Its that time of the year again, when media outlets and journos forget about the whole of Europe and focus on two teams in Spain. A country which is no stranger to schisms of a political hue in its checkered history, and this discord in beliefs brings about a footballing rivalry which has no equals. Barcelona Real Madrid or Real Barca(to all the madridistas) represents the pinnacle of soccer both in terms of quality and passion.
I am not surprised at all. Frankly, they are quite a lousy one-day team. Other than Straus, Flintoff and Pieterson occasionally, nobody comes through when it matters. And, this loss today efectively ends their touranment (I think). It is a vicious cycle: the play lesser one-day cricket than other leading international teams, they are more rusty when they turn up and lose early, they play lesser cricket. Thankfully for them, there are few knockout tournaments.
Australia is back. They are still the best in the business. The Indian conditions might not suit them best and they might have lost to a rapidly improving WestIndian team. But, they are good and one of their classiest players came through today. Damien Martyn in flow is a sight to watch: his off-side play is as good as Ganguly’s, almost and he is the most graceful Aussie to play after the retirement of Mark “The forgotten” Waugh. He came through today and helped beat the English, how can anyone not beat them?!!!
But, this Australian team is going to have to work hard to retain the World Cup. Gilchrist needs to fire and players like Andrew Symonds needs to chip in.
And this tournament is going to be good fun to watch. Cheers, to some good cricket.
A piss poor performance by a team that is looking very much like a ship without a rudder, in the absence of their star striker Eto’o. The usually incisive Barca team were toothless in attack, never really testing Hilario, who in his first Chelsea game had a comfortable day. Barcelona didn’t challenge Chelsea enough and on the balance of play didn’t even deserve a point. At the end of the three matches it looks like it will be tussle between Werder and Barca for the second CLE spot. Rijkaard will be a worried man after the manner of the defeat and Ronnie’s cameo in the weekend is starting to already look like only an abberation. He was kept in his confines by a prospective man of the match in dutchman Khalid Boulahrouz. The eventual winner of the performer of the day was the scorer of the match winning and spectacular goal, Didier Drogba. He was outstanding throughout the match and its very strange that his purple patch coincides with the worst slump in his strike partner’s career. Sheva had a terrible day and its not before long that the English press get on his case.Drogba for his part should have scored a second but lets not deny this thespian (no bitterness here, ) his day in the sun.
Noone really stepped up for the Catalans and there is an alarming tone of complacency in their style. Rijkaard should address it as soon as possible with El classico only five days away. The misery for the Blaugrana was compounded when Puyol limped off. It looks like a few days of overtime for FR at the office!
Barca will be interested in signing a striker in the Winter market and are already howering around Europe for a cheap buy. In a few weeks we will know if its too little too late.
V (Its good to be back, but I would have preferred a more opportune and enjoyable moment)
Your captain is banned, the new captain takes over but after making a fuss that he is being made a dummy captain, the chairman of your board resigns, your leading strike bowlers are caught for doping and are sent back home, then you are up against one of the favourites for the tournament.
Well, all it took was one glimpse of the navy blue kit worn by the English team for the Indians to find form. Without getting too carried away with the result (England after all were just hammered 5-0 by the Lankans in England) it has to be said the win was very convincing. I wouldnt read much into the fact that we lost so many wickets, low totals can be notoriously hard to chase- batsmen often in two minds on how to approach the target.
Somehow, the victory coincided perfectly with the fact we got to see the Irfan Pathan of last year. He ran in with a lot of energy, swung the ball and also looked very enthusiastic. He is a champion player for us and could be one of the most important factors at next years World Cup.
I still cant grasp the reason why Pathan is being sent at no. 3. Yes we need to be more flexible, but with the World Cup less than six months away, we should be playing everybody in their best positions? And Dravid HAS to occupy the #3 slot. He is our best batsman for crying out loud! It is one thing scoring against Vaas and Anderson and quite another thing scoring heavily against Ntini or Lee.
Picture this: Its the World Cup final and we are chasing down 250 scored by Australia. Sehwag has just gotten out to a snorter from Lee. So, who is next? Dravid? Pathan? If you make the score 300- it still does not make sense. Dravid should still walk in and provide the solidity. I rather have Pathan facing men like Symonds and Hogg and getting 7 or 8 runs per over.
Anyway, I think India should comfortably make the semifinals from here on in. I fancy a Australia Vs Sri Lanka final. The Lankans have been playing brilliantly of late and interestingly its the same group of players who were hammered last year in India! What a difference a year makes.
There are actually qualifying rounds featuring Zimbabwe? Standards in cricket have fallen, haven’t they? If a team consistently makes runs only in two digits, they really should not be playing international cricket. This is a waste of spectators’ time and money and a sham under the name of international cricket.
I am not opposed to qualifying rounds per se. But greater care must be exercised in determining if there really is a point in playing these games. Otherwise, we are just throwing away practice games to two teams. And on current form, WestIndies and SriLanka don’t really need it. And again, Zimbabwe is incapable of providing any international team decent competition on a regular basis with their current team.
Unrelated
In fact, these matches are as short as 20-20 games if Zimbabwe bats first. I think 20-20 will be the direction of the sport. 20-20 matches featuring international teams will be more frequent in the next few years. And these will go a long way in hiding the difference in class between teams. But then 20-20 cricket is a topic for a future post.
Till then, we are taking volunteers to play practice games against international teams :).
That match was played at Sion Mills, in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, on July 2, 1969.
It was an official West Indian touring side (they lost the Test series in England that season), although the captain Garry Sobers didn’t play in this match, and the tour manager Clyde Walcott, who was 43 and had retired almost a decade previously, did. On a sporty pitch, West Indies were shot out for 25 - Grayson Shillingford top-scored with 9, and Walcott made 6: Ireland’s captain Doug Goodwin had the amazing figures of 12.5-8-6-5, and Alec O’Riordan took 4 for 18.
Ireland passed the West Indian score for the loss of one wicket, then kept on batting. It was officially a one-day, two-innings match - but there was an agreement that the side ahead on first innings would be declared the winners.
There’s a mischievous rumour that West Indies’ spectacular collapse - they were 12 for 9 at one stage - owed much to a visit to a nearby Guinness brewery, but actually there was barely time for that: they had only finished a hard-fought Lord’s Test against England late the previous day.
A big thanks to Cougarcricket sports club, which has developed a dedicated fan base if the number of subscribers to the youtube account is anything to go by.
We have seen this before. Frustrating draws against teams such as Macedonia. Despite the result, England will go through. And then get knocked out in the quarterfinals on penalties. Any idea what the odds are on that?
Scotland 1 - 0 France
What a result for the Scots! And I like this photo! Qualification might still be beyond them with the quality in the group. They have a big game coming up against Ukraine. And looks like Sheva will be out. I hope the Scots go through.
Cyprus 5 - 2 Republic Of Ireland
What a hammering! Dont think Steve Staunton has too much time left as the coach. I hear Kenny Daglish might be called in to save the qualifying campaign.
Sweden 2- 0 Spain
Further pressure on Aragones after this defeat. I don’t care much for this racist bastard. I bet the editors at Marca are having orgasms as they write heart rending editorials calling for the return of Raul. I thought Raul’s exclusion was right. Despite the goal against Atletico, he was largely anonymous that night. Spain should go through eventually (just like the World Cup) but it looks like it will be under a different coach.
Over the years, Australia’s dominance in the one-day game has been built on the performances of Gilchrist, Ponting and the other bits and pieces players and that man, McGrath. But the role of one man is under-appreciated in the one-day format.
Australia owes a lot to Matthew Hayden. Very few countries have had openers that could play both forms of the game and play this well. His pace does not match the Gilchrist’s and he isn’t as flamboyant as Ponting is. But he is strong and powerful, he is dogged and above all, he is effective.
His performance in the DLF Cup was not exceptional but he showed us that he is capable of staying there and laying the foundation for big scores. He might start off playing only about as fast as he does in the test game but once in the groove, he is capable of taking apart any attack.
Australia did a good thing in trying him during the tournament in Malaysia (I don’t think they had too many choices!!). They should play him in the Champions Trophy. the World Cup in West Indies will be played on small grounds and Hayden is very capable of handling the spinners on the slow turners. And he is more than capoable of clearing the boundaries in those grounds.
The booming cover-drives, the swivel hook and pull and the powerful push past the bowler, he is a sight to watch when in form! I hope Austalia plays him in its world Cup team as Gillie’s opening partner. And if those two get going, there can be no stopping the Aussie juggernaut.
) his day in the sun. 
