All fired up

413 for 5. The highest total ever made in the worldcup history, as a matter of fact, its the highest total in indian international cricketing history. For those who say its just minnows we have outplayed, let me clear something, we have been outplayed by the so called minnows a couple of days back and by the way, we played the 'minnows' many a times in the recent past but passing the 400 mark is something we have done it for the first time. Thanks to the wonderful knocks by Sehwag, Sachin, Yuvi and partly Dada.

Why the hell we have to a bare a loss for getting all fired up to outplay others? Am bored of watching games where we fight back taking a backstep in the early stages. Recently even my favourite club Arsenal because of which I developed the love towards football started playing similarly. They go a goal down only to fight back playing their normal beautiful flowing football. Ahh I hate it.

Everything seems to be alright with the runrate going up. Yuvi and Sachin getting to bat and infact hitting over the rope for maximum a lot many times. Sehwag getting his grip back and Dada still playing the anchor role good. Uthappa was looking good but yet again fell for a good catch. It was deliberate shot from him pushing the ball into nearly the second slip but aah what a catch from the heaviest man in the present world of cricket, the 120 kg Leverock. Sliding towards his right and puff comes the ball into his hand. Uthappa, how much unhappy he might be, has yet again fell for a good catch.
There are many aspects, god forbid , which may be looked down by the management. Sehwag still looked shaky during the early stages trying to hit the ball pitching outside offstump. Beware we are going to play one of the finest bowlers we have in this era - Chaminda Vaas and Murali. It will not be so easy for sehwag to carry on if he is going to go after every delivery during the early stages. The ball will be moving both away and into him. We know how much problem the inswinging ball has created. There will always be a huge gap between his bat and pad whatever the press and the cricket pundits say. There would also be no foot movement.Never expect that from him. Its the way he plays and will be playing in the future. You cannot change that. Players like Sehwag, Ganguly and Sattagopan Ramesh depend a lot on timing rather than footwork unlike dravid and sachin. The gap, which many bowlers recently capitalized by an inswinger and ultimately gaining his wicket is due to the lack of confidence which didnt allow him to bring the bat in line of the ball in exact time which he used to do so easily when he is 'normal'. He should thank Dravid for being so generous and having confidence in him. It would have been a disaster if he had edged any one of those few first deliveries he faced yesterday. I would love to watch him play a similar innings in the next match getting 'much' better than what he did yesterday.

Ganguly looked out of touch during his loooong stay at the crease. He took his time but its amazing to see him being troubled to find the gaps for singles(leave the boundaries) playing the balls coming at nearly 110-120 kmph. I never expected that from someone with such caliber. He again trusted his natural and favourite shot of coming down the pitch and lofting over the fielders for most of his score. What happened to the God of offside as once described by Dravid. He is not driving the ball. He is tapping the ball into the hands of fielders similar to Adebeyor tapping the footbal back into the net. He should be aware of being that slow and unable to drive the ball can be disastrous while playing the bigger teams. I dont see the fire in him i was used to see and love. He isnt talking much on the field as he used to do. Looks completely concentrated on batting sticking to the wicket. It might do some good if yuvi and sachin fires up.

What to write about this young and elegant Yuvraj Singh? He smashed the ball over the midwicket for the maximum as if the boundary is some inches away from him. Let me tell you, this is a big ground and he made the shots look so simple. Incredible stuff!! We can sit there for a whole day admiring his shots. They are very limited but its the way he uses them so efficiently to score at a rapid rate that people love watching him bat. He should be doing wonders if we are into the futher stages.

Dhoni was looking strong until that marvelous catch taken by Tucker. I couldnt believe my eyes. He positioned himself very well under the ball and didnt allow the ball to spill down his hands. What a catch to end Dhonis innings. Sachin was great. His maximums over the covers and fineleg were simply superb. I hope him to continue this form as we get into the final stages of this WC and then later on we can start talking about the 2011. Dravid turning the final delivery into a maximum helped us equal the maximum number of sixers in a limited over international. Good.

Nothing much to say about bowling attack. Agarkar was usually bad. He should be dropped for god sake. I used to believe he can play at that level but after this match I dont think so. He should be playing the ranjis forever if at all he wants to play cricket. Zaheer had a wonderful spell so is Munaf. I loved the first over of Zaheer. 5 outsingers and one inswinger. Bang on! Clean bowled. Good for us. Munaf was unlucky though. Kumble proved how dangerous he can be for the right handers.Its as expected from him to get those wickets. Would have a played a vital role in the bangladesh match if he had been in the final eleven. Bermuda's Hemp played a very good innings with all the experience from the county cricket. Bowlers struggled against him especially Agarkar. (By struggling i meant they were now where in getting his wicket. Nothing new they tried to seize him.) I expcet fielding levels to notch up a bit which can find us a spot in the super 8's.

Bottomline: Good match. Boostup for indians making the fans go silent for sometime alteast. Hated Dravid again for his lack of captaincy skills. How much I wish to see other person making the bowling changes rather he handingover the ball to the bowlers. Why didnt he bring sehwag early while the left handed players were playing? Kumble is not that good against lefties. Someone hit Dravids brain with a ball so that he starts thinking for the sake of India. Anyway we got what we required - the netrunrate going up.