Saturday, April 18, 2009

Chennai Soopher Kinks ka whistle podu

Mumbai 165/7 beat Chennai 146/7 by 19 runs.

Whistle podu!

Posted by Homer at 4/18/2009 10:18:00 AM

35 comments:

Maithreyi said...

Huh.

The CSKers need to get their little branded yellow and blue notepads out and start taking notes from the Mumbai Indians.

The MI batted and bowled to a definitive plan, and fielded brilliantly. They reminded me, in many ways, of what the Indian team managed to do so successfully in the '07 T20 WC. Sachin was a brilliantly solid rock at one end, and the others batted superbly around him. They acclerated at exactly the right time, and Nayar hitting those 3 sixes off Flintoff proved priceless in the end. Running was excellent.

Super Kings on the other hand? Bowling at the death was our BANE last time round, and so was it this time. I mean to say, 102 runs in the last 10 overs? I was ready to throw the remote at the TV (again) and stalk off. As for the fielding/catching, "pathetic" just about *begins* to cover it. Maybe.

They went out to bat with seemingly no plan, and the top order looked as rusty as an iron nail on the submerged Titanic. Raina tried and succeeded in desperately throwing away his wicket and tell me why Parthiv is in the XI again?

Hayden, Dhoni and Flintoff tried hard, they really did, but the damage had been done as Malinga, Bravo and Bhajji were EXCELLENT. Fielding/catching was nothing short of fantastic and efficient.

I'm not as disappointed with this loss as I thought I would be. We can only improve from here - get Haydos a good opener, insert Morkel in and get the fielding mojo back on and I think we'll be ready to roll.

CSK needs to pull its shit together before it hits the fan.

11:05 AM, April 18, 2009
Homer said...

Maithreyi,

Powder blue beats canary yellow.. Has a nice ring to it :)

Cheers,

11:07 AM, April 18, 2009
Maithreyi said...

The powder blue sucks. I loved the MI uniforms last year.

Oh, we'll beat you still!

And I like to think of it as a "startingly bright yellow". Like the sun.

"Canary" sounds so... mellow.

... and more like a description of a result of a result in my biochemistry manual... which, by the way, I should be studying now. Hmph. Blasted match has spoilt my mood rotten.

11:09 AM, April 18, 2009
Tifosi guy said...

Homer

I think during the IPL, you and I are going to have quite some tasty views :)

My main team is Chennai Super Kings and you obviously have Mumbai.

First blood to you, well played to Mumbai. CSK had a neat rickety rusty ride. No worries. We'll dust ourselves and get back.

Now, off to see Warnie bowl. Just love the whole IPL for this one thing mainly. Warne bowling... How many countless hours I've spent in front of the telly watching THE LEGEND bowl. Pure bliss...

12:15 PM, April 18, 2009
Leela said...

Congratulations Homer.
Whistle podu indeed!!

12:45 PM, April 18, 2009
Maithreyi said...

Rajasthan just lost to Bangalore.

By 75 runs.

Bowled out for 58.

58.

Ha!

THIS makes things suddenly a WHOLE lot better. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised to see a BRC v DC final.

2:19 PM, April 18, 2009
RGB said...

Raje ahead of Kulkarni ???

3:03 PM, April 18, 2009
Homer said...

lol RGB.. My thoughts exactly.. :)

Cheers,

3:05 PM, April 18, 2009
Homer said...

Maithreyi,

Best you dont watch the return match.. Chennai cannot afford to lose its only half decent doctor in training :)

Cheers,

3:06 PM, April 18, 2009
Homer said...

Tifosi Guy,

My only team is Mumbai... BTW, was Ashwin the quota player for CSK?

And Warnie.. what can one say but "Bring Warnie for the Ashes... As captain" :)

Cheers,

3:08 PM, April 18, 2009
Homer said...

Thanks Leela :)

3:10 PM, April 18, 2009
Homer said...

Maithreyi,

DC v BRC? Really? no.. REALLY?

Cheers,

3:10 PM, April 18, 2009
Ottayan said...

You rejoice too early. :)

8:34 PM, April 18, 2009
Homer said...

Ott,
umm.. We won, didn't we?

Cheers :),

8:38 PM, April 18, 2009
Anonymous said...

Well, that boy from Ranchi seems to be hell-bent on keeping the southies in their place. What a selection - joginder 'northie' sharma ahead of Balaji. Then he picks and doesn't give ashwin a over.If he doesn't have faith in people who don't speak hindi, why doesn't he move to delhi or. Punjab or mumbai. Oh I forget - with sachin around, mumbai doesn't need him; delhi has sehwag;only punjab can take him instead of cool dude yuvraj.

Dhoni's lack of trust in southies and spinners - thushara over murali? - will eventually fade his magic away - even now,it is clear that it was luck that saved him all along - he made some really stupid moves yest.
And flintoff? Idiot srinivasan deserves the performance flint gave yesterday - 24 off 23 - if rahul did that, dopaise will write a long. Article why he is. Not suited for 20-20
A juicy pitch, and the combined contri of kohli, taylor, dosauthappa and ryder is 6, 1100% less than dravid.

Even last year, dravid it was who scored 75 off 36 balls against quality attack of jaipur. Yet, people are saying he is not suited for 20-20. Homer, you aren't saying it now but I guess a cople of bad perf from rahul and you too...

I don't know why moron toi reporters and bloggers cannot check facts before making stupid dravid jokes

2:38 AM, April 19, 2009
Prabu said...

Serves CSK right for not trusting their local talent. Dhoni's alck of trust over domestic players and always giving preference to internationals is going to bite him hard again. He did that last year by choosing Kapugadera over Badri in the final to lost that game and he still hasn't learnt his lesson. I'd rather support MI than CSK if they are not going to support local talent.

3:01 AM, April 19, 2009
Naresh said...

Nice to see the two 36 year olds play couple of neat knocks. Also nice to see those great 39-40 year old leggies bowl.

Loved both the results. Mumbai's win as they are the "home team" for me, Bangalore for the sake of Rahul and Anil (who looked nice and fit).

4:37 AM, April 19, 2009
sv said...

Costly flintoff cost CSK the match with his 3-sixes over...

4:57 AM, April 19, 2009
Tifosi guy said...

Pipe down mates. One game, and already you all are on Dhoni's back. For those who say he is after Intl players, well he can choose only four. So what gives there ?

Be realistic - MI are not really that bad a team ( chokes of last year nothwithstanding :) ), and we lost by 19 runs. Fair to say if either Hayden/Flintoff had stayed for a couple more overs, CSK would have won.

Anyways, there isn't a need to get so worked up over team selection after ONE GAME.

5:22 AM, April 19, 2009
Homer said...

Anonymous,

When Mumbai is playing, I really dont care much about other teams or personalities.

Dhoni goofed up - more power to him.. RD is a bonafide T20 player - more power to him too..

Mumbai wins - thats all that matters :).

Thanks for your comments and welcome to the blog.

Cheers,

7:11 AM, April 19, 2009
Homer said...

Welcome onboard Prabu :)

Cheers,

7:12 AM, April 19, 2009
Homer said...

Naresh,

SRT is not yet 36 :).

Cheers,

7:14 AM, April 19, 2009
Homer said...

sv,

Abhishek Nayar for national colors?

Thanks fort your comments and welcome to the blog.

Cheers,

7:15 AM, April 19, 2009
Maithreyi said...

Ramachandran Ashwin was in the XI and didn't get a bowl??

... I'm trying to get angry at Dhoni, I really am.

...

... Nope, not working.

He used the 1.55 mn dollar guy on a bad day, and things didn't work out. End of story.

7:24 AM, April 19, 2009
raj said...

Well, Dhoni goofed up badly - and that doesnt sit nicely on his great captain image, thats the crux really. Homer, I understand what you mean when you say MI won and nothing else matters. To be fair, when you see Sachin playing like that, anyone in India will be tempted to support MI over their local team :-).
But this Dhoni - I wouldnt take yesterday's match in isolation and say he is a bad captain. But I'd take that in conjunction with his last year's IPl and surely say that he is not the greater-than-Sourav captain that he is touted to be - not yet, atleast.
Take yesterday - Thushara ahead of Murali, fair enough, ok, you took Ashwin as spinner so a seamer international made sense but then you go ahead and not give Ashwin an over- and this on a day when spinners clearly ruled the roost. Ok, he was bowling the first innings so he couldnt have known but a great captain certainly reads conditions and pitches better - ergo, Dhoni, you arent great yet. Got it? You might still be good but if you were great, you wouldnt have made that basic a mistake of preferring a 5-member same type seam attack, when every other captain on the day had the nous to use his spinner intelligently. On that count, Mahender, you were the worst captain on display on the opening day of IPL-2. Hope that puts some perspective on the heads of your supporters.

Then, promoting Flintoff - Flint the batsman has been a washout, the whole of England knows it yet you promote him ahead of Badri and yourself? Flint needs 20 balls to play himself in, and he wasted momentum created by Hayden. Yourself, Oram and Badri were under pressure from the word go and quite defendably, failed. So, where is your nous as captain? Even promoting Oram would have made sense. I hope you have the sense to pick Morkel instead of Flintoff in the next match rather than alongside. Or, pick Flintoff as a bowler and #9 batsman, any higher position deserves a better batsman than Flintoff.

The 5 seamer mistake, Dhoni made in Bangalore last year also, dropping Murali - but he got away that time luckily, and that was a thing that added to his aura as agreat captain. He repeated that mistake this time - and since luck is capricious, this time it deserted him. Last year, during that Bangalore match, I had been baffled his stupid use of 5 seamers, even useless ones like Joginder just because he doesnt trust his spinners - but nobody in the media criticised him for that -and now the defeat will open his eyes, I hope.

And please just because someone is a Sharma, he doesnt deserve a place over a southie, as anon says. Dhoni has been very provincial in selection, sidelining Badri at every opportunity available in the national setup, and ignoring Balaji in the NZ tour even though Munaf Hindi Speaking Patel was pathetic. He has to get over his prejudice to be truly succesful - that is where you can learn from Sourav Dada Ganguly, Mahender. The earlier the better.

2:37 AM, April 20, 2009
raj said...

And Rahul Dravid, he really stuck it up the noses of his detractors didnt he? Take that Vijay 'Village Idiot' Mallya!

2:41 AM, April 20, 2009
Prabu said...

Raj,

I don't blame Dhoni alone but the CSk set up for this. To blame this as a North-South thing owuld be simplistic IMO. Dhoni prefers to use what he has seen.

The problem lies with the CSK management team, including VBC. CSK sent back Suresh kumar instead of Joginder - on what basis really? Looking at the way Joginder was batting, you'd be left wondering why he is even considered an all rounder. Suresh Kumar has done brilliantly this year for TN as an allrounder and the TN team is the List A champions for heaven sake. And you only have 3 people from that team in this squad! Abhinav Mukund has had a phenomenal year and yet has just been sent back along with Suresh, Anirudha, Vidyut and Napo Einstein! I am actually thinking of rooting for CSK to lose this year so they can do some course correction. It hardly resembles Chennai that I have no qualms in turning my back to this team.

5:20 AM, April 20, 2009
raj said...

prabu, you think Dhoni doesnt have an hand in favouring Joginder over Suresh, Abhinav or Vidyut for God's sake - a Vidyut with 50% form is a better allrounder than Joginder.
Dhoni doesnt trust Badri either - even in last IPL, when Badri was in great form, he used to send the crappy kapugadera ahead. he has some serious problems with non-Hindi guys - the earlier he corrects this the better for him.

7:02 AM, April 20, 2009
raj said...

Who is Sudeep Tyagi? Why is he preferred over Abhinav Suresh or Vidyut to stay? What has he achieved in last year in Ranji, List-A tournament, challengers?
Is he a bowler? Even if, what is his credentials? You might as well keep Vidyut instead of this Tyagi? Then again, Tyagi is not a local name - maybe, just maybe, our man Mahinder isnt as undiscriminative as Dada?

7:39 AM, April 20, 2009
Homer said...

Raj,

After today's result, surely a change of heart is in order.. And Munaf is Gujju, unless everything north of Chennai is categorized as hindi speaking :).

Not using Ashwin was a surprise, and the continued use of Parthiv is a surprise too.. Tat said, I think the CSK's are working towards their best XI and look like they have pretty much nailed it - Vijay for Parthiv up the order and someone for Joginder down the order and you have a pretty formidable unit.

Not that they can beat Mumbai... But thats a whole different story :)

Cheers,

7:13 PM, April 20, 2009
Homer said...

Prabu,

Yeah, the Abhinav Mukund non selection is intriguing..Especially when he outperformed both Badri and Vijay in the domestic season.

Cheers,

7:15 PM, April 20, 2009
Homer said...

Raj,

"Others up for honours at the BCCI awards ceremony for 2007-08, to be held on February 18, include Cheteshwar Pujara and Sudeep Tyagi, who win prizes for the best batsman and bowler in domestic cricket."

55 wickets in 15 matches at 25.65 and an rpo of 3.24.. If Chennai dont want him, I am sure Mumbai will take him :)

Cheers,

7:18 PM, April 20, 2009
raj said...

Homer, yeah, that was frustration speaking - but really, Dhoni has shown some (either dumbness or discrimination) consistently - the continuous picking of Joginder Sharma is a clear indication. Ofcourse, Munaf is Gujrati but he speaks hindi comfortably doesnt he? I'll tell you of a cricinfo report from Sri Lanka when Balaji joined the team - Praveen Kumar and Balaji were breakfasting together and getting to know eeach other apparently and the rookie paceman(praveen) asked Balaji suddenly "Do you know Hindi?" to which Balaji meekly replied "Theek thaak bol leta hoon yaar". That, to me, represents a mindset that is unacceptable in a country like India with its eclectic mix. It looks like even a rookie from heartland by default expects his seniors to know Hindi - and this sort of thing is unacceptable in a country where there are a multitiude of languages. Its got to be English - even thouth people bring patriotism to the mix and say its foriegn. The mindset of the average hindi speaking Cricketer that anyone he meets in the natl setup SHOULD speak Hindi is disturbing and certainly not in the spirit of unity in diversity.

As for Tyagi, what did he do in 2008-09, thats the question?

Watch out, Warne might outwit Mumbai today. I'd be very happy if he doesnt but I'd not wager against him!

2:11 AM, April 21, 2009
raj said...

Wht I find even more funny is Arun Karthik is still there while the far more succesful Abhinav Mukund has been laid off.

2:12 AM, April 21, 2009
Homer said...

Raj,

The Abhinav Mukund non selection is daft.I am sure VB Chandrashekhar has something to say about it in his blog. Or not :)

Cheers,

9:19 AM, April 22, 2009

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