Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Humiliation for Aussies

A first humiliating white wash for the Aussies in my memory. It was great to watch the Kiwis chasing down the mammoth 346 with 4 balls to spare in the final one dayer. Full credits to the efforts from McMillan & McCullam.

Of course this is a stripped down Australian side but still the Kiwis were also playing without the likes of Bond, Vettori, Oram... So in my opinion this a evenly poised competition in which the Aussies have lost out. This being this the final international series before the world cup due next month, the Aussies will have to sort out too many problems to defend their title successfully.

And with the Proteas, Kiwis, Indians ;) finding form the competition is wide open.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Final 15 for the World Cup.

The announcement came this morning. And as expected there was little change in the team which is taking up the SriLankan's challenge at home. In my honest opnion this is the best side that could be selected with the resources available. I would have tried to find a place for Powar at the cost of a pacer in my 15. But now the most important thing is which 11 will you go for and what will be the batting order. You cant expect Uthappa or Shewag (who ever opens with Sourav) to find form immediately, in that case will Sachin move up. We cant expect our pacer to rip off the opponents top order every match. They are very inconsistent. Any way interesting times ahead. Lets hope for the best.

The Team : Rahul Dravid (capt), Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Shewag, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Ajith Agarkar, Harbajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.