Saturday, November 17, 2007

ooh boo hoo

Kanishkaa Balachandran

Perhaps it's hard to expect too much out of a young side, with a few pushed into the big league earlier than expected. Raman spoke of the happy dressing-room atmosphere and a few younger players, in turn, spoke about his positive influence. As Raman put it, with a young side, the only way, is up.

If Ms Balachandran could take her blinkers off, she will have noticed that the Mumbai side is not that far older or experienced than the Tamil Nadu side.

And last season, when all and sundry were beating Mumbai ( a far less experienced and as young a side as Tamil Nadu's) nobody shed a tear for us. Au contraire.

If a team combines to total 420 runs in 153.2 overs in two innings spread over 3 days, and this at home, maybe they are not good enough to be playing at this level.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hats off to what ever Mumbai is made up of ..

Amazing that no outstanding talent came from Mumbai for last 15 years or more(hope Nayar makes it top grade) but still teams sweat to atleast compete forget abt defeating them

On other note, I hope they are defeated in every game .. I hate their dominance on domestic circuit

Cheers

Homer said...

lol cknaidu :).. it will be an interesting case study to find out what makes Mumbai tick - everytime they find themselves in a hole, there is always someone to bail them out.

And it will be a worthwhile case study too - Team India can get important pointers on team building and how the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Homer,

A bit too much of praise for Mumbai. They gave away lot of advantage against a strong Karnataka side failing to win the contest, despite leading by 142 runs....And dont forget TN has lost quite few players to ICL crap....

Mumbai has just won 1 game and yes they have started better than 2006-07. Yt a long way to go.....

Gaurav Sethi said...

Hi Homer,
I've been snooping around your blog. Enjoyed the GC debate in the comment's section - be back for more.
cheers
naked cricket

Homer said...

ashu,

You would not expect anything else from a true blue Mumbaikar would you :)
But seriously, think about it - a revamped, young team on the verge of relegation goes on to win the Ranji Championship - new coach, new captain, ace leg spinner defects to Maharashtra and yet they went on and won.

As regards the Karnataka game, yes Mumbai did not win outright, but how positive was Karnataka in thier second innings anyways?

Cheers

Homer said...

naked,

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments :)

Cheers

Kartikeya Date said...

Homer... the Karnataka game was the Rahul Dravid show in the second innings.

Mumbai were outclassed by Dravid 214 (330), and had the game included a 5th day, might well have lost in a 300+ 4th innings run chase.

When the great player imposed himself, the first class team was found wanting...

Kartikeya Date said...

The batting has been steady, but nobody has promised the huge scores which indicate genuine class and a potential international career.

Lots of batsmen can make 70, 80, 110... its the ones who consistently play big innings who will threaten the Test middle order.

Anonymous said...

AGree with Karthikeyan. One man s excellence got over the collective brilliance of a rookie team. The words of A Muzumdar as reported in the media (nothing more educative than watching Dravid bat, to his players) sums up the awed and succmed Mumbai team to the presence of India s best Test batsmen in the middle.....

Karnataka trailed by 140 odd runs in the 1st innings and had to ensure safety first approach. The day 4, Dravid accelarated and rightly declared arnd lunch time to give a chance for Mumbai to have a go.

Homer said...

Kartikeya,

that is conjecture - if the Karnataka bowlers could not restrict Mumbai to below 300 in the first essay, why do you think they would be more lethal in the second?

Cheers

Homer said...

Kartikeya,

that is conjecture - if the Karnataka bowlers could not restrict Mumbai to below 300 in the first essay, why do you think they would be more lethal in the second?

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Sir, Kumble factor on last day is always effective :)

Anonymous said...

Madam, I would have thought that Sunil Joshi would have been the greater influence on that wicket - no bounce and slow turn is not what Kumble thrives on :)