Play Gentlemen- Attack

Come 9th October 2008 and all roads in Bangalore leads towards the M. Chinnaswami Stadium “Aussie Sucks, Aussies Suck will be the buzz in the ground as the series will be under way and till the time the umpires in the middle of the ground says “Play Gentlemen” . Hello and welcome to yet another edition of the
‘Border Gavaskar Trophy’ which is under way in Bangalore.
It will be the critical toss to win and India starts as the favorites in the first test match. The pitch appears to be moist due to the rains. As usual the Australians have started the mind game. Seems they don’t quiet like the idea of letting their bat and ball do the talking.

Punter is of the opinion that Anil Kumble and the rest of the senior pros are reaching the age of retiring and that their body shows signs of fatigue. He opened his trap at the eve of the Match conference at Chinnaswami stadium.
“That’s what we’re trying to achieve, pity their older guys under immense pressure”
Punter fails to understand that he himself is 33 and while he said” I pity their older guy” he should not forget that even he will be at the receiving end in some time to come. It’s high time that the player of his quality should let his work do the talking rather than depending on the words.

Rather than concentrating as to which spinner to be included in the side, punter is bothered about the age of some of the Indian players. I think he has forgotten his phone number like record when he had toured India and that Bhajji had mad him look like a fool as he could not play against him and time and again gave his scalp to Bhajji.

It’s about time for him to take a leaf out of his counterpart Anil Kumble and learn certain aspects of the game.
It’s the home ground of the lethal spinner and captain Anil Kumble. He will be rearing to go and right from the word go, am pretty sure he will be edgy as to when his chance to deliver the goods. Kumble is a kind of player who has earned respect as a player and captain over the period of time. He is silent assassin and commitment is always above 100 %.

It’s going to be a great test match between India and Australia as both the teams have quality players. The Aussies have a strong batting line up. Mathew Hayden stands tall as the player and every one in India is aware of his exploits with the bat. Mike hussy in the middle order and Ricky Ponting himself are good dependable batsmen. Ponting is a treat to watch while is in the middle and in form.
He looks very edgy while he starts the innings. The best time to get him out is to catch him young at the crease. They have the likes of Michael Clerk, Wicket Keeper Haddin who has a safe pair of hands.
In the bowling department, spin department is a weak link. They have a fearsome pace attack in the form of Brett Lee. Surprisingly he is yet to play a Test match in India.

The anxiety and the pressure level is building and it will be a treat to watch this absolute nail biting spectacle. Till then its bye from Shams & Wags and keep reading more for reviews of the day.

Late Swinging Yorker!!

Just a couple of days ago we had mentioned in our article about the princely come back of our Dada Saurav Ganguly. Joyful was the moment even as the news was flashed about the inclusion of Dada in the Test Series against Australia.

Suddenly the entire joy has turned down to sorrow as we hear yet shocking news.
Yes it’s rather hard and surprising to believe that Saurav Chandidas Ganguly has announced his retirement and that this will be his last series.
Retirement was there in the mind of dada but only he knew when its coming and he has chosen non other than the Border – Gavaskar trophy for his retirement.
It’s a celebration time in Bengal this time of the year for the Kali Pooja which is their biggest festival. I am very sure that the new s of retirement will bring certain amount of sorrow in Bengal, in fact in entire India for that matter.

This flamboyant south paw made his ODI debut in Brisbane on Jan 11 1992 against West Indies, on contrast he made his Test debut in England on 20th June 1996 against England and there he scoured two centuries in his debut match.

He played his last ODI against Pakistan in Gwalior on 15th November 2007.

The quality of the good players is that he knows when to retire. As famously said: “Its good to retire when people ask why retire, rather than why not?”

Same kind of jolt received by the Australians when Adam Gilchrist had announced his retirement from the test side while India had toured and played his last match there. Only god knows why players prefer choosing the Border Gavaskar Trophy to retire? I think this can be only a matter of coincidence.

The best ever compliment that Dada would have got was “On the off side, the one next best to god is Ganguly’ These were the famous word of Mr. Dependable Wall Rahul Dravid.

Finally it’s entirely the player’s decision and one has to respect it. Dada, all the best for your future and hope you will silence your critics in the last few matches of yours before you retire!!


Article by Shams& Wags.

Miles And Smiles

Hello Readers, We know many of you might have followed 4 day match against Board President XI in Hyderabad. The match ended in draw but there were more smiles in Indian side and worries in Oz’s camp.
Had the selection been done on 2nd Oct’08 instead of 1st for the early two tests, the picture would look different. Only player who’ve been picked up in Test squad S.Badrinath failed in both innings. Rise and shine time for Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma in first innings as they both hit 105 each to put BP XI in strong position. With the likes of Kumble and Bhajji as a spin attack very little chances are left for other spinners to get into probable for selection. Yet Piyush Chawla & Pragyan Ojha bowled well against Oz’s and shared 8 wickets between them to bundle out Aussies cheaply in first innings. Punter’s bad patch in Indian soil continued. Only brave innings was played by Mike Hussey who scored century and some batting braveness for Stuart Clarke in lower order. Second innings brings more smiles for BP XI as captain Yuvraj Singh made century while Jaffer missed the same with 7 runs.
Aussies really wouldn’t have expected the worst news in the form of there main attacking spinner Bryce McGain being ruled out of entire series due to shoulder injury. The other spinner Kreja who also came with dream of making Test debut alongside McGain now has real chance to be in playing eleven. Aussies have also called all-rounder Cameron White who has performed really well in domestic circuit for them to join the squad. His leg spin can be bit handy apart from giving strength to batting lower down the order.
With just 3 days to go for the first test in Bangalore (now Bangaluru) playing conditions look pretty much similar to what we had in Hyderabad during practice match.Looking at the weather conditions captain Kumble will certainly be playing with 2 seamers and 2 spinners with long batting line up we have.
Shams & Wags’s probable XI for the Test are-
India – Anil Kumble(Capt.),V.Sehwag, G.Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar,Sourav Ganguly,VVS Laxman, M S Dhoni (VC & wk),Harbhajan Singh,Zaheer Khan,Ishant Sharma,Munaf Patel (12th man).
Australia – Ricky Ponting (Capt.), M Hayden, Phil Jacques, S Katich, Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey, B Haddin, Brett Lee, Stuart Clarke, M Johnson, Kreja, Watson (12th man)

Article By Shams & Wags