While the rest of the world kids itself fawning over one good performance from inconsistent pricks in one match out of four, Australia is busy building up a bench strength with skill and the experience to more than hold their own against the best at the tournament that matters: the 2011 ODI World Cup.

They’ve rested two big time MVPs Shane Watson and Brad Haddin and replaced them with Tim Paine and Adam Voges for the 3rd and 4th ODIs against West Indies.

Tim Paine has been excellent as an opening batsman/wicketkeeper in his short run in international cricket. The dude scored a load of fluent 50’s and a century in England and in the Champions Trophy in South Africa in the time he replaced an injured Brad Haddin.

Voges has had a decent run but no really memorable performances which would make you want him in your team. He’s a under bowled all rounder who bats too low and that makes and whether he will make it to the playing eleven is also a doubt. James Hopes is the guy more likely to replace Shane Watson over Adam Voges being a regular, experienced ODI bowler.

Ponting had a less than mediocre series against Pakistan while McKay, Hauritz and Ryan Harris stole the limelight from Bollinger; both had a good outing at Adelaide to help Australia gain a 2-0 lead.

Mitchell Johnson too could be rested and Australia could try out a purely second choice pace selection of Bollinger, McKay and Harris. The trio did well against Pakistan and look good to run through the Windies.

That they are confident enough to rest their key players before securing the series shows how well the reserves have performed.

Dwayne Smith has been among the better of the West Indian players along with Kieron Pollard on this tour. It would be better for the West Indies if these two start bowling as well as they are batting. Rampaul, Roach and company haven’t had much success and the batting is not exactly helping.

The top order has been pathetic; Runako Morton’s continued failure should see him make way for Wavell Hinds. Chris Gayle has admitted that Doug Bollinger has figured out a weakness; having discovered the problem he has no time to sort it out or West Indies will be out of the series.

He also needs to find a place for Brendan Nash in the line up after the repeated failures of both Travis Dowlin and Lendl Simmons saw the Windies 4 down with barely any runs on the board in the first two ODIs.

On another note, they both chomp stuff, they’re both likeable, both have fcking ghosts on their asses all the time and have a similar pose to celebrate their respective achievements. Co-incidence? I don’t think so.

See stuff, eat stuff

England hung on for a draw at the Centurion by the skin of an Onion peel….

…..

Puns aside, South Africa earned those wickets with their persistence, England just thought it’d be the right thing to do as the South Africans do when in South Africa and tried their best to choke. Useless as they are, couldn’t even pull that off properly.

Swann was spectacular, he totally repaid my faith to keep him in the team instead of Stuart Broad and made me repent my decision to appoint Collingwood my trump player.

Shades of Cardiff yes but let’s hope the rest of the series creates a plot of it’s own, something as far removed from the Ashes as possible. In fact, I want the visiting team to win this series.

My primary interest in this tour is that a South African series win will see them regain the top spot in test rankings and displace the team that I think should head the table. I think the team at the top of the test table should not only remain there but they should also climb to the top of the ODI table.

Which brings me to the fourth ODI between India and Sri Lanka. These teams have played five series involving each other in the past two years, this is the third bilateral series and sixth overall and they’re scheduled to play each other in a tri series in Bangladesh within days of the end of this series.

And they’re still going strong at each other. You know what happened at Rajkot, you know what happened at Nagpur and some of you are still coming to terms with what happened at Cuttack. Now the action moves to the ground where the history between the two has been explosive.

The Eden Gardens at Kolkata.

Yuvraj Singh is among the only Indian batsmen to have had a good run at the Eden Gardens, he has two half centuries against one each to Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Mongia in the past decade so his replacement Kohli’s got his work cut out. Seriously, because Sachin’s 49 is the next best knock there in this decade!

Among the Sri Lankans, Jayasuriya has a good record here. SL paid heavily for not picking him when the pitch, the balance of the team, the injury to Mathews all screamed for his inclusion. India’s slow bowlers made merry, Kulasekara, Malinga and Mendis were all ineffective and SL went 1 down with two matches to go. Mendis was the most expensive one between them, with even the rookie Randiv getting wickets, Mendis is the one most likely to miss out on a match at his IPL home ground.

Dinesh Karthik looked in fine touch while he went about committing travesty at Cuttack. I think it’s just the joy of playing under a captain who trusts him that makes him enjoy his cricket so much more . The next match at Kolkata might see him come in earlier in the line up.

Dilshan, Tharanga and Sangakkara are the batsmen Sri Lanka are heavily relying on; they’re certainly the only ones delivering anything. Maybe Kandamby could play a greater role if he was promoted ahead of Jayawardene.

Kapugedera’s done nothing  in the two games he got, it’s not long before Sanga’ll run out of patience and dump his ass to have Samaraweera return and replace him.

Gotham City Strip

As if the humiliating and demeaning pitches aren’t enough, the bowling ritual performers in this series are now going out with insult of injury as the insult to injury

Muttiah Muralitharan and Dilhara Fernando are out of the series. Murali didn’t have a great series leading up to his injury which happened while he was fielding in the third test. Dilhara was the best Lankan bowler on display in the T20s and the first ODI which is when he injured himself attempting to take a return catch.

None of the Indian bowlers are having a good time since the tests ended, they wouldn’t mind an injury induced break. But you must field or at least attempt to field to even invite the risk of an injury.

Yuvraj seems unlikely to play tomorrow according to Cricinfo but India have Virat Kohli covering him. India’s worry remains the availability of Sreesanth. With Praveen Kumar’s gentle medium pace being slogged all over town, Dhoni might want to try out Sudeep Tyagi.

Sri Lanka’s problems are bigger at the moment. Their best bowlers are down with injury and the ones available are doing no good job. Welegedera will stay in unless Malinga is passed fit to replace Fernando. Mendis too could make it to the team unless Sanga decides to give one of Suraj Randiv or Muthumudalige Pushpakumara a debut.

Another issue they need to address is whether Samaraweera can do a better job batting higher than he does right now. Jayawardene has had a bad run in the limited over matches now and just a slog after coming lower down the order is what he needs to get his tail up.

Samaraweera could do with a substantial knock under his belt to show for the handful of matches he has played this year. The man’s been shot and he came back to make runs like nothing ever happened. You gotta hand it to him.

India too need to do something about Gautam Gambhir. Yes, Dhoni you fine batsman wicket keeper captain chameleon, you can blend in anywhere and you can bat at any position. Not all other batsmen can do that. Gambhir needs to bat higher up to do some real damage and sending him in below Raina is pure insult.

The forms of Sehwag, Sanga and Dilshan are just too good at the moment. Like anyone who followed the world economy in 2008, I am afraid of the burst but till then, one these three guys will be my trump player.

The Nagpur pitch saw the India post 354 against in October and Sri Lanka post 207 in a T20 just last week. This match is gonna be a big scoring one too and one of these guys is gonna score a century.

Of course, someone from the rest like Sachin, Dhoni, Mahela, Jayasuriya, Tharanga or Gambhir might step up too on this ‘win toss, bat first’ pitch.

For the bowlers, it’s gonna be flogging as usual. Zaheer and Nehra held their nerves towards the end of the last match. It’d be nicer to see them regain their wits earlier. Harbhajan, thankfully bowled well and got some fcking crucial wickets and held up one end without which the match could shamefully have been over much earlier in the favor of the Lankans.

Let’s hope the bowlers do one better tomorrow, anything less than 411 in each innings will be a start.

*The fielding on both sides has been fckall. ‘Young leg’ has taken his role as the replacement of ‘hardly see him misfield’ Yuvraj very seriously as far as fielding is concerned. The runs aren’t there, but the drops are and so is the swagger and intense self affirming swearing upon taking one out of seven catches.

Dhoni said it himself, T20’s are just warm ups for ODIs which the boards decided to package and monetize. So having gotten through the warm ups with a warm up to each, India and Sri Lanka will now meet in a 5 ODI series beginning Tuesday.

The Indian selectors have for a change made decisions which were begging to be made instead of waiting for a major balls up which would have seen us exit a prestigious tournament prematurely. (Oh wait, that happened. Twice this year)

Gambhir, Sehwag and Dhoni warmed themselves up nicely in the T20s, Yuvi got carried away and over warmed himself which means he will sit out of the first ODI at Rajkot which means Virat Kohli gets another chance to play and score more than 30 odd runs before throwing away his wicket.

Thankfully, Yusuf Pathan is still out. Unfortunately, Ravindra Jadeja has been retained. So while we won’t get to see 2 ball ducks, we will get 19 ball 5s and one, maybe two stupid, entirely avoidable run outs. The real all round strength will be in the form of Harbhajan and Praveen Kumar, both of whom managed runs against the Australians.

Zaheer returns to the ODI squad where he will share the new ball with his old pal Nehra. It’ll be interesting to see the two try to claim their place in the team before Sreesanth recovers from Swine Flu.

The Sri Lankan squad has some interesting developments, Lasith Malinga may be out with a fever and Dilhara Fernando could take his place in the side. Muralitharan is fit to return to the team but that leaves Ajantha Mendis on the sidelines.

Sanath Jayasuriya will move down the middle order while Dilshan opens the batting with Tharanga. The move to bring in Thilana Samaraweera failed at the Champions Trophy but Chamara Kapugedera has been scoring with a vengeance since then and ought to get a chance here.

I expected SHT Kandamby to play in the tests after the solid year he has had in ODIs but that was not to be.

India’s victory in the tests was more comprehensive than expected and SL had the right to feel aggrieved at the decisions that went against them but the truth remains that they were massively outplayed. Even when SL fought back in the T20, India never gave up, heck, even Ashish Nehra came out and whacked the Lankan bowling around.

Their ODI record against India has been pitiful of late. After the Asia Cup final where Mahela unleashed Mendis on India, the Indian batsmen have responded strongly and India has won three ODI series against SL.

This is SL’s chance to catch a weary Indian team on the backfoot. Sanga looks like the man who’s gonna kill himself trying to haul his team over the line. He needs a partner in crime to help him pull it off. Drop your Sehwag scrapbook Dilshan, get off the couch Mendis, get off the rocking chair Murali and deliver what your captain asks you to.

One of the strongest squads England has put together in years will take on a formidable South African side in a five ODI series beginning today.

All of England’s batsmen have played substantial knocks in their past two series and the return of Kevin Pietersen adds to their strength. Anderson, Broad, Mahmood are the preferred first line up for the pacer’s slots with Bresnan and Onions being the replacements in that order of preference.

The loss of Broad and Swann to injuries for the first two ODIs weakens their bowling as well as lower order batting stocks. It also means that Bresnan and Adil Rashid will play the first two ODIs.

South Africa captain and opener Graeme Smith, who has been in superb form for two seasons now faces a choice between Amla and Kallis as his opening partner. Kallis will play even if he doesn’t open but if he does then Amla will sit out. Roelof is the guy who might be dropped out if Amla does play.

Among the bowlers, Charl Langeveldt is likely to make the team ahead of the promising but erratic Wayne Parnell as partner for Dale Steyn; also the selectors would want to be cautious about Parnell as he is coming off an injury induced break. Lonwabo Tsotsobe is a question mark, the side already has surplus pace arsenal thanks to its army of all rounders.

Kallis, Duminy, Morkel, Botha, McLaren and van der Merwe provide all rounder power to Smith and Boucher is ahandy wicketkeepre batsman. They compliment the few specialists they have like Smith and de Villiers.

England owed their victory in the first one to a bungle up by the South African batsmen and were roundly beaten in the second one. The return of Strauss at the helm should rally the team to compete harder and hopefully we’ll get some fierce competition in the series.

While India and Australia make a lot of noise about each other, while England & South Africa do the same albeit with more clichés thrown, Pakistan and New Zealand are playing a short, 3 ODI, 2 T20 series in the UAE.

Although seemingly these are two low profile teams, they are make an exciting combination when it comes to watching live cricket matches. The spectacular collapses New Zealand have conjured when playing Pakistan have  mostly come in tests but who can forget Mohammed Sami’s blitz in Lahore in December 2003. From 155/4 to 157 all out! Who fcking collapses like that?

Players you’ve gotta have in your fantasy cricket team for this series:

Batsmen: Umar Akmal, Mohammed Yousuf, Martin Guptill & Ross Taylor have all been consistent this year. Aaron Redmond & Khalid Latif are the two makeshift openers from both sides who round up this list as  economical buys. Both have already hit crucial fifties at the top to claim their place in their respective line ups.

All Rounders: Shahid Afridi & Daniel Vettori (technically a bowler) are among the best in the world and are also the best players in their team. Trump players. The third all rounder could be between Abdul Razzaq and Jacob Oram. There’s not much consistency from either but I’d edge in favour of Razzaq. James Franklin is an outside bet if he is fit and available.

Wicket-keeper: Kamran Akmal. Brendon McCullum has had a horrid 2009 and still seems on a low while the understated Kamran has plundered whatever attack he has faced since his comeback into the team.

Bowlers: Saeed Ajmal is the only spinner of note left among the two teams to pick and he is a good buy. Mohammed Aamer and Shane Bond have been the best on display in the pace department and there is always Umar Gul to depend on to clean up the tail. Kyle Mills could have a good day if the conditions support him.

There are dudes I haven’t mentioned who could turn up the heat in the desert. Pick them up in your team and sit back to see who’ll trigger a collapse this time .

*Aaila world record!

Tomorrow, he may or may not cross 17000 runs in ODI cricket, but here’s the story so far:

868 points for appearing in 434 matches (1989-2009)

8496.5 points for 16993 runs scored

1540 points for 154 wickets taken

524 points for 131 catches taken

-60 points for 20 dismissals for a score of 0

Bonus Points

925.5 points for 1851 fours

177 points for 177 sixes

176 points for 44 centuries

6 points for three 150+ scores

48 points for 24 maiden overs bowled

8 points for four 4 wicket hauls

8 points for two 5 wicket hauls

354 points for 59 Man of the Match Awards

Points for Strike Rate (where minimum number of balls faced is 20)

-18 points for 18 performances where strike rate is between 50-60

-22 points for 11 performances where strike rate is between 40-50

-33 points for 11 performances where strike rate is lesser than 40

Economy Rate points (applicable  where minimum number of overs bowled is 5 )

45 points for 45 performances where economy rate is between 3.5-4.5 rpo

34 points for 17 performances where economy rate is between 3.49-2.5 rpo

3 points for 1 performance of economy rate lesser than 2.5 rpo

-9 points for 9 performances of economy rate between 7 & 8 rpo

-3 points for 1 performance of economy rate above 9 rpo

And we get a grand total of:

13250 points

*All these points are calculated according to this. It’s pretty incomplete because they do not reward high strike rates and our man has rampaged on quite a few occasions. Another major hindrance was the absence of stats related to run outs effected as fielder/collector and bails-disturber. Also discounted are stats such as maiden overs played out, batsmen dismissed for a duck, & bowling strike rate among many others. Another bad thing is that this comes out to a meager average of 30.52 points a match.
My thanks and blessings to Statsguru for this one.

Moises Henriques is the next man who’ll be going out the revolving door that is the current Australian line up. Henriques picked up an injury to his hamstring in the match at Mohali and he might be flown back home with three matches yet to be played.

Henriques himself had been flown over as an replacement with Clint McKay to stand in for the injured pair of James Hopes and Brett Lee.

Australia are already playing their specialist opener Shaun Marsh leaving Nathan Hauritz as the sole spinner while Ben Hilfenhaus is expected to replace Peter Siddle. This will worry the selectors as Hilfenhaus was taken apart by the Indian batsmen in the second match at Nagpur and seemed utterly helpless in the unsupportive conditions.

Henriques barely had any time to prove himself in the one game he got but Peter Siddle’s injury changes the equation completely. The spot created by the absence of Henriques (medium pacer/middle order bat) makes it a contest between Clint McKay(pacer), Adam Voges(batsman, part time spinner) and Jon Holland(spinner) .

Since the overwhelming need of the moment for the Aussies is a wicket taking all rounder will they take a left of field decision like bringing in Andrew McDonald?

Side + Niggle = Siddle?

Charge In Pete is shuffling his way home sideways after ’suffering stiffness in his left side’ in the match at Mohali. Doug Bollinger bowled well in his role as the third pacer and now Hardworkin Hilfenhaus will get another deserved look in.

Unless the Australian selectors play the biggest punt of all time and bring in the one who can save them in these dark times while others fall by the sidelines. The Knight who will ride to their rescue, do a selfless job and retire to a life in the country side.

Dirk Nannes: Fast Bowler, Ski Enthusiast, Saxophonist & Your Worst Nightmare

On another note, Shane Watson vindicated my stance that he takes 3 games to settle down and it’s the fourth match where he gets going after which he lets loose case in point being the Champions Trophy where he followed up 2 ducks and one other negligible 3 ball single digit score with two unbeaten centuries and winning two man of the match awards for his troubles.

Virat Kohli made it to the XI ahead of Dinesh Karthik but did not play the career shaping knock that this could have been for him. Perhaps he felt assured by the line up that was to follow him but he has to take these chances when he gets them.

Sehwag has been frustrating in the manner he’s getting starts and then falling to pretty soft dismissals. Add Tendulkar’s under par performance so far and Gambhir’s absence on Monday just magnified the whole thing.

The Australian names have been much more consistent with Hussey and Ponting leading the way with Cameron White and Watson chipping in. They’ll pray for Shaun Marsh to get going soon and that would strengthen them considerably.

With this Siddle replacement, I’ve exhausted my transfers on Cricinfo and that leaves me playing rounds on Dream11 where points for round 2 are not being counted because the server was down. Bad servers and limp bizkit players take the fun out of fantasy cricket, really.

Sehwag and Gambhir may be out. Dinesh Karthik may or may not keep wickets if he comes in but will be classified as a wicketkeeper. He’s butterfingers with his keeping but the man can bat.

At least when he’s wearing red he does.

Kohli may also come in but he’s earned his place in the team. The most interesting thing to look forward to is that if India snatch the series in the next two matches, we might get to see how much Munaf has improved and what Tyagi is made of.