No One is Perfect

I have been away for cricket for last two three years but have been following the scores and highlights in all the news channels you can get any time unlike before when we had to wait for some particular time on any particular channel. I am prompted to write this post due to the recent Indian one day team selections for the Commonwealth Bank triangular series involving Srilanka and Australia. The most furore arose due to exclusion of Saurav Ganguly. I think its fare , Dada is no more a match winner as a complete package. With Complete package I mean someone who gives a distinct edge when he plays well. Dada used to be a few years back. When he used to score big centuries with strike rate more than hundred. He usually started slow at 70 strike rate then in the later part of his innings used to slog and get beyond hundred with taking his strike rate more than 100. Thats an edge created by a player if in any match a player scores a century with strike rate more than hundred then the team got a chance to win the match. But now a days Dada scores a 50 with 70 strike rate and then mis fields 10 for the opponent team. Thats not an edge created.
So Dada should just not keep playing for the sake of playing. He should think about whether he is still the match winner he was, if yes then he should win at least one match on his own. Its not good to score half century and then cement your place in the team and argue with everyone that I scored yet I got dropped.Unless everyone in the team is a match winner on his day that team can never achieve the consistency. In Todays cricket when australia has set such high standards we can't do just enough . We have to do more than them . Dada Should look at hayden how much he contributes. He is the most consistent player. Now a days we can predict Dada will fail in at least two matches after scoring a half century.
I have great respect for Dada, I can't forget his hammering of srilankans in Taunton in world cup 1999. Or the win in dhaka in 1998 when he combined with Robin Singh and chased down 314 runs scored by pakistan. We want that Dada who had hunger now Dada seems content in doing just enough. Thats not good enough. We need to search for match winners like yesteryears dada.

Looking at the one day team I fear there is lack of experience in batting. Except Sachin Tendulkar and Sehwag I doubt everyone else. Gambhir, Karthick,Yuvraj,Dhoni,Raina,Rohit Sharma,Robin Uthappa they are all good names but as I explained earlier they are not match winners on there own yet. I dare include Yuvraj in that list but he hasn't looked good at all in the first two tests he played and yes he seems to be distracted with Deepika Padukone flirting with him and Dhoni both. Dhoni is a strong man he can handle but i doubt about Yuvraj. I would have loved Dravid and Laxman in there as Dravid may provide solidity as in australia batting collapses very easily and Laxman for his record in australia against australia. But then Laxman falls in Dada's category and Dravid has not looked convincing enough to be solid enough in this tour. One Day series india will do well to reach in the best of three finals.

Lately I have watched Test cricket and didn't get bored , surprise. But this is due to some good bowling by Indians. I loved watching the spell of Ishant Sharma bowling to Ponting in Perth. He was marvelous. It was like watching our batsmen struggling against Macgrath. I am not comparing him to Macgrath but the fear we used to feel when our batsmen played Macgrath .
I would compare Ishant with Pakistan's Mohammad Asif. I hope Ishant improves and takes more than one wicket when he is bowling so well. Today also in fourth test he got hayden, But was not consistent in his line to get more wickets.

Tottenhem the entertainers for neutrals

Today is Monday and I generally don't watch league matches during the week. I only watch champions league matches when Manchester United is playing. But somehow I had a feeling that today’s match would be good to watch. I seldom watch league matches of other teams, but for last one year whenever I have watched spurs playing they have always been entertaining. I will explain the way spurs entertain. Since tomorrow being a national holiday I decided to give a chance to me to get entertained by spurs. And here I am so much filled with gratitude that I have again started my laptop and thought to write only my second post. Sorry Mitesh I said I am going to sleep but couldn't resist watching Martin Jol and his team. And now I am feeling like calling and telling you the story what happened. Anyway let me try to write what I witnessed.

Pretext of the match , Tottenhem is a good team, they finished 5th last two years in the league and they had a few good players added to their team and looked very formidable during the preseason. But as always they have started dreadfully in the league and have won only one match against the bottom of the league team. They are in the relegation zone i.e. bottom three in the league of twenty teams. Their manager Martin Jol looks to be a good manager but has been under pressure of being sacked by the Tottenhem board due to the poor results. His cause has not been helped by the long term injury to his center back and captain Ledly King. Statistics says Spurs have only managed 3 clean sheets in their last 35 games. So going into this game Spurs are supposed to beat Astan villa at White Hart Lane , Tottenhem's home. Astan Villa have defeated Chelsea this season 2-0.So opposition is not weak. When I started watching the game at about half an hour mark both the teams were at one goal a peace. Listening to the commentators I got to know that Berbetov headed the first goal for spurs and spurs have dominated the initial exchanges. But then Robinson shows his ability of gifting the goal to opposition, on a corner he gets an easy ball to catch but what he does? He misses it and Larsson scores his second goal in five years for Astan Villa. Robinson is England number one but in last one year he has already made silly mistakes which great goal keepers make in their entire careers. I hope Steve Maclaren will see the footages and decide what to do , but his competitor David James is also known as Calamity Jones. And he also has shown his calamity during the weekend so Robinson might not be too worried, But Maclaren certainly would be a worried man.

Anyway so score is 1-1 curtsey Robinson. At around 40th minute Astan Villa get a freekick on the left side , Young takes it , he observed Barry's run towards left corner place and passes the ball to him, Barry has acres of space and no Tottenhem defender bothered to track his run. Barry sends in a superb cross in front of Tottenhem goal. Ball misses two Astan Villa players at near post and reaches to Chimbonda on the far post, It hits his knee and rebounds in the center where Larsson scores the second between the legs of Robinson. The guy had scored only one goal in the last five years and here he has doubled his tally for his club within 45 minutes, courtsey Robinson. Tottenhem 2-1 down and supporeters feeling it.

Just before half time Abangalhore gets the ball just outside the penality box of spurs and very easily beats Dowson and shoots low shot towards far post. Robinson is not able to do anything and Astan Villa is 3-1 up. Its half time and Spurs are 3-1 down , where they were supposed to win this match and ease the pressure on Martin Jol. I guess if it was any champions league team all three goals against Spurs would not have been scored.First one was sure saught Robinson howler, Second one was defensive organisational mistake and third Dawson gave too much space to Abangalhore. But here only comes the entertainment value for neutrals. Spurs is a team which let you score the goals and scores the goals.

After half time Spurs kept on attackin in search of goals. Against the run of play Astan Villa gets a free kick just outside the penality area. Within the wall there is One Astan Villa Player and he turns and makes gap for a ferocious shot by Gardener. Robinson's initial movement is wrong way and then its too late to recover , Spurs are 4-1 down and some fans are not able to bear, they have started to leave. Beofre Martin Jol changed I observed it, Tiano was not playing well he went out came in Defoe. Then Berbatov's body language didn't give any hint of him even trying anything to reduce the margin, Jol reacts and Off goes Berbatov and in comes Darren Bent.

In the midfield zakora is playing like a lion and Gareth Bale who was lively in the first half seems to be getting nervous . But then it was his burst down the left which allowed Tottenhem to score their secong goal. Bale runs towards the goal line and then pulls back the ball into the penality area. Defoe is quick comes back and hammers a left footed shot against the post which rebounds and goes towards Chimbonda on the right , He took a shot and score is 4-2. I was hoping for spurs to score and they were not letting me down , thats why I call them the entertainers, they let go lots of goals and they score also lots of goals.

Anyway score is 4-2 Spurs are trying hard and then incomes Marlon Hayword . At one point ball is harmless but inside the Astan Villa penality area , Bent is on it and Hayword comes and pushes him on the floor and referry whistles for the penality. Robbie Keane steps up and slots home a cool penality and score is 4-3. Stadium is buzzing and people are expecting something special, me included. And as the good script is written Spurs level the score in the goal mouth bhasad (harakiri) in the last minute of the stoppage time. Whole stadium is standing and they all are singing as if they have won the league.But yes looking at the situation 4-1 down and then level the scores at 4-4 , It was quite incredible stuff . I was spellbound, what I wanted has happened. Long live Jol. I am impressed and I think I have utilized my time .Commentators said this is a premiership classic and in the end Football Won.

It is very rare when a team is three goals down and comes back strongly. I wathced the champions league 2005 final between AC Milan and Liverpool. There Liverpool were 3-0 at half time and then came back in the second half to level the scores 3-3. There AC MIlan were better team so that was more outstanding feat. Spurs are better team than Astan Villa, but they were down 4-1, they kept attacking no matter what Robinson was doing in their goal ad thats what we fans like, attacking football at all costs.

First Blog

Have been reading a few blogs and thought to start writing myself as it will be great to read your own thoughts when you get a bit older :).. A few friends might love to know what all I think if at all I think. Its more of fashionable thing now a days of having a blog, so i don't think of contributing more here , its just that I thought and i am acting on that thought.

Today we are on the brink of releasing a major product , one year all the team has spent on it. Being the build guy, my job is to make sure all the projects got build successfully and we have created a good clean installer. QA guys are busy testing and I am rambling here for the first time.

Hope to write more about football, personal life and may be a bit of what i do in my professional job.