Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Time to Knockout Australia from this World cup...

9:11 AM Posted by iSachin 4 comments
The scenario which we most feared has happened. Team India is meeting with bruised Aussies in the Quarter Finals. Many of us must have prayed for it but I think it was our destiny that we had to meet Australia in knockout stages. We all know how well they play in these stages, but Team India has no option now. It is kind of nightmarish situation and we have to deal with it.

In the preliminary stage of the tournament both the teams kind of played pretty much similar scenario's. There are many similarities, let’s have a look.
  1. Both the teams scored 9 point points from 6 games.
  2. Each of them  has beaten 3 associate nations. ok ok..I know Bangladesh is not an associate nation but it is kind off if you have seen their performance against SA and Windies. I thought associate nations played well than them.
  3. Both the teams have got 1 point from a game, we against English and they against Lankan's.
  4. Both the teams have the captain with poor form.
I think the similarity ends here, both the teams had a different approach towards their games and both the teams have some unique qualities and weaknesses. A straight forward difference which I am seeing is our batsmen have scored 5 centuries against their tally of none. Lets dig further and see if we can find out something interesting or if not, just continue reading this blog..ha ha ha ha...

 Let’s analyze each team’s performance
Australia: If you had taken some pain to read my blog, I had predicted that Shaun Tait will be the impact player but from the matches so far he hasn't done well. This Aussie attack is Pace heavy and they are not getting help from the slow and dry pitches from the subcontinent.

As far as this pace attack goes,  it has always performed well in ICC tournaments, in fact Shaun Tait could have been Player of the World cup in 2007  provided, Mac Grath wasn't playing at that time. This was the one bowler who knew how to get the surprise bounce from the dead pitch. He was the most persistent bowler in the world with his line and length, and we cannot say this about their current bowlers.

The success of this team in the past in subcontinent is also dedicated to spinner like Shane Warne. See when we talk about Australia we had to speak about these greats. If we compare current bunch to these cricketer these don’t even come closer to half of their abilities.

India: People are talking about the weak bowling side of India, but if they see, we are like this only. The Only real concern is, batting collapses at the end, but to counter that our top order is scoring heavily. Every time we get to bat first, till 30th over it looks like we will score 300 runs. I think 220+ score will be enough to beat the Aussies. They are under tremendous pressure to defend this title and this time they are surely going to falter..


Our batsmen are in tremendous form unlike Australian's, they have scored heavily. Batting collapse can be dedicated to poor form of Mahi or bad luck of Indian batsmen. Every time they hit the ball, that ball found the fielder in the deep or they missed it completely. Same is the case with Dhoni, if India wants to put a good show in the Batting Power Play Overs then he has to click.



We have now a balance attack with 1 very good pacer and 2 good spinners. If any one of them clicks then Australians won’t find a place to hide their faces. If we compare two bowling attacks then ours is kind of superior with good mix of paces and spinners unlike Aussie. As this match to be played in Ahmadabad which is said to be a dead turner then imagine what will happen with their batsmen.

I think it’s the Ideal situation for us, as this current Australian team is very much beatable. Even if we play our normal game we have very good chance, as this team is actually out of form. If we win this match then we either meet Windies or Pakistan. If we do, then it’s better to meet the team which we have beaten in previous games and the other team which we have always beaten in the World cup.

As we have seen their performances in the league matches, they didn’t have a single close encounter. One which could have been a very close contest got washed off. Their openers have performed well in the league matches but most of the time with minnows. It is true that they played against NZ, but we all know the current form of New Zealanders. They were waiting for a close game and they got it against our neighbor, Pakistan, which they lost.

Now is the time to change the tide. Let’s make Aussies suffer, the way they have treated all other teams. If we succeed, we can send a man to forced retirement and team to lose it’s confidence after a long time. If we fail to do that, then they will have an easy go for semi’s and after that we know how they play.

Some where I read about why India lost finals of 2003 world cup to Australia, because in spelling of name we had InDIA (दिया) and they have AustraLIA (लिया). so We gave them and they took it. But as I wrote in my previous blog this team is on their way to down and sub-continental neighbors who will be responsible for it.

This event has become very important event in the history of the modern day cricket. If all of us can recall, Australia was playing with SA in 1999 world cup. They had to win that match for final, luck favored them. After that we know what happened, Australian’s got such a self belief that they can win anything. If Australia had not won that game, the history of world cricket could have been different.

Pakistan had their revenge of 1999 finals, by stalling their juggernaut of 33 consecutive wins. Now it’s our time to take the revenge of the 2003 Finals. In Commonwealth Bank Series finals we gave the thumping farewell to Adam Gilchrist. It’s now time of bad boy Ricky whom we need to tell that his time is over. My advice to him will be "don't try to chase Sachin cause we are not half as good and world knows that".

But at the moment I really have anything to write about this Australian Team. They are not even shadow of the past team. I was bit anxious about this clash, but now I have confidence that “Team India” will do well. As always let’s end this blog on positive note that

India will be the winner and Sachin will score his 100th Hundred against Kangaroos...



4 comments :

Unknown said...

Sachin's 100 & India will win?
No...., both is not possible...

संदीप said...

It's very ambitious post, certainly in favour of India.
To be honest, it does not matter how many bad points Aussies have, their biggest quality is Team Effort. Everyone contributes to his best to achieve the results. And it's just not cricket, take any game and Aussies have their mark.

But again, having said that it feels a strong urge to support India - to support them to support the laadla of India - the one and only Sachin.

Let's keep the sporting spirit high for each and every possible outcome from this match :-)

What I am hoping for is either an easy victory over Aussies or a tie followed by best of 5.. I think, this way we can confirm whether our bowlers are upto the mark or sheer useless ;-)

And yes, Ofcourse, Master Blaster's unbeaten Hundredth Century :-D

Good Luck India - Go India Go !!!

Amit Narang said...

Nice post Mr. Kale, i was just thinking that u shud be with Star News, they were actualy looking for cricket expert but they couldn't find 1 and called Vinod Kambli(irretating 1).

iSachin said...

@Amit Narang

ha ha ha ha ha.....