ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka

[lord_of_darkness]

Srinath looked Utterley bad ... i thought he was way better than that ? someone send him the tickets back to england please... He bowled as crap as Nehra did ... Zaheer Khan , Harbajan and Sehwag bowled really well , those 2 drops by Tendulkar were not good , easy , dropped easy sitters i tell ya . Agarkar played something like out of the crap , where did they find this guy from ?!

India did really well restricting them to 244/5 real good job , started well 14/0 , and the rain killed everything , well thats its job.... God Saved Sri Lanka from a sehwag rampage..

If India lose the re start , Everyone knows who to blame 1) Srinath 2) Agarkar 3)Rain 4)God

 

[QuickFire]

Well, It will be a re-match tomorrow.
Sad though I think India had more control over the match today by restricting SL to a mean total of 244.

Best of Luck to India for tomorrow.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Srinath looked Utterley bad ... i thought he was way better than that? someone send him the tickets back to england please...

Out of practice. He'll be better tomorrow.

He bowled as crap as Nehra did ... Zaheer Khan , Harbajan and Sehwag bowled really well , those 2 drops by Tendulkar were not good , easy , dropped easy sitters i tell ya . Agarkar played something like out of the crap , where did they find this guy from ?!

It's getting more and more a spinners' wicket. I can't think why India picked three seamers.

India did really well restricting them to 244/5 real good job , started well 14/0 , and the rain killed everything , well thats its job.... God Saved Sri Lanka from a sehwag rampage..

Yes they seemed on top after the bowling, but maybe 244 would have been a good total given how the RPS is playing atm. It was only two overs in, Sehwag could have done anything. Guneratne wouldn't have bowled much and Sri Lanka have a swathe of spinners they could and would have called upon to keep the rate down.

If India lose the re start , Everyone knows who to blame 1) Srinath 2) Agarkar 3)Rain 4)God

Blame would fall on whoever played badly tomorrow.. Though the selectors could well be in for some for picking three quicks and leaving out Kumble on a wicket that's turning nearly square. And God? It's a cyclone caused by moving air masses...

 

[Anil]

Blame would fall on whoever played badly tomorrow.. Though the selectors could well be in for some for picking three quicks and leaving out Kumble on a wicket that's turning nearly square. And God? It's a cyclone caused by moving air masses...

Taking Kumble on a turning track need not be very helpful as he isn't a big spinner of the ball. If there is some uneven bounce on the premadasa track, he is the perfect guy to expoit it. Having said that, he is infinitely preferable to an Agarkar in this miserable form.

I wonder why Sachin is so off-colour for this tournament. Before every one starts jumping on me for criticising him, this is not a criticism or writing off or anything derogatory in fact. Just curious, that's all. He has scores of 7, 9 n.o and 16. He has taken 4 wickets, but has conceded nearly 7 r.p.o and he dropped a couple of sitters today(I know he took a stunner off his own bowling, still...). He is normally such a safe fielder and catcher. Of course, I am glad that the team is less dependent on him and are winning without major contributions from him, but...here is hoping he will put all that behind him and come up with a trademark century in the postponed final.

 

[full_length]

Sachin:
Simply because he's batting at no. 4
We all know that he thinks more about his game than any other cricketer- one reason why he's never really had a form slump (irrespective of what monkeys at Indian Express say ). He's been playing so long at the top of the order, that he adapted his game to that very well. When India chases a huge total or when he's got Glen McGrath bowling to him, he really lashes out. Otherwise, he plays it slow for the first four or so overs, then gets going as per the situation. After 15 (if he gets there) he's usually targetting Over no. 30, 40 and so on.

Now that plan has to be changed, and my guess is that it wont take too long for this chap to adjust. When he does adjust he'll optimise his performance, realise that he wont make too many 100s, he'll settle down to a well paced 70-80 runs where he used to make 100, and hope to be there to accelerate in the last four or so overs.
It's a process of adaptation, and by definition, it'll take time. IMO his two 100s in no.4 recently were a bonus.
I have a feeling this change in batting order may eventually be good for him.

He will now be around more to 'finish the job for India', though we may not necessarily notice it much.

His bowling: Only area where I have some misgivings where Sachin is concerned. I know people will go over the top on this one, but he was once in a position from where he could seriously be considered a contender for the world's top spinner spot in ODIs for one simple reason- variety. He could turn the ball both ways, vary his pace, is very aggressive when bowling, and so.. basically had everything a top ODI bowler could hope for. But he strangely chose to look at it differently. He himself says that he doesn't want to be a regular bowler. That means that he's chosen to relegate himself to a role of someone who can break partnerships, or take the occasional 3 wicket haul, but will go for runs every other game. I guess that's what's happening now.
His arguement is that he's doing well because he's relaxed, and changing that would take away his utility in the bowling dept. I think he underestimates his own capabilities there. Glad to see Ganguly persisting with Sachin the bowler.

Fielding: I am very surprised. Sachin has quietly over the last decade, been India's best outfielder, and often the only Indian fielder of world class bar Azhar, Jadeja (and the day's odd good fielder like Robin Singh). He was also a very good slipper, and incircle fielder; can hit the stumps with either hand. I've seen him spill some earlier, but cant recall any real bad days before this.

 

[luckyeddie]

Sri Lanka 222-7 innings closed.

I wonder whether Shep has to eat his dinner on one leg?

Agarkar impressed the hell out of me for 4 overs.

Oh dear, his fifth (and last)!

 

[luckyeddie]

India 38-1 rsp after 8.4 (thunder and lightning and a tropical downpour stopped play really).

If this had been golf, the players would have not been on the field even. If there had been an 'incident', who would have been liable? The ICC? Shep and Bucknor?

A crazy decision to replay the game, an even crazier decision to stage it as another day-nighter when all the weather indicators pointed to rain an hour after sunset.

Duckworth-Lewis now applies (if we are lucky).

 

[Neil Pickup]

Wholly uninspiring washout, it seems.

D/L will only come into play if India bat 25 overs. Which doesn't look likely.

Shared Trophy it seems.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Still raining at the Premadasa stadium, and if India are not able to get into the middle beofre 20:45 IST or 15:17 GMT, this ICC Champions Trophy will be shared between India and Sri Lanka.

India will need to bat another 16.2 overs for the Duckworth Lewis system to take effect.

That looks remote as of now, but stay tuned for further updates.

That's 45 minutes.

 

[luckyeddie]

Match report filed (see front page)

I wonder whether (sic) heads will roll? They should!

Even amateur meteorologists were saying that there was 'no chance' that it would be possible to complete a day-nighter. Surely play should have started earlier?

Oh, and we got the match report out before anyone else again.

CricketWeb 3, Rest of the World 0

 

[Anil]

Sad ending as far as India was concerned. 223 was eminently gettable with the kind of lineup that India possessed. I think the Lankans can count themselves lucky that the match was washed out.

 

[aussie_beater]

Terrible ending to a tournament of this stature..... the whole idea of holding it in September, the monsoon season in Sri Lanka was wrong and as LE pointed out the decision to go for a day-night match when the weather forecast clearly said that it was going to rain, is just ridiculous.

SL surely got away with it, as the match was quite tilted in India's favour.

 

[Neil Pickup]

It comes down to the ICC's bloody-mindedness, "we're right, you're wrong" again. Just like with Packer...

And I don't think India would have had it all their own way with the pitch being so suited to spin - India bowled 36 overs of it, with not even their part timers going at over 4 an over - pointless discussion however as 42 overs can include anything.

Interesting to see that they went with the two quicks, but dropped Srinath. And why in the world was Mongia opening and not Ganguly?!

 

[QuickFire]

The moment rain interrupted play, it was about 80-20 in India's favour. (believe it or not...)

Interesting to see that they went with the two quicks, but dropped Srinath. And why in the world was Mongia opening and not Ganguly?!

Ganguly's plan was that Mongia is not good against spin while Ganguly is a very good player against spin. In this way, it would have made work easier for India.

By the way, it was a big disappointment from India's point of view as India were the clear favorites.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Originally posted by QuickFire
The moment rain interrupted play, it was about 80-20 in India's favour. (believe it or not...)

It would have mainly been down to Sehwag... and Sri Lanka hadn't brought on their spinners yet. Yes, India seemed to have the initiative but it wasn't 80-20. 60-40 more like.

You're suggesting that odds of 7/2 (inc bookies' profits...) could have been found on an SL win at the time of the abandonment had rain not been an issue (you know what I'm getting at here..) That just wouldn't have been the case.

Ganguly's plan was that Mongia is not good against spin while Ganguly is a very good player against spin. In this way, it would have made work easier for India.

Didn't get near the spinners though, did he? 1 off 16 balls off Vaas over the two days ain't too hot a return in my book. There was always going to be a few overs of pace so I reckon Ganguly should have been let loose as down the order all there would have been was spin.

 

[Anil]

It would have mainly been down to Sehwag... and Sri Lanka hadn't brought on their spinners yet. Yes, India seemed to have the initiative but it wasn't 80-20. 60-40 more like.

Whether it was 80-20 or 60-40, it wouldn't have been just down to Sehwag just because he is in great form. There were also other players in the equation like Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Yuvraj and Kaif. Kind of simplistic to assume that they couldn't or wouldn't have played any part in the end result, don't you think?

 

[marc71178]

Twice India were IMO robbed and I had a fiver on them.

At least I got that returned.

My Jayawardene bet was deemed a loss !

 

[greatindia]

INDIA WAS THE BEST OF THE LOT!

IT would be fair to say that India was the best team of the tournament.In onedayer anything can happen and Lanka might have bowled India out for less than 222 had the rain not stopped the play BUT the chances for a Lankan win was far less than an Indian victory.

India should now start looking for an allrounder, if Yadev can do the job then its great.I believe that if they do get a genuine allrounder( not like Ajit) then they will be the team to watch out for in World Cup 2003!

 

[marc71178]

Be careful there, using the word "if" !

I don't think they will go for the all rounder, which is why I don't think they'll win the WC, and for me Australia are still the team to watch out for - especially with the big difference in conditions between SL and SA.

 

[full_length]

Yeah be very carefull with the ifs
I think India shouldnt go for an allrounder. This team is soon developing into a great batting side. I wouldn't want to see it ruined by trying out a bits and pieces cricketer (in the mistaken impression that he's a Kapil) ahead of the world cup. Maybe there's some point in doing that after the WC.

I think India has a pretty good chance of winning the cup. At any rate, I'd back India to beat any of the three other teams widely expected to reach the semis- SA, Aus Pak! Somehow, in recent times we've played better against Aus than anyone else (there are so many players who play their best cricket against Aus), and with SA it's 50-50. We've always beaten Pak in WCs. Crow Crow!