THE WORLD CUP FEVER BEGINS

The World Cup 2011 is fast approaching and every team must be raring to give their best performance for the 1 and a half  month mega event. The fact that only 14 teams play the tournament and there are only two groups means that the six minnow teams participating in the tournament - Kenya, Canada, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Netherlands and Ireland - will have the least chance to qualify for the next round. Once the group stages of the tournament are over then it will be a knock out from there on where eight teams will be left over and those eight teams will play for the title.

CONTENDERS

One could remember the history that in a similar group in the 2003 WC Kenya gave their best performance in history of their cricket and they made the Semi finals. So you never know who would go how far in the tournament. Now looking at each teams performance in the past six months are so, you will conclude that no team has stayed consistently at the top in the limited overs format but for Australia and England. These two teams have been the most consistent teams in both T20 and the ODI format the latter being better than the former in both the formats. This is a golden period of cricket for English cricket. They won the ashes 2009 and won the World T20 2009 and now also the Ashes at Australia home.. Australia were on the losing end in all these occasions and they lost the Ashes at home by quite a big margin. But still they could be a strong contender. They won the Champions trophy in 2009 just after the Ashes loss. Australia have always come back hard. One could never forget the 6-1 series win in England just after the Ashes loss and even now The OZ have come back hard, they are 3-0 up in a seven match series. Clarke and Ponting are not finding form, but the Aussie captain and the vice captain are well known fighters and they will come back hard in the world cup. Comeback of Lee could have boosted the team.

The team missed him badly in the Ashes. England on the other hand have got their best team at present and have got almost all of its players in form. Pietersen and Collingwood would be the players that England would look out for. Collingwood is going through a lean patch but the most experienced ODI player from the Country knows how important his role in the world cup for his team is.

South Africa are a strong team on paper and they have got the quality to win any team. In fact, they have won almost all teams all over the world. They won Australia in Australia, India in India, England in England and this side has got almost everything to be there at the top. With the likes of Kallis, Duminy, DeVilliers, They got the strongest middle order at present on the planet and if these three can strike form, then this team would be the team to look out for. Harsha referred to Kallis
as Sobers of the current age and rightly his bowling ability has provided a lot of flexibility for Smith to go for an additional batsman over a specialist bowler. 

New Zealand look a weak side in itself. It lost to a second rated Indian team 5-0, lost to Bangladesh 5-0. They have in no way impressed me and I think they would be one of the underdogs in the tournament. Vettori would be wondering of what he can do for the team just before quitting the captaincy. West Indies have been the same. The side has failed to impress in the past 6 years since they won the champions trophy in 2004. That finals was a fighting performance, they won the game after they were 7 down. But its a long time i have seen them put up a fighting performance.

The sub-continental team will have an added advantage of the conditions and the captains and players will be in a right position to choose the right combination for any given match. Pakistan has got its best chance to prove to the world that it is still one of the powers in world cricket. The team is not gelled and it will be in the hands of Afridi to knit the team together and give one of their best performance. Pakistan have not qualified over the group stages for the past two world cups after they were the finalist in the 1999 world cup. Sri Lanka had an improved 2007 world cup. The runner ups of the tournament declined since the world cup and much will depend on how Sangakkara keeps his team focussed towards the tournament. Sri Lanka have already won the tournament in the sub continent in 1996 under Ranatunga and this history would make them feel better.

India could be one of the strongest sides in the tournament, their top three names could suffice the entire opponent. Gambhir will definitely play at no.3 with Sehwag and Tendulkar opening the innings. At no.4 what may be called as the position India were struggling to find a player, Kohli would be the best player to play in. It will be tough job for Dhoni to select two players out of Raina, Kohli and Pathan. Pathan could be a lot destructive at the end and can change the course of the game in just matter of 5 -6 overs as he did in South Africa in the last one dayer and against New Zealand in the just concluded series. Kohli is in top form. He has got 1672 runs from 45 matches at an average of 46 and in home conditions, he could really be the man to look out for.Raina is struggling to find form and he could be the scape goat but he can be destructive too on his given day. Dhoni will also have tough time choosing his bowlers. Zaheer will be the spear head, but who will take the new ball along side him? Praveen kumar is a genuine  Swing Bowler and he could be one of the good options. Ashish Nehra could be good bowler at death - he has got good yorker which are still a good technique of picking up wickets. Harbhajan will have to perform well, he would be the main bowler and India's trump card.

India has got good chance of winning the tournament but what they will have to do is believe in themselves that they can win. I would put Australia, England, South Africa and India into the semi finals and from there its any body's tournament.

FITNESS MUST BE THE TOP PRIORITY

The latest headlines regarding the Indian team doesn't make any of the Indian fans smile. It says that all the three top front line bowlers are not fit enough to play the president's XI game starting tomorrow. Zaheer and Sreesanth have already been replaced and Harbhajan is not a sure starter to the tournament as well. As the selectors would have sat down to pick a replacement for Sreesanth in Munaf Patel and Zaheer in Mithun, there still remain a few unanswered questions.

What is the NCA doing to keep the fitness of players in India. Is there a fault with the system or is there fault with players? Blaming the system can be totally meaningless. Even players like Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Venkatesh Prasad have evolved from the same system. Dravid has just missed two test matches since his debut and has the record of playing second most number of consecutive test matches(94) and no one can ever forget Anil Kumble playing against West Indies even with his jaws broken.

Now this projects another question into the minds of the fans. Are the players lacking in commitment level? If that is so then the players should not be allowed to play even the domestic tournament. The advent of IPL has justified this fact as well. Not many players have converted their franchise level performances into international ones. Yusuf Pathan and Rohit Sharma are the best examples of this. Those players who lack in commitment level and in fitness are the least wanted players by any team. Yuvraj Singh, one of the finest fielder of the world looked so lame in the field in the World T 20. Subsequently he was dropped from the squad of Asia cup. These are all points to ponder for the selection committee. Yuvraj was neither in form with the bat or ball and was nor fit.

Once the selectors find that the player is losing some form, they send him back to the domestic circuit and allow him to get some form. But the selectors are least worried about the fitness of the players and they want the player to perform till he is able to and give him a break only when he requests for it. This is what ends up in fatigue factor and the players struggle to keep themselves fit. When the player requests for a break, the entire nation criticize him as a money eater who plays only the cash rich IPL. But no one really realizes that IPL is mainly cricket. Money is just a by-product of IPL. Only a committed player could be able to perform in IPL too.

One solution to this fitness issue is to keep rotating the players and giving them regular break. But by this way India would be projected as one of the weak nations around the world. It must be the players who put more stress on fitness rathes than skill or form. A player who is fit can always get back to form easily, but a player who has lost fitness takes a lot of time to come back. Spain's Fernando Torres who won them the Euro 2008 did not score even in the just concluded WC and certainly his future is in doubt. He has not shown any signs of getting back to form and in the finals he played only the last 15 minutes of the 120 minutes that were played and he played an unusual left winger role.

So whatever the mentors of the present generations teach them, just teach the kids how to be fit and consistent. Once a player is fit, his form and victories are sure to come by.

LAST CHANCE FOR BOTH TEAMS

It will be the last chance for the two teams to have any chance to reach the semi finals in the DLF IPL 2010 when Kolkata takes on Jaipur at the Eden Gardens. Ganguly well knows that his side needs to win both the games to come and also that the other results must go his team's way to give the KKR any chance to make it to the semi finals. Ganguly knows well that he will have to inspire his domestic players to win the game that Shane Warne has been doing for the past three seasons. The domestic players have been a key to the success of the Rajasthan Royals and Warne would expect the same to happen today as well.

JUST A STATISTICAL CHANCE

Both captains will know though that its just a statistical chance since three teams are there in with 14 points already and atleast two of those teams can go up to 16 points. This would mean that only one team with 14 points can go through and in that case the net run rate would matter a lot. The RCB have the best NRR and the next best is CSK and these two teams will have the best chance to go through to the knock out stages of the tournament. The DD have got a game against the DC which would mean that the winner of that game can have an assured ticket to the semi finals and the loser will have to wait for the other results to go their way. So once that game is finished there will be at least two teams that would have reached the semi finals and the game today between RCB and MI can also ensure that RCB goes through if they win the tournament. So by enlarge there would be three teams at a minimum with 14 points out of which one team would go through to the semi finals.

Dada and Warne would be well aware of this statistic and both would look to win the game big with better run rate and try and keep their hopes alive to reach semi finals. The KKR have already conceded a lot of negative run rate against the CSK and now that will give the CSK an edge to reach the semi finals once they win their last encounter against the KXIP. Consider the case that CSK loses to the KXIP, it would mean that for the first time in the IPL they would not finish in the top four and would keep the doors for KKR and RR wide open.

THE GAMES PERSPECTIVE

Last time when these two teams met, RR won the game by 37 runs. KKR had the wickets in hand but they failed to accelerate the run rate and eventually lost the game. Then in that team, Ganguly was trying to find form, no Gayle and McCullum were available. Now they have got all the three. Gaguly has already hit three half centries in this tournament and Gayle is back to his best. McCullum is still to find his touch - coming back from a test match tournament would not have helped him - but i am sure that he can get to tandem very quickly. Only cause of concern for the KKR is their bowling and fielding. Just as Ganguly said, they really were pathetic in their game against the CSK and the RCB and i guess the skipper would have surely worked on a lot to sort these problems. Having CSK losing their game against the DD, KKR would fancy their chances because it is still anybody's tournament.

The RR on the other side would look for Shane Watson and Yusuf Pathan to fire in some good innings today. Yusuf Pathan has had a fair IPL - he has had just one good innings, a century against the MI- and Watson didn't look quite good against the RCB. Both these batsman are those that RR would rely much on. Not to forget that Naman Ojha has had a tremendous series and these three can take thee game totally away from the Kolkata side. I wonder if Shane Warne would look to play Yusuf Pathan. The longer he bats, the more he scores and more destructive he becomes.

The stage is well set for a beautiful Saturday with two fantastic match on cards and i would love to see the results go favoring the RCB.

THE RCB HAVE A POINT TO PROVE

The Royal Challengers Bangalore have got a point to prove when they meet the Mumbai Indians today in their final league game of the tournament and Anil Kumble would want to win the game and ensure the birth in semi finals rather than depending on the other results. The team has got the quality and ability but it still has suffered a few set backs. The team lost both of its matches against the DC both of which it should have won. With the likes of Kallis, Pietersen, Uthappa, Dravid in batting and the likes of Steyn and Kumble in the bowling, this team has got the best balance in this tournament but still lacks something in it because of which it has lost six of its games.

DRAVID BACK IN FORM

The team management would be happy to see Dravid back in form. Dravid was promoted up the order in two games one against KKR and DC and Dravid had scores of 52(35) and 49(35) respectively. He was aggressive and was classical as well. Dravid is kind of player who would like to spend some balls in the middle and then go for the big shots. That was the way he played against the KKR when he was just 39 of 31 balls and hit Agarkar for a couple of consecutive sixes. Dravid is still perishable for that slow ball - both these games he was out trying to hit a slow ball- but i am sure the maestro would correct his mistakes in the upcoming matches. Of the 9 boundaries hit by the RCB against the DC, 8 were hit by Dravid and all of those shots came of sheer timing and placement. Kumble would want to have his service in today's match up against MI and in the semi finals and the finals of the tournament.

THE HOME ADVANTAGE

The team will have the added home advantage, Sachin has support all over India though. The team would want to ensure that they win this game because they know that this is just the 52nd match and there are four more to go and anything can happen in the course of those four matches. Anil Kumble would like to take the home advantage in this case and none other than him know that Bangalore pitch better. M.Chinnaswamy stadium has been a wonderful center for Indian cricket and when the two of the greats meet each other, it would be really a great game.

STEYN TENDULKAR FACE OFF

One face off that i would love to see is between Steyn and Tendulkar. The world's premier bowler bowling to the cricket's best batsman. The key to Sachin's success is been scoring of almost every balls he has played. Ironically the key to Steyn's success is bowling a large number of dot balls. It would really be interesting how Steyn varies his pace against Tendulkar because the champion batsman uses the pace of the ball very effectively and the main essence of Steyn's bowling is pace.

MUMBAI WOULD NOT RELAX

Though Mumbai Indians have already qualified to the semi finals, I don't think that Sachin would ever allow his men to relax. We saw that against the DD when the MI won the game which actually DD where very much in course of winning. Pollard at last had the last laugh with that superb innings against DD and complimenting the batting performance with an all round show of bowling and fielding. Tendulkar would like to keep winning and keep the momentum their way which most important in this format of the game.

The RCB have got the fire power with them and they would need to perform on field. They are definitely a better side on paper, and given the home advantage, they are definitely the favourites for the game.

Superb Suman, Excellent Rohit, Pitiable KXIP

It was a superb match last night between the KXIP and DC. DC won it by 5 wickets and the match witnessed some superb batting performances. In my last blog i mentioned all the three teams with foreign captains have got just a theoretical chance to make it through to the semi finals but the DC skipper Gilchrist would be happy that his team has reached 14 points and now he knows that he has got a fair chance of making it to the semis. Another win would ensure them a birth in the semis, but that is not going to come easy against a side that beat CSK at home. DC have got their last match against the DD tomorrow and more importantly it is at Delhi.

THE PITCH

At the toss both the skippers said that the pitch had the amount of grass more than all the other pitches put together in this tournament. Both the captains wanted to bowl first at the toss but the outcome of the match was 352 runs in thee span of 39.1 overs with three half centuries. Were the captains wrong in judging the pitch? I guess they were not. Any captain would love to bowl at a grassy pitch. How can one forget the defeat that India had against Bangladesh in the 2007 world cup. Dravid won the toss and ,on a grassy wicket just as the one last night, chose to bat first. India were all out for 192 and Bangladesh won the match by 5 wickets. India eventually crashed out of the tournament.

BATSMEN CALL THE SHOTS

Yesterday it was purely a batsmen day on a purely bowling track. Right from the start of the innings the batsmen took charge. Kumar played another beauty of innings and showed why he is the best wicket keeper batsman in the world, Adam Gilchrist being retired from International cricket. Mahela held the innings and once Kumar was gone he played his shots. He started to play those big shots from the 16th over. He scored five gorgeous boundaries of RP Singh in the 17th over and in a T20 game a single over can just turn around any match.

The DC innings started with couple of quick wickets more importantly that of Adam Gilchrist. Gilchrist is due for his big innings and any opposition would vary of it even though he is not in form at the present. DC were 54 for 2 just when Rohit walked in. Suman and Sharma set up a beautiful partnership of 66 runs in just 40 balls when Suman got out to Chawla. Rohit stood up from there and finished the game from there on.

But then why were both teams able to post such big totals on which any team would struggle to bat? It could be the experience of Jayawardene that earned him that 93 and Sangakkara that he was able to score a brilliant 52. But from the DC the batsmen who shined were far less experienced than the two Sri Lankans. Suman is going through a purple patch in his career and this IPL could well put his career in the track. Rohit Sharma has got a chance to prove himself again in the World T20 starting on April 30th. Rohit is really a class player and he does not have the numbers that he should posses.

TEAMS FACE STERNER TEST

The average first innings score in this IPL is over 170 and we have seen a lot of big chases in this IPL. So it was not surprising for me to see both these teams go up to 170 plus scores and the result going the chasing team's way. But this IPL has also got a team that has not lost a match defending any total in excess of 140. Indiscriminate of who qualifies for the semi finals, all the four teams would have to face a very sterner test and the teams would be looking for their out of form senior players to come back to form and win the games for them. It is more important that the teams get their combination right, going by form rather than seniority or player worth.

The IPL effect

The IPL has had a great impact all over the world more importantly back home in India by having the virtue of giving the Indian youngsters the right chances. It was great to see T.Suman and H.Singh help the Deccan Chargers win their games against RCB tice and once against the CSK. The main idea behind creating such a league would have been the same. The fact that Indian players are allowed to share their dressing rooms with a lot of foreign players and their childhood heroes themselves means that these youngsters have got a lot of encouragement and these youngsters have got the best opportunity of establishing themselves in the international arena. Even Krishnamacharri Srikanth would not have thought that he would have such a big pool of players to select a squad of 18- imagine how competitive it is if the squad does not has the service of players like Robin Uthappa, Sourabh Tiwary who are absolutely in form, Pragyan Ojha who holds the purple cap in the IPL.

It is really a nice feeling to see so many local players performing in the league and what makes it more interesting is the way the seniors in the team have stood up front to inspire the youngsters. Tendulkar and Kallis have been on the race for the orange cap. Kumble is the most economical bowler in this IPL. Symonds has served his side with an all round performance(he is the only player to score over 250 runs and 10 wickets in this IPL). Ganguly has showed the same zeal that he had while leading the Indian national side. Sangakkara and Jayawardane have showed their team how to win games. Dhoni has proved why he is one of the best captains India has ever got and Collingwood proved why he is still one of the most competitive player from the English side.

One regret that i still have with this league is that both the seasons of this tournament have been won by foreign captains and to be more precise Australian Captains. This never means that Indian captains are any way lesser than the Australian ones. Reaching the semi finals could be a collective show of consistency and from there on it is one of play and any day can be a good day for any team. Remember that even Zimbabwe beat Australia in the first World T20, none of the IPL teams can be compared to Zimbabwe though. May be the Indian captains become desperate towards the end of any innings - may be they would be in need of wickets or in need of quick runs.

Both Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist kept cool in the finals of the tournament. Warne's RR side was chasing a modest total of 160 which in the frist edition of the IPL was considered to be a good one- teams used to struggle to keep their run rates to 8 - and the moment Billy Bowden declared Yusuf Pathan not out of a bouncer from Balaji, Dhoni just became so wild and from there the game changed. The ball had just went through Pathan's helmet and everyone on the ground except Billy and Pathan. When playing the last three overs the CSK became so desparate of wicket but they forgot the fact that RR had already lost seven wickets and had they gone for saving the boundaries, they would have won the game. The same way RCB lost the finals of the last edition by trying too much to go for the boundaries. Rather their job would have been done with just singles. They had done well to restrict the DC to 140 but still lost the game.

Irrespective of who wins tha DLF IPL I would like to see an Indian captain lift that trophy which could be possible if none of the three teams with foreign captains qualify for the semi finals. The KXIP are almost eliminated and the RR and DC have got just a theoretical chance to be in there.

This would eventually mean that one of the Indian captains is going to win the tournament for the first time and I would be the happiest man if that Indian is the Bangalore captain Anil Kumble.