Tale of the Tied and Lost match.

Feb 27th 2011. The fans from Kolkata might be even more complaining and cursing their fate as they were deprived of a classic World Cup ODI match between India and England. However the crowd at Banglore too would not be jumping in joy after the result but neverthless they witnessed a match that could have taken life of any passionate cricket fan with a weak heart. Yes, it was such a match where the fortunes of the team swinged like a pendulum clock striking at 12'o clock. Everyone were on the edge of their seats and in anticipation of something to happen.

India won the toss and MSD elected to bat and rightly so. The team boasting of 4 frontline batsmen and 3 deadly hitters of the game, the impetus was to get off to a flying start. And Sehwag just managed to get India its objective in the most riskiest of the manners, however England in particular Andeson were unlucky in the earlier overs. Then it was the Tendulkar show that grabbed all the headlines. Whenever he scores a century, it is now a ritual that the records are broken and new ones are set. So this time, he became the player with most centuries in World Cup - Five. India looked well on course to score a consecutive 350+ score of the tournament until the late collapse by Indian lower order gave England some momentum for the 2nd innings. From England's perspective - Tim Bresnan bowled well enough in right areas to trouble Indian batsmen and get his team important break-through's in the entire match. Indian innings folded at 338.

Only a fool would have given any chance to England batsmen to achieve this target. Because India are the super favorites to win the cup and any score in excess of 300 is always a mental barrier for sides chasing the total. But this is the beauty of modern cricket - 300 is no more a impossible to achieve target. Pietersen, standing a few meters outside of crease handled the swing of Zaheer and negated any flight offered by spinners. Meanwhile Strauss, always stayed on the backfoot and pucnhed through covers or pulled between mid wicket and square leg to keep the score board ticking at par with the asking rate.

There were a few instances in the game where Strauss was lucky to survive. Zaheer's in-cutters took a faint edge into Dhoni's gloves off Strauss's bat but none of the Indian fielders appealed for the caught behind. The big moment of the match was when Ian Bell was trapped in front of the stumps and umpire Billy said Not Out. Yuvi stratight away went for the review and the replays suggested that it was OUT. But because of the strange ICCs 2.5m ruling - Bell was given Not Out. The 3 umpires along with the help of technology also couldnt make the correct decision. At this point of time, England were crusing along for the most comfortable victory they would have had since the Ashes.

Even the most optimistic of Indian supporters would have given on the match now, I know I did. I turned off match and switched on to watch the Arsenal's quest for 1st trophy in 6 years - the Carling cup Final. (Meanwhile England had slowly come more closer to winning and they decided to take the power play). Suddenly I heard a roar from my neighbours place and switched back to cricket channel. Zaheer khan had just come into life and given a whole new dimension to the game. The game turned on its head. A few moments earlier England were winning, now it was India in driver's seat. 35 in last 3 overs and I felt England are definetely out of it (may be not) so I just checked the channel on the other side and van Persie scored for Arsenal levelling the game at 1-1. Coming back to cricket, Piyush Chawla, the leggie bowled two rank bad balls and got the punishment it deserved. The England tail enders made a mockery of bowling in death overs by showing more courage and lofty hitting. Shahzad's six was out of the blue and I was completely taken back and eventually match was tied.

It was a see-saw game yesterday. Eventually stayed balanced.

The last 10 minutes of the Carling Cup final were least memorable as well. The mistakes cost us as they have for the entire season. A horrible mix up between Koscielny and Scezeny ensured the match was wrapped up the Midlands Blues team without playing the Extra Time.

The wait for the trophy continues. (no excuses this time, all our fault.)

The road ahead...

Hello readers, Tis month of February and we have reached a point where 2 mangers have already thrown the towel on their title aspirations. Yes Carlo Ancelloti did it after losing to Liverpool and yesterday after the derby loss Mancini said it will be difficult for them to win the title this season. This effectively leaves only Arsenal as real title challengers, yet no one is still mathematically out of the race.

ManU will continue to be the same till the season end, might not play spectacular but will do enough to win the game. If nothing works on the day United will be helped by the referees :P

Arsenal have the tendency to break down from here on. But our manager insists this team has matured from previous season's defeats. So let's hope irrespective of the result against Barcelona, we keep our toes on ground and win the Carling Cup first and prioritize Premier League over FA cup.

Man City/Chelsea and Spurs will fight for the remaining 2 Champions League places and Spurs might just fall short of it this time. So here's presenting you the case -

Games yet to be played...

Arsenal -- Villa, Liverpool, United, Sunderland, Blackburn, Stoke(H) | Blackpool, Bolton, Fulham, Stoke, WestBrom, Spurs (A) {36 pts}

Chelsea – Birmingham, ManCity, United, Newcastle, Spurs, WestHam, Wigan (H) | Blackpool, Everton, Fulham, United, Stoke, Westbrom (A) {39 pts}

ManCity – Fulham, Stoke, Sunderland, Spurs, WestHam, Wigan (H) | Blackburn, Bolton, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool (A) {33 pts}

ManUnited – Blackpool, Bolton, Chelsea, Everton, Fulham (H) | Arsenal, Blackburn, Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle, Westham, Wigan (A) {36 pts}

Tottenham – Arsenal, Birmingham, Blackpool, Stoke, Westbrom, Westham (H) | Blackpool, Chelsea, Liverpool, ManCity, Wigan, Wolves (A) {36 pts}

United still to play Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea twice. Looking at the fixtures yet to come, a few points dropped here and there is certain for all 5 teams.

Seems like ManU might pull this off easily with 2 games in hand. Arsenal to be 2nd. :(

Discuss… Prove me wrong, please!!!

Day After Deadline Day

Hello!!!
Doing a football blog after a long time. I have just captured emotions of my friend who is a Chelsea fan & what I felt about the transfers with also a peek into what lies ahead for Arsenal in month of February. And last but not the least - the cricket carnival is set upon us starting Feb 19th, so a quick preview of who I think are favorites for the World cup.

Who says Roman has lost interest!!
Good Lord….what a night..full of drama….the amount of money splashed would certainly make Plattini sick :P

Firstly, signing one of biggest stars in EPL is an achievement and considering he’s 26 and still has best years in him is a +ve sign. However 50m pounds is huge money and comes with great risk. Certainly it wouldn’t be bad as it turned out with Shevchenko since Torres is proven in EPL, but Ancelotti will be under severe pressure to get the best out of Torres to justify this record breaking deal! Additionally Roman will be hoping the 70m + money he has spent in a day (21m pounds + Nameja Matic for Luiz deal) proves to be a good investment and gives him the trophy that has eluded him for 6 years.
Now comes the scrutiny, I would certainly like to know how much Ancelotti was involved in both of these deals… because he has sent out 3 promising youngsters and has brought in 2 senior players (though young!) into the squad. Out of the 3 outgoing players on loan, Sturridge was the one which I did not like. He was starting to show some good football when coming as a substitute. Atleast he would have been a competition for Malouda. Its makes sense to send one striker out since we have 5 strikers now, but Sturridge could have been used as a winger due to his pace.
Plus how does this all affect the 23 man squad with 7 home grown players..i m not sure. We have sent out 3 home grown players and bought 2 outside players! Also I too believe that this might mean exit for Drogba in summer as Chelsea certainly would like to cash in on Drogba when he’s still in form, and considering Real Madrid have already enquired about him.

It remains to be seen how these signings help us fight for the title, but hope it does help us remain in all 3 competitions till the end. Torres is going to have a special debut of his life, playing Liverpool. I expect both players to play on Sunday. I’ll check if there is a screening this Sunday of the match, if yes then I’ll go for sure….

Lastly seeing all this activity yesterday, I am sure SAF and Wenger would have texted each other and laughed off on how both Chelsea and Liverpool have wasted big money in a window which according to SAF “has no quality” !!

Cheers..
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Hope the hype of transfers is justified by the players
It works both ways, if you are in the market and you do decent purchases then you strengthen the squad and also it gives encouragement to other players to perform. If you don’t, you could be criticized for not making use of the opportunity. And it is not that SAF and Wenger do not want to sign anyone in Jan window, they are mostly concerned about the inflated prices. Hence they scout for young local and native hidden talent from Europe and sign in summers. So far what I have seen in this season is both Man U and Arsenal does not have depth in the squad… if the first team does not play well they seem to lose the grip of the match. It is only some huge luck that Man U are top and Arsenal/City & Chelsea can consider themselves to be in race for the title. Wenger especially should have tried to sign a CB, if not long term at least on loan basis till end of the season. In that respect, Chelsea did the right thing and went ahead and brought players who they wanted and same with Liverpool. Although with Liverpool it is the start of rebuilding process and we should see them completely over hauling the current squad in coming 2 seasons and then launch a fresh challenge for PL and CL title.

And the biggest loser in whole drama yesterday was Newcastle United. I feel for them. :( They won the Championship and got promoted to PL and were doing really well in 9th place. Then their manager got sacked, although Pardew is good in managing resources, the one earlier wasn’t that bad either. Actually very little to choose between the two. And in transfer window they had to let go their best striker in Andy Carroll. And whatever money they have got most of it will be pocketed by their owner Mike Ashley leaving very little for summer transfers. Hope they don’t get demoralized by this and continue to give their best on the field and actually stay up in the league for many seasons to come.
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No time for Valentine celebrations for Arsenal in month of February
February promises to be another busy month with four Premier League games, an FA Cup tie at Leyton Orient, a trip to Wembley for the Carling Cup Final and the small matter of a UEFA Champions League clash with Barcelona at Emirates Stadium. All this with fresh injury concerns to Samir Nasri, our player of the season so far. But good news could be the return of Vermaelen. But we cannot have any complains, we should feel we are good enough to beat anybody anytime. Nervous days ahead.
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Bat meets the Ball!!!
In a week or few all the countries would start descending on the sub continent for what promises to be a extravagant action of cricket. Like Common wealth games, once again India has found itself unprepared with one of the biggest stadium to host match against England. Yes. Eden Gardens at Kolkata will not be the venue for the game against England and will be played at Bangalore instead. And once again petty politics in the administration has come to the fore. I hope the matter is resolved quickly and we begin with epic which is World Cup 2011.
1) On paper, the hosts INDIA look very strong with batting line up boasting of Sachin Tendulkar, Viru Sehwag, Virat Kohli and power hitters Suresh Raina and Yusuf Pathan.
2) Having beaten England in the VB Series, the current champions AUSTRALIA can never be counted out. The players will be full of confidence going into World Cup and a lot depends on how players like Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting, Cameron White and Hussey brothers play.
3) They carry the tag of chokers, but this unit of SOUTH AFRICA is very good. Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Tsotso can be a handful in any format of the game. Plus they have very dangerous AB DeVilliers supported by ever consistent and reliable Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis.
4) The 4th team could either be SRI LANKA or ENGLAND. On current form it looks like the Lankan Tigers are on the wane and England are blooming bright with their young side. The loss to Aussies in ODI should be seen as minor blip and Strauss will want to correct that as soon as they hit ground running in the World Cup. They are the T20 champions for good reason and they should believe in themselves to reach the Final Four. Sri Lanka are a clever side and can be deceptive but their preparation has not been great as most of the games against the West Indies got rained off.

So here's hoping that the Semis line-up will be India, Australia, South Africa and England with Sri Lanka as dark horses. I wish good luck to other teams to do well and entertain the crowd as much as possible.
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That's all I had to share, thanks for reading and leaving insightful comments.