Meanwhile, Down Under

Indian summer had better last a while

Australia cant hate India enough

The ICL Ads

The Good

The Chennai Superstars

The Mumbai Champs

The Bad

The Hyderabad Heroes

The Chandigarh Lions

The Downright Ugly

The Kolkata Tigers

The Delhi Jets

Oooh Aaah

Indi-yeah is where I will be, come December. And that means that blogging will be behind food (lots of food), travel, beer and cricket ( watching more than playing) in the list of priorities.

I can be contacted at Homers.email@gmail.com so, if any of you feel strongly about my (misplaced) priorities, do let me know.

Have a Safe and Wonderful Holiday season!

Gee whiz!

Why doesnt this happen with Steve Bucknor and India?

And how about this for rocket science.

Wolf Blass, anyone?

Another day,another Academy!

Kirsten has been offered a two-year contract and his basic salary could be in the region of $300,000 annually. Homer may yet coach the team for the World Cup !!

And finally, what the hell ..

Meanwhile, Durham seamer Graham Onions is set to play for Mumbai in India's other key domestic tournament, the ongoing Ranji Trophy, after an approach was made to England.

Whats wrong with the Proteas?

"I am very grateful to the club for allowing me to go to India to find out more about the job of coaching the Indian Team. I have had a chance to reflect on the offer made by the BCCI and their urgency to fill the vacant position.

"After careful consideration, I have decided to continue my work here at Kent. This has been a really difficult decision. I am honoured that India have shown such interest in my capabilities, but feel that this is the right decision for me and my family."

Graham Ford

The news is that you've been given one week to take your final decision. If that's true, what are the issues you need to take care of in the next seven days?
Yes, that's correct.

The most important thing is family. As we are aware, in international cricket you spend a lot of time away from home. I've got two young kids and it's a question of seeing them enough and still being able to do the job properly. That'll be the biggest issue and if we can get around that then certainly we can move forward in the discussions. I've had a chat with my wife and we have just got to take stock when I get back tomorrow, and have a few days of real thought to the process and look at it from all avenues

Gary Kirsten

Don't these guys talk to their spouses before taking that plane ride from South Africa to India or is family the new cop out now that Satan is no longer in circulation?

The anti-cricketing blog

http://tekcirc.wordpress.com/

Hilarious!

Tripura lose thriller despite Shetty special

Vidarbha 315 and 186 beat Tripura 201 and 287 (Shetty 130, Manoj Singh 62, Sandeep Singh 5-90) by 13 runs
Scorecard

Nishit Shetty almost masterminded an incredible run-chase, but the latter half of the Tripura innings came apart in the last 10 overs as they lost to Vidarbha by 13 runs with 10 balls to spare. Shetty scored a century at almost a run a ball to bring Tripura to within 60 runs of the required 301, with five wickets and more than 10 overs to spare.

At that point, a 75-run sixth-wicket stand between Shetty and Subal Chowdhury was ended with Chowdhury's run-out. After that, the batting collapsed, with Shetty being the last batsman to fall for a 137-ball 130. Sandeep Singh took five wickets for Vidarbha, including two at the death.

Earlier, Tripura had done well to take the last four wickets in 6.3 overs. Shetty ended with fine figures of 3 for 31.

That is the way to play the game.Unlike Delhi.

And did I mention that he is a Mumbaikar!

A tantalizing prospect

Stuart McGill may opt to skip the India tour. Uncle J Rod does not like Brad Hogg. Shaun Tait is back in action for South Australia.

Any takers for a four pronged pace attack at the MCG? Anyone?

It does't add up

Mumbai's players suddenly had a spring in their step and Abhishek Nayar soon increased the excitement by trapping Virat Kohli in front of middle stump. From 188 for 0, Delhi had slipped to 189 for 3; in a matter of minutes the balance had shifted towards Mumbai.

In the middle of all this Gambhir was treading the nervous nineties. Nayar had denied him a century in the first innings by getting him lbw when on 89. Gambhir was patient now, his primary responsibility was to bat for time given that Delhi had suddenly lost the momentum. He reached 99 with an on-drive off Nayar for his first boundary after lunch but couldn't manage a run for the next 22 balls, including three maiden overs from Ajit Agarkar who tested him with pace and movement. But Gambhir finally got the monkey off his back with a single off Powar to mid-off and repeatedly pointed towards the dressing room to show his relief.

Through the match Gambhir had had exchanges with a few Mumbai players but he showed his the other side of his temperament by staying at the wicket when all around him, on both teams, were losing their head.

The match had now become a contest in the mind. Mumbai's only intention was to defend at all costs and their bowlers, especially Ramesh Powar and Bhavesh Patel, had no qualms bowling a negative line. Gambhir and Mithun Manhas tried to force the issue initially, but settled down after a while.

Huh?

Batsmen	Runs	B	4s	6s	SR						Mat	Runs	Ave
	*G Gambhir (lhb)	137	278	13	1	49.28		striker				89	6992	53.78
	M Manhas (rhb)	16	78	2	0	20.51		non-striker				86	4908	42.31

3/189 in 68.5 overs. 3/252 in 96 overs. Which means 63 runs were scored in 27.1 overs at the incredible rate of 2.33 runs/over. Negative line - Where? Forcing the issue - When?

What game was Nagraj Gollapudi watching?

What a bunch of wimps

328 runs to win. 10 wickets in hand. 90 overs to go.

4 India caps. 1 U-19 cap. 2 old hands. A team confident enough in their batting ability to drop the centurion ( and one time captain) from their last match for this game.

And what do they do?

Score 193 runs in 76 overs of play on a wicket on which Mumbai's batsmen hammered 200 runs from 38 overs in the two-and-a-half hour morning session of the third day.

But then again, why am I surprised.

This is a team that could not close the game against Saurashtra. And one whose coach mouths platitudes like "When Shikhar hit Shoaib for a six, the entire team was jumping in joy."

This is how the points table looks like ( after 3 rounds)

Group A

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	Draw	Aban	Pts
Maharashtra	3	2	0	0	1	0	12
Delhi	3	1	0	0	2	0	11
Mumbai	3	1	0	0	2	0	9
Saurashtra	3	1	0	0	2	0	9
Karnataka	3	1	0	0	2	0	8
Tamil Nadu	3	0	1	0	2	0	4
Himachal Pradesh	3	0	2	0	1	0	1
Rajasthan	3	0	3	0	0	0	0

Delhi's remaining schedule looks like this

Himachal Pradesh v Delhi at Dharamsala - Dec 1-4, 2007
Maharashtra v Delhi - Dec 9-12, 2007
Karnataka v Delhi - Dec 17-20, 2007
Tamil Nadu v Delhi - Dec 25-28, 2007

Good luck avoiding relegation!