Asia Cup 2014

First topic message reminder :

The Asia Cup 2014 has started today in Bangladesh. Along with India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Afghanistan will also take the field in this tournament.

Well done Afghanistan. Hope they make the step up to test cricket. Cricket need greater participation, and not less and less. Afghanistan, in the midst of all their troubles, have all the 24 provinces playing both forms of limited over cricket, as well as 3 day games. And unlike most associates, they have a very decent bowling unit that has some seamers who can bowl at very good pace, and spinners who are accurate and can turn the ball. We should have both Afghanistan and Ireland both playing test cricket at the earliest. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe should continue to play, but they should play more games with the sides ranked lower with a few matches in between against the top ranked sides.

It's great to see Afghanistan on the rise in the cricketing world.

Best of luck v Pakistan, msp and KP_f.

I'd really like to see them emerge victorious in this classic encounter.

Something about the Indian team I like (post the Greats). Sure you guys are more critical of certain players but I can see India 'emerging' again with a little luck. Some good confident looking batsmen getting the necessary exposure in big games. You just need to find some consistent bowling support and settle on the squad more.

Despite what some say - I still think MS is a great leader (in a spiritual sense... from an outsider's p.o.v.) although he's got to be his "own man" more in terms of his captaincy. That's easy to say; harder to do - I know - with the massive "political pressure" involved with the Indian team.
As for his cricketing talent - he's one of my favourites to watch. (wearing my less critical glasses of course!)

It's always difficult for any great team during such a massive transition... you just need to be patient and trust that more players will gain confidence and lead by example.

Thanks LB. But it's back to the 90s scenario for India here, like Sachin then, unless Virat wins it for India, I think it will be very difficult. MS is a fine ODI skipper, and one of the greatest ever ODI batsman. Dinesh Karthik is a mediocre stand in with bat and gloves. He was the won who lost the game against Lanka when he fluffed an easy stumping of Sangakkara very early in his innings, and Karthik could do nothing with the bat either. Rohit Sharma is back to his mediocre ways, but unlike in his previous version, he plays a half-decent innings every 10 game and continue to stay in the side. Hopefully he'll play one of those innings today, as he's not going to be dropped anyways. I hope they bring in Pujara, ideally for Sharma, otherwise for Rayudu. Pujara to bat 3, Virat at 4 and Ajinkya at 5. And Amit Mishra or Ishwar Pandey in for Stuart Binny. Virat has to bat 4 as Cheteshwar is more suited to a top order role, not just that, without MS, the middle order is very suspect, Virat's presence one place down the order will help.

Pakistan won the toss and they've put India into bat. Amit Mishra comes in for Stuart Binny. Pakistan giving a debut to Mohammad Talha who is reputed to have lots of pace, in place of Anwar Ali.

India struggling at 128-4. Dhawan, Rohit, Kohli and Rahane all gone. Rayudu and Karthik at the crease. Rayudu has moved along to 20. This is his big opportunity....... Without MSD, it really is a poor middle order.

I'm at a loss as to why Umar Akmal carries such hype?

He's merely a brainless slogger who's ego can never play the match situation.

He has a little bit of Afridi to him - one substantial innings gives him an allowance of 30 failures.

Pakistan beat India!! Afridi sees them home in a tense encounter!

Lmao - thanks Shahid - make me look like a bigger idiot

from the age of 16 he has been picked on potential...and until 40 he remain as brainless self imploding bomb who occasionally creates cameos and many of these occasional bursts unfortunately come against India.

For India...flashes of brilliance but doesn't gel as optimally.....always a bit short......jadeja continues his show as an allrounder.....rayadu showing with a run he can belong at this level as a plausible Raina replacement.....Rohit one in 10 success....Mishra a brilliant spinner who will sit out next game because dhoni doesn't like him......dhoni himself India's undisputed best WK and an ODI bastman...and that India doesn't trust her seamers

msp83 wrote:Thanks LB. But it's back to the 90s scenario for India here, like Sachin then, unless Virat wins it for India, I think it will be very difficult. MS is a fine ODI skipper, and one of the greatest ever ODI batsman. Dinesh Karthik is a mediocre stand in with bat and gloves. He was the won who lost the game against Lanka when he fluffed an easy stumping of Sangakkara very early in his innings, and Karthik could do nothing with the bat either. Rohit Sharma is back to his mediocre ways, but unlike in his previous version, he plays a half-decent innings every 10 game and continue to stay in the side. Hopefully he'll play one of those innings today, as he's not going to be dropped anyways. I hope they bring in Pujara, ideally for Sharma, otherwise for Rayudu. Pujara to bat 3, Virat at 4 and Ajinkya at 5. And Amit Mishra or Ishwar Pandey in for Stuart Binny. Virat has to bat 4 as Cheteshwar is more suited to a top order role, not just that, without MS, the middle order is very suspect, Virat's presence one place down the order will help.

Your infatuation with Rahane is bordering on embarassing now.
Btw the supposedly mentally fragile Rayudu batted well under pressure today against the best ODI attack on the planet on a difficult surface. The messiah Rahane blazed a 50 ball 23, once again giving us an apt reminder of his ability to rotate the strike at will and smash bowlers to all parts, if needed.

Linebreaker wrote:It's great to see Afghanistan on the rise in the cricketing world.

Best of luck v Pakistan, msp and KP_f.

I'd really like to see them emerge victorious in this classic encounter.

Something about the Indian team I like (post the Greats). Sure you guys are more critical of certain players but I can see India 'emerging' again with a little luck. Some good confident looking batsmen getting the necessary exposure in big games. You just need to find some consistent bowling support and settle on the squad more.

Despite what some say - I still think MS is a great leader (in a spiritual sense... from an outsider's p.o.v.) although he's got to be his "own man" more in terms of his captaincy. That's easy to say; harder to do - I know - with the massive "political pressure" involved with the Indian team.
As for his cricketing talent - he's one of my favourites to watch. (wearing my less critical glasses of course!)

It's always difficult for any great team during such a massive transition... you just need to be patient and trust that more players will gain confidence and lead by example.

I feel left out

Sorry Shanky.

But look on the bright side. My curse of picking the wrong teams in certain matches continues... to your benefit.
I guess I better remain neutral from now on and keep my patronising comments in check. (sorry msp & KP_f!)

Congrats on the win, mate.

Win? We lost the match, didn't we?

Shanky, When did Rahane score his last ODI half-century? Neither Rahane nor Rayudu have presented a compelling case as yet. But they both have to stay in and Pujara has to come in, and even I can live with Rohit Sharma in the side. But that glove waring disaster has to go. The joker yet again lost the game for India he gave away yet another start with the bat, and fluffed a stumping of Maqsood at a crucial point. He had helped Kumar Sangakkara on his way to that match-winning hundred the other night, by missing yet another stumping.
MS too would miss a catch here and a catch there, but he's a stumping master, and would never have missed those stumpings. And No need to repeat that he belongs to a league that Karthik can't even dream of as an ODI batsman.
The selectors need to be send packing for picking the proven disaster. Wriddhiman Saha is a much superior wicketkeeper who is a fighter with the bat. Mahesh Rawat had an outstanding Ranji season for Railways, and his batting style is more suited to the tempo of ODI batting. Naman Ojha and Parthiv Patel have been scoring bucket loads of domestic runs and couldn't have been worse with bat or gloves in comparison to the no-hoper.
But the selectors made the wrong call and we have to live with it. Ambati Rayudu can keep, and though he isn't a regular keeper, it couldn't be worse than that of Karthik. Pujara for Karthik for the next game, and Karthik to be given the opportunity in the rest of his career to focus on Tamil Nadu and IPL.
What on earth were the Delhi Daredevils thinking when they pumped all that money down the drainage?

KP_fan wrote:Rohit one in 10 success....

3rd 50 in his last 10 innings for India, 4th if you count the non cap warm up games. Also and unbeaten 31.
Whilst hardly world class he isnt half as bad as the Indian fans like to believe. Like Bopara for England I guess.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

KP_fan wrote:Rohit one in 10 success....

3rd 50 in his last 10 innings for India, 4th if you count the non cap warm up games. Also and unbeaten 31.
Whilst hardly world class he isnt half as bad as the Indian fans like to believe. Like Bopara for England I guess.

His performances always contradict the hype around him in certain cricketing circles. He has been this way for the last 8 years. And most importantly, there are many other options available.......

The problem is we cricket lovers have been manipulated....by the talk of world cup two years before it started.
and locking the captain down.
and then he locks the team down to his favorites.

and now we are told...it's even closer to world cup.

Locking the captain down was OK...but the objective should have been to keep winning....and find winning combinations.

we have been conned into keeping Rohit, ishant and raina.
and any team that fools itself throuhg agenda based selections......will not do well.
and we saw that in SA and NZ......we were wihte washed.

my squad of 15 for the world cup would be starting with the preferred 11 and batting order:

1) Pujara
2) Dhawan
3) rahane
4) Kohli ( he's gotta bat at 4 and control the game from there)
5) Rayadu
6) Dhoni
7) Jadeja
8) Ashwin ( might throw in Pandey or Aaron ahead of him depending on conditons)
9) Zaheer
10) shami
11) Yadav

12) Samson
13) Pandey
14) aaron
15) Binny or Rishi Dhawan or Nayar i.e a batsman who can bowl seam up

Afghanistan bowling going well again.

SL 164/5 after 39.

I missed whole SL innings today. Coming to the match, one thing is sure that Afgan cricket has really shown the character and attitude towards the game. In every game they fought like a top team.
I am hopeful of a new team joining tests.

sri lanka have rested players..haven't they?

msp83 wrote:Shanky, When did Rahane score his last ODI half-century? Neither Rahane nor Rayudu have presented a compelling case as yet. But they both have to stay in and Pujara has to come in, and even I can live with Rohit Sharma in the side. But that glove waring disaster has to go. The joker yet again lost the game for India he gave away yet another start with the bat, and fluffed a stumping of Maqsood at a crucial point. He had helped Kumar Sangakkara on his way to that match-winning hundred the other night, by missing yet another stumping.
MS too would miss a catch here and a catch there, but he's a stumping master, and would never have missed those stumpings. And No need to repeat that he belongs to a league that Karthik can't even dream of as an ODI batsman.
The selectors need to be send packing for picking the proven disaster. Wriddhiman Saha is a much superior wicketkeeper who is a fighter with the bat. Mahesh Rawat had an outstanding Ranji season for Railways, and his batting style is more suited to the tempo of ODI batting. Naman Ojha and Parthiv Patel have been scoring bucket loads of domestic runs and couldn't have been worse with bat or gloves in comparison to the no-hoper.
But the selectors made the wrong call and we have to live with it. Ambati Rayudu can keep, and though he isn't a regular keeper, it couldn't be worse than that of Karthik. Pujara for Karthik for the next game, and Karthik to be given the opportunity in the rest of his career to focus on Tamil Nadu and IPL.
What on earth were the Delhi Daredevils thinking when they pumped all that money down the drainage?

So one fifty against the mighty Bangladesh sandwiched by 5 single digit scores in 6 innings against minnows SA and NZ and a couple of failures against minnows Pak and SL makes him undroppable?
Whereas Rohit Sharma, who averaged thrice as much as Rahane against the minnows NZ and has also scored a fifty against minnows Pakistan gets slagged?
Please don't make me defend Rohit. I don't think either of them should be in the side but its the blatant hypocrisy that gets on my nerves.
Rohit scores fifties vs NZ and Pak = 1 good performance in 10.
Rahane scores a fifty vs the MIGHTY Bangladesh = Classy innings, full of assuredness.

Both of them need to be shunted out of the ODI side for good.

And don't get me started on Karthik. Think we're in total agreement there.

KP_fan wrote:The problem is we cricket lovers have been manipulated....by the talk of world cup two years before it started.
and locking the captain down.
and then he locks the team down to his favorites.

and now we are told...it's even closer to world cup.

Locking the captain down was OK...but the objective should have been to keep winning....and find winning combinations.

we have been conned into keeping Rohit, ishant and raina.
and any team that fools itself throuhg agenda based selections......will not do well.
and we saw that in SA and NZ......we were wihte washed.

my squad of 15 for the world cup would be starting with the preferred 11 and batting order:

1) Pujara
2) Dhawan
3) rahane
4) Kohli ( he's gotta bat at 4 and controol the game from there)
5) Rayadu
6) Dhoni
7) Jadeja
8) Ashwin ( might throw in Pandey or Aaron ahead of him depending on conditons)
9) Zaheer
10) shami
11) Yadav

12) Samson
13) Pandey
14) aaron
15) Binny or Rishi Dhawan or Nayar i.e a batsman who can bowl seam up

Rahane? Did he save you from drowning? Did he save your family from some financial crisis? Your love for him is on a personal level. His performances in ODIs have been comfortably worse than that of even Rohit. I can see why one wouldn't want Rohit. I wouldn't pick him either. But to pick a proven disaster like Rahane? Why not Manoj Tiwary or even Murali Vijay?
And Ashwin after his recent performances outside Asia? Really?????

shanky wrote:Rahane? Did he save you from drowning? Did he save your family from some financial crisis? Your love for him is on a personal level. His performances in ODIs have been comfortably worse than that of even Rohit. I can see why one wouldn't want Rohit. I wouldn't pick him either. But to pick a proven disaster like Rahane? Why not Manoj Tiwary or even Murali Vijay?
And Ashwin after his recent performances outside Asia? Really?????

Rahane is one of the most talented and technically the best batsmen in the country.
He is better than Vijay in both stroke play and technique...just that he needs to be given to bat in top 3 consistently.
Tiwary probably doesn't have time to recover from injury, play him into form, break into the national side and perform to go to world cup.

Ashwin is playing as an allrounder( 5th bowler cum batsman) after his recent show. ..with the bat.
which ever spinner we take to NZ / Aus won't do much better an he can bat and bowl his 10 overs for not too much for a 5th bowler

BD vs Pak game...don't be surprised if there is an unexpected result.

Abdur Rehman delivered figures of 0-0-8-0

The Bangladesh openers put on a 150 run partnership up front. Pak bowling hasn't been maintaining any real intensity and the fielding has dropped from the average to the substandard. Mominul and Anamul continuing the good work after Imrul Kayes was out caught of his bat, arm guard and shoulder for 59.

Shakib Al Hasan, returning to the side after his 3 match ban, blasted 44 not out of 16 balls to put the icing on the cake as Bangladesh made 326-3 in their 50 overs. Anamul-Haque made exactly 100, and Mominul made 51. Skipper Mushfiqur remained not out on 51.

^i said today expect the unexpected.
I also said I do not trust Pak, BD and IPl game results....

and now Pak and BD are playing.....

Just watched Afridi's 18 ball 50. 

A cramping Afridi run-out to bring the game alive ones again.

'ol Afridi, rolling back the years!!

good to see they have brought Rahane to the top of the order to Open.
would have been good to get Pujara in the team instead of Rohit

with his success as an opener today...hope Rahane is allowed to establish himself as an ODI opener