Wednesday Mar 21, 2007

Cricket Calypso

welcome to cricket calypso brought to you by Narasimha & Nikil. We will begin with updates on todays matches Bangladesh were brought back to reality by SL after Jayasuriya blazed his way to a century. Aided with 50's by Dilshan and Silva SL made 318 after being asked to bat first. Ban bowlers could not repeat their magic neither could their batsmen. SL started cautiously but how long can you keep Jayasuriya under check!!! On the other hand Pak playing in their last inconsequential league encounter against Zim posted a huge score and won the match. Its been a hard time for this team after the death of their coach Bob Woolmer which is now being treated as "murder". Inzi played his last ODI and was given a standing ovation from teamates and opponents alike. A tearful farewell to a very special talented batsman!!! Will India qualify? This is in every Indian team supporters mind and will be answered on Friday. SL have done their bit to help India by putting on a huge score. Ban NRR is at -2.002 and will take some performance by them against Bermuda if they are to qualify. Of course this equation will be required only if India manage to beat SL which seems like an uphill task. Batsmen need to fire and bowlers need to find the right areas to bowl. Sehwag got a 100 against Bermuda. Will this help him tide over his bad form or has this given him the false confidence to fail again. I think he will fail against SL going for one of his expansive drives but for the sake of India qualifying I would like him to succeed. If last world cup had Kenya qualifying through the backdoor imagine this time around playing Ireland and Ban. I am not suggesting they dont deserve to be in Super-8's but these teams havent reached the stage where they can perform day-in and day-out at a consistent level. Ban in partiuclar have some dashing batsmen who played fearlessly but were unable to repeat their performance against SL. A win was not expected but atleast a fight would have made some believers happy that this team is capable of being in the big league. However Ban is similar to what SL was prior to their world cup victory and the next world cup we might see the emergence of Ban as a real contender. Bob Woolmer Pak cricket coach was found unconscious in his hotel room on Saturday and later died. My first reaction to this was conspiracy!!!My wife and sil thought that I was crazy. Wasnt cricket supposed to be a gentlemen's game? Matchfixing, doping and now a potential murder has tarnished the reputation of this game. The amount of money involved in cricket is astronomical and the subcontinent, India in particular is the biggest money spinner of all. Last time match fixing happened cricket lost some fan base and I am sure this too will have some bearing on cricket followers. Tomorrow matches: Group A: Netherdays vs Scotland Group C: Canada vs New Zealand

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