The "silly points"

Down with flu, but not out
Team India notched up a 2-1 victory against the South Africans at Stormont.

In a rain shortened match, trimmed down to 31 overs each,
almost everyone chipped in with positive contributions
and it was back to businesses that is the usual.

Agarkar, whose inclusion is often criticised
and is repeatedly ridiculed for his ears
was the first to remove two top order batsmen for noughts.

1.5 Agarkar to van Wyk, out Lbw!! Fullish delivery angling into the right hander, straightens a bit, van Wyk comes on the frontfoot and looks to defend, plays down the wrong line, rapped on the pads and that was a dead duck!!! M van Wyk lbw b A Agarkar 0(5) 4s-0 6s-0 6/1

3.4 Agarkar to Kallis, out Bowled!! Good length delivery angling into the right hander, seams away quickly, Kallis comes on the frontfoot and looks to defend, gets all squared and beaten, the off stump is removed, that is a beautiful delivery from Agarkar, I still can’t believe how it beat the bat of Kallis!!! J Kallis b A Agarkar 0(6) 4s-0 6s-0 8/2

Just as a partnership was about to get going,
the batsman who can bowl a little, removed two batsmen in two balls
and was suddenly found himself bowling for a possible a hatrick!

[In ODIs, even a small additional contribution with the ball is better than nothing].

12.2 Ganguly to de Villiers, out Caught by Dhoni!! good length delivery on the off, de Villiers comes on the frontfoot and looks to defend, inside edge onto the pads and the ball balloons up, Mahendra Singh Dhoni comes across and takes a simple catch, he is gone, had survived the last time but not again A Villiers c M Dhoni b S Ganguly 15(35) 4s-2 6s-0 28/3

12.3 Ganguly to Duminy, out Lbw!! good length delivery pitching on the leg stump, straightens after pitching, Duminy comes on the frontfoot and looks to defend, rapped on the pads and that was plumb in front, Ganguly is on a hattrick J Duminy lbw b S Ganguly 0(1) 4s-0 6s-0 28/4

Zaheer Khan, who can never be written off, bowled a beauty of an yorker.

28.2 Zaheer to Gibbs, out Bowled!! Zaheer fires in the yorker, angling away from the right hander, Gibbs comes on the frontfoot and looks to go over the top of the bowler, misses, the ball hits the base of the off stump, this has to be one of the best yorkers ever bowled by and Indian quickie!!! H Gibbs b Z Khan 56(67) 4s-3 6s-2 127/5

Piyush Chawla, having a good series, was thumped for a character building 28 off three overs.
And it was left to Tendulkar, to get a couple more in his only over and stop a last over slog.

But he failed to maintain his good batting, and fell for eight.
Gambhir expectedly out on a low score.

Ganguly was very much the usual active player of a 25 ball partnership with his captain,
getting 11 of the 13 runs of the partnership.
He scored a humble 18 off 25 with two fours and was out going for boundaries.

Rahul Dravid the captain with Yuvraj was just settling down for the final straight,
when he may have decided increasing the tally of his runouts was a bigger achievement.

24.3 Steyn to Dravid, out Dravid Run Out!! back of a length delivery on the off, angling into the right hander, Dravid goes on the backfoot and drops it on the off for a quick single, runs in hard towards the other end, Boucher takes off his gloves and hits the stumps at the bowler’s end direct, what was Rahul Dravid doing there, he did not drag the bat in and as a result has lost his wicket, this is silly cricket, big wicket this!!! R Dravid run out (M Boucher) 36(45) 4s-4 6s-0 108/4

It was left to the two best finishers of the team,
Yuvraj and Dhoni, to bring the team home.
with an unbeaten 44 run partnership;
with Yuvraj scoring 61 runs off 82 balls with 6-4s and 1-6.
And deservedly got the MOM this time.

Tendulkar was gracious to recognise his worth and share his MOS, with Yuvraj.

Sachin Tendulkar is the Man of the Series but he wants to share this with Yuvraj Singh.
He says that he wants to share this award with Yuvraj because he played two match winning knocks which were very crucial.

Even though both teams were below strength,
for me the positive point is Team India is showing signs of recovery.
And Tendulkar is no longer the demoralised player that he had become.

There are some who may want to show this as
“Dravid had the guts to step out of the Greg Chappell shadow
and give Sachin Tendulkar what he has been asking for”
to them I would like to say that this confirms
1. Dravid, even though the captain did not have the guts to do it before
2. Keeping the coach happy was more important to him than team requirement
3. He did not contradict Chappell’s allegations of senior players playing ‘mafia’
4. He was not happy with the seniors and left them ‘resting‘ out of the Bagladesh tour.
5. It is just as well likely that he has been forced to let Tendulkar open.
5. For his own survival, he has no option, the days of Chappell’s protection are over.

Guts? that is a laugh,
he is only trying to salvage his credibility as captain,
a classic case of too little too late, the Worldcup for Team India was a disaster.

As long Dravid stays the captain,
he is a constant reminder of Chappell’s divide and rule policies.
A painful scab, on the scars of Team India, that is trying its best to heal.

[All quotes powered by cricbuzz.com at "Silly Points - live" ]

Technorati: the silly points cricket