket venues in India don't even have proper sitting and sanitation facilities also. When cricket matches organised on these venues then plastic chairs are taken on rent and in few grounds spectators have to sit on concrete staircase and that too without any roof on the head which makes experience of watching cricket even more horrible. I must say people in other parts of the world are lucky that they watch cricket without any barrier but in Indian sub-continent watching cricket is big punishment. I hope situation improves in the future and watching cricket from the pavilion will be pleasure rather than a punishment  for the spectators of the sub-continent.