Well played Delhi

In the aftermath of Mumbai's defeat, it will be uncharitable of me not to acknowledge the hunger and fight shown by Delhi in a game where a loss would have sealed their elimination.

Delhi played all the big moments of the game better than Mumbai. Amit Mishra bowled a dandy, YoMahesh showed a lot of poise and character to take 4 wickets after the shellacking he received in his first over.

With the bat, Shikar Dhawan, Manoj Tiwary and Dinesh Karthik showed maturity that belied their years. When the heat was on, one team stood up.

And they out fielded us.Which says a lot about Delhi's desperation.

And kudos to them for that.

A fine all round team effort, one that the Delhi team should be proud of.

Damn!

Two games, two nail biters, two losses.

Two more games to go, Two wins required. And then it is the semi finals.

Time to beat the Royals in their house. Go Mumbai!

Now the fun begins

Remember this?

Now, there is a Test match going on and here is what the CricInfo ball by ball commentary reads after four sessions of play -

The pitch has started showing signs of being two-faced. A few of the deliveries have jumped, a few have crept low and some have stopped. It's bound to get worse.

And, to prove that God has a sense of humour, the match referee is RS Mahanama.

The road to the semis

Now that we are at the business end of the IPL, it is time to revisit a prediction made about a month ago ( April 24th, to be exact)

Based on these roster changes,based on what has been on display so far and the depth of rosters of the various teams and the length of the tournament, I am picking the Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Daredevils to be guarantees in the playoffs.

Cricinfo has the low down of how the different teams stack up and what they need to do to get to the semis.

For Mumbai, the path is clear.. 5 to go, 5 to win and we are home and dry. Simple as that!

Who are the chokers now?

Bangalore Royally Challenged 126/8
Chennai Soopher Kinks 112/8

Sloppy cricket

12.6

Vinay Kumar to Fleming, 1 no ball, bowled him! Fleming backs away towards leg stump and tries to hit a full ball across the line towards the leg side, he misses and Vinaykumar hits the leg stump which gets uprooted and proceeds to smack Boucher on the knee just above the pad, Fleming's out but Boucher's down on the ground in some pain, whoops, Fleming's got a very lucky break, the umpire spotted that there were only three men in the circle and called a no-ball, Fleming stays and it's all very dramatic

Bloody ridiculous and worthy of another Mallya spray, imho!

A kick in the backside

thoroughly deserved

And another example of why technology should not be used to make decisions - Dwayne Smith ostensibly broke the stumps with his hands before the throw hit the stumps, a line decision that went in favor of the batsman.. Nothing of the sort with Yuvraj breaking the stumps.

Ditto the Siddharth Chitnis run out - another line decision going in favor of the bowling team.

And what of the Ashish Nehra run out - just one angle to gauge if the fielder made contact with the ropes before adjudicating the run out?

PS:- Punjab sneak a one-run thriller
I hope the team is hurting reading this headline. Or this pithy comment on Cricinfo
"This would go down as one of the classic chokes in Twenty20 history. "

Oh, and Yuvraj ("I want to tell the crowd that the crowd support was too one sided towards Mumbai. Let me remind them that some of the Punjab players also play for India.") - Fuck you!

The Sunil Gavaskar column

The Harbhajan Singh episode is finally over and the BCCI too has pronounced it's punishment for him. It was surprising to hear that some felt that it was a rap on the knuckles. But hasn't he been punished by the IPL ? Yes, what he did was wrong but he didn't sell the country did he?

The tour game

I followed, with some interest, the tour game between the Australians and the Jamaicans. And not because Ricky Ponting was in a good place and had had adequate practice against net bowlers in India ( he scored 17).

The reason I was interested in seeing how the match progressed was the Australian slip cordon and the catching.

Australia made a mess of the catching in the series against India ( both Tests and ODIs). And from the looks of it, there has not been much improvement in that regard ( 3-4 chances grassed including Haddin dropping Baugh on 7. Baugh went on to score 111).

And what makes it more interesting is the news that Matthew Hayden is iffy to start the first Test because of an Achilles heel injury.

So, Australia could well be without their regular first slipper,Ricky Ponting is no second slipper and with Clarke missing, the third slip option is also up for grabs.

And for all the talk of batting and bowling, how the slip cordon goes will determine the amount of success the Australians have in the Frank Worrell Trophy.

On scheduling

Remember when the England tour to India was announced? Remember all the brick bats hurled at the BCCI for electing a 2 test 7 ODI format in place of 3 tests?

Most of the criticism levelled then fell in three broad categories

• The death of Test cricket
• The BCCI's greed
• The BCCI's skewed priorities

all of which made sense then. And a lot of the criticism seemed justified. Until yesterday evening.

Here is the itinerary of New Zealand's tour to Australia later this year

New Zealand itinerary
Tour game v New South Wales, November 13-16, Sydney
1st Test, November 20-24, Brisbane
2nd Test, November 28-December 2, Adelaide
1st ODI, February 1, Perth
2nd ODI, February 6, Melbourne
3rd ODI, February 8, Sydney
4th ODI, February 10, Adelaide
5th ODI, February 13, Brisbane
Twenty20, February 15, Sydney

2 tests, 5 ODI's, 1 Twenty 20. I repeat - 2 Tests, 5 ODIs and 1 Twenty-20.

It has been over 12 hours since the itinerary was published.. But not a peep anywhere on

• The death of Test cricket
• CA's greed
• CA's skewed priorities

Different strokes for different folks?

A propah Englishman speaks..

I discount everything the South African Mercenary (tm) says because he is just that, a South African mercenary.

But when a proper Englishman changes his tune in the space of a little more than 2 weeks, it deserves all the attention it can get

Ravi Bopara on the 7th of May

"Of course when figures like these are put in front of you it is tempting," Bopara said, "but my goal is to play regularly for England so I'm confident that if I continue to score runs and take wickets for Essex, then I will hopefully play for England this summer and for many years to come.

"All my cricketing idols have had successful international careers and I want to emulate them. My decision was made with England in mind. I'm playing well and with a Test series coming up, if there was an injury to our batting line-up I'd like to think I'd be next in line."

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Ravi Bopara, today

"The England team picked itself for this summer, they'd won the series in New Zealand and the batsman in particular were doing well, I understood that and knew I had to prove myself again to get back into contention by playing four-day cricket for Essex and doing well, which is happening for me right now," said Bopara. "The decision I made [not to join the IPL] was just based on this season. I don't know what my decisions will be in the future, but if things continue as they are, and the offer comes along again, then I'll have a think about it, and if things haven't change for me with regards to England than I may have to reconsider my options.

PS:- Where is Sean Morris when you need him?

Shreevats Goswami

A more refined version of Robin Uthappa... Like Uthappa, plays a lot behind the wicket but looks a lot more in control when he does so.

He also seems to have a good ball sense.

And, like Abhishek Nayar, his temperament is pleasing.

His progress in the Ranji season will be worth following.

What is the truth?

THE LURE of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and its riches continues to drive a wedge between players and administrators. New Zealand Cricket (NZC) have been under mounting pressure from the IPL to release Brendon McCullum, the New Zealand wicket-keeper, for the semi-finals and final of the tournament. And such is the draw of McCullum that it is believed that NZC have turned down an offer of $1m from IPL commissioner Lalit Modi to release him.
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The Sunday Times newspaper in England claimed NZC had turned down the offer, which involved McCullum being excused from the three-day tour match against Northamptonshire to return to India for the IPL's semifinal and final.

Scheduling makes it a legitimate possibility with both the Northampton match and the IPL's semifinals and final to be played from May 30-June 1.

But Vaughan said there had been no offer put to him from IPL boss Lalit Modi. "It's complete news to me," Vaughan said.

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So who is going to retract their story and offer an apology?

Interesting news...

England's players have rejected the chance to play in a $20million winner-takes-all Twenty20 showdown against Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford's All-Star West Indies XI due to start in 2010.

The players are keen to take part in the annual big-money match at Stanford's private ground in Antigua, and an annual quadrangular tournament in England, featuring the hosts, the All-Star XI and two other international sides, initially from Pakistan, Sri Lanka or New Zealand. But the prospect of winning — or losing — such an enormous sum of money as £10m, perhaps on the misfortune of a dropped catch or the outcome of the last ball of the game, has proved too much.