Test Cricket and Positive Mental attitude

Boycott had this to say after South Africa defeated England at Headingley.

By having such a positive mental attitude, England self-destruct toooften. The second innings was even more culpable than the first,because a number of batsmen — notably Tim Ambrose and Andrew Flintoff —managed to get themselves in and show patience for an hour or so butthen threw their wickets away.

This statement is significant because we too have a couple of batsmen who seem hell bent on playing the game in their own style regardless of the match situation.

Also. though Dhoni is not playing in the series, one thing attributed to him nowadays is his missing ability to take the bowlers by the scruff of their neck and dump them beyond the boundary. Personally, I do not hold it against Dhoni. I would consider his plodding as playing according to match situation.

So would you say, positive mental attitude be damned, a player should play according to the situation or should he play regardless of the situation.

Sri Lanka Tour - Dhoni wants out?

Rumours are gathering strength as media's report that Dhoni is all set to pull out of the Sri Lankan Tour.

However, both Dhoni and the BCCI are playing it cute.

BCCI's Niranjan Shah said no such request from Dhoni has been received.

Meanwhile Dhoni has added fuel to fire by refusing to confirm or deny rumours. He has in fact said that everything will be clear in a couple of days.

One wonders whether any negotiations are going on and if so what are they negotiating for?

Dhoni exposes Mendis trickery .

Image by Tywak via FlickrDhoni exposes Mendis trickery tricks.

Undeniably,Dhoni is a very perspective young man.

Here he analyses what makes Mendis tick:

"We play Kumble (Anil) more often it is the fast delivery that tends to come in that is lethal. But if you are playing Mendis most of the time when he flights the ball it is a googly or off spinner," he explained.

"But when he bowls a flatter one, it is generally a leg spinner and when you play inside the line like you play Kumble you will be in trouble," Dhoni said.

Asia Cup Finals - Mendis spins Sri Lanka to victory

Image by ┌└▪ [Ĥ][ż][ã][з] ▪┘┐ via Flickr

India came unstuck in the Asia Cup Final and lost to Sri Lanka by 100 runs. As expected, Ajantha Mendis literally spun a web around the naive Indian batsmen.The extent of Mendis dominance can gauged from his bowling figures of 8-1-13-6, the first six-wicket haul in the Asia Cup history.


In retrospect, Sri Lanka's strategy of resting Mendis in the earlier inconsequential game against India paid off as the India batsmen were clueless and simply floundered.Added to the unfamiliarity of facing him, the pressure of chasing in the finals found India wanting.


India fate was sealed, when they decided to field after winning the toss. It was their first error on the field. However, Dhoni had already committed one earlier by bringing in Uthappa at the expense of a bowler. The second error was sending in Yuvraj at No.3. He was all hands and feet and was cleaned up by Ajantha Mendis. His dismissal set of a fear psychosis and from then on it was just a matter of time before India capitulated.


For all his reputation for freshness and simplicity of approach, Dhoni succumbed to conservatism by packing his side with batsmen and putting his faith in them.Sadly what this defeat will do is to give voice to those clamouring forGanguly's and Dravid's inclusion in the team, which in itself is not a bad thing. Having lost 18 out of 22 finals, Dhoni and Kirsten have a long way to go to dispel the reputation of Indian's as chokers.


From an cricketing perspective, this defeat will add the necessary spice to the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.

IPL: The Chennai Super Kings squad so far

If someone told me that the Chennai franchisee would end up being the big spender, I would have laughed at his face. Turns out he had the last laugh.

The India Cements group who are the owners of the Chennai franchisee has splurged on buying Dhoni making him the most expensive cricketer in the IPL.

It would be an understatement if I describe this as most uncharacteristic. I had assumed that they would not go after the stars but instead seemed to have plunked for some big names like Hayden and Muralitharan.

As expected they have bid and won Fleming. He is a good buy in the sense that he has a good cricketing brain and as an opening bat can still wield a mean willow. However, the logic of pairing two left handers, Fleming and Hayden is beyond me.

The reason for adding Muralitharan seems emotional, however the saving grace could be the Chepauk pitch is conducive to turn and if I am not mistaken the home side, 'Chennai Super Kings' are bound to play a minimum of 4 games there.

Since they picked Raina during the second phase of the bidding, I suspect it to be an after thought. However, he is a worthy inclusion. The same can be said of Joginder Sharma.

Nitini,Morkel and Oram are safe bets and should prove their worth.

Now to the sore point, Parthiv Patel, what is he doing in a Twenty 20 squad and sickeningly what made them bid for him. Was there any trade- off?

This is how the 'Chennai Super Kings' squad looks after the bidding:

MS Dhoni

Muttiah Muralitharan

Jacob Oram

Albie Morkel

Suresh Raina

Matthew Hayden

Stephen Fleming

Parthiv Patel

Joginder Sharma

Makhaya Ntini

Nuwan Zoysa

 

What is happening?

Observe the hands in the ahem.. wrong place...

Who is fingering Sreesanth?

Kumble’s second wind

Even as I was harboring the hope that VVS Laxman would become the Captain, I knew that it was a toss up between Kumble and Dhoni.

What with the Fab 3 faltering and the ‘young blood’ showing signs of taking up the slack, I thought the selectors would be bold and daring and chart a new course by appointing Dhoni.

However, it was not to be. The selectors have timidly followed conventional wisdom and appointed Kumble. (He would have been an excellent choice, in other circumstances)

What can you say about his appointment? At best it is not a retrograde step nor is it a step forward, it is a step designed to maintain the status –quo, which in essence is neither here nor there.


(I have to admit that Kumble’s jaw line looks much more pugnacious.)

Pakistan takes the moral high ground

Pakistan’s coach has taken the moral high ground by saying that his team is looking for an incident free series.

"We just played a series against South Africa -- very hard, tough,
non-compromising cricket," he said. "But there was not one bad word said between
the teams.

"The series was played in a very fine spirit, as cricket
should be. I hope this series is played in exactly the same
style.

"We've got a captain who likes his players to behave
properly on the field," he said. "I'm pretty sure MS Dhoni likes his players to
do the same."

Good suggestion Lawson. Let us have cricket and not politics played out in the field.