T20 World Cup - time for some Soul searching

This refers to the India's outing in the ICC WORLD 20.

There were three facets to Dhonis approach which begged for clarity of thought ...

Selection, batting order and bowling game plan.

In short, Dhoni's lack of affirmative captaincy to one of laisse faire allowed the T20 World Cup to drift away from our grasp.

In the matches leading upto the super 8, Dhoni promoted himself to the One drop. This perse is not an issue as long as Dhoni played the way that led him to break into the highest level.

Sadly, he adapted to "safety"first nudges which almost put pressure on the team even against lesser opponents...

To make amends,in the match ágainst England, he sent in the inexperienced Jadeja, a controversial move that would have provoked any passionate follower.( If the idea was to to send a pinch hitter, then Yousuf Pathan or Harbhajan would have been far more effective...) but having sent Jadeja, he failed to clearly get the message that he was to take the risks and step up the scoring rate...who sadly played for survival when the situation was to thrive...(Contrast when Robin singh ,in a match against SA, deliberately sacrificed his wicket to allow another batsman in possibly better form to do what he couldnt... underscoring the value of being a team man)

In the match against West Indies,Ishant was clearly coming under pressure for not only being able to bowl with his fiery pace, but also getting it too short... No yorkers from him meant that the batsmen were milking him...and the only bowler who commanded respect consistently was Pragyan Ojha...So what does he do ? He replaces Pragyan Ojha and Irfan Pathan to make two changes against England in a do or die match...Baffling,to say the least.

Not that I had a problem with the guys coming in, but the guys left out were match winners in their own right! If at all, RP Singh or Jadeja needed to come in , then Ishant was the person he should have looked at first to replace with. He looked jaded.

Irfan pathan who has done admirably well and very recently shown the world along with Yosuf against SL...and Ojha.. a refreshing left arm bowler with guile and courage.

Even when Ishant was struggling to find the length , bowling short,he allowed him to complete the spell and brought in "pie chucker" ahead of Harbhajan.. didnt utilise Rohit and ended up with several freebies for England to notch up the total.

Even then 153 was gettable.But how does Dhoni explain him not attempting even a single aggessive stroke until the final ball was smote with frustration... why was a negative energy holding him back till the end ?To me, Dhoni looked resigned to the outcome after Broad successfully executed the diabolical diagonal line , full and across ...sadly barring Yousuf , nobody had the guts or the presence of mind or technique to come up with a counter ... Was he thinking of Sehwag , I wonder ?

Cricketing Folklore

The feverish enthusiasm in the last few weeks of IPL cricket was
matched by a bunch of passionate and committed kids in the Under 14
Heros Cup Inter-Mantri community tournament held by the Mantri Group.

The Finals on May 17th at the Loyola Grounds was agog with high
expectations from the defending champs, Mantri Paradise who took on
Mantri Gardens.

The local team discussions were all about winning handsomely as they
were brimming with self confidence with facile victories in their run
up to finals.If anything, the only concerns were lack of batting
exposure to the line up and possible overconfidence.

Mantri Paradise won the toss and electe to bat with Kunal, the state
player along with V Abhijit( AJ to his friends) who opened the innings
for the first time.

Kunal fell rather cheaply with a cut to point finding a fielder and
the responsibility of anchoring the innings fell on AJ.

Displaying a cool head and egging his partners, AJ slowly but surely
took control with deft and delectable strokes, playing late and into
the gaps cleverly and cutting out all risks with occasional
boundaries.The flicks and glances flowed as did the cuts and
pulls.Innovating all the way, the stand out shot had to be the reverse
sweep of a slow medium pacer for a rousing boundary, a shot to
celebrate his fifty,in style.

Vicky joined AJ to contribute with some lusty hitting and the
partnership paid rich dividends with AJ top scoring with a
match-winning knock of 59 off just 32 balls while Vicky blasted a few
sixes on his way to a blistering 41 off 16 balls...

A total of 140 in 15 overs meant that the opposition was already down
if not out.

But AJ was not yet finished as with his infectious enthusiasm and his
confidence running sky high after his knock, took a stunning running
and sliding catch off the very first delivery to put the opposition
further in a tight spot.

Bowling a gentle off spin, AJ got wickets off consecutive deliveries,
a stumping off a wide delivery and a catch in the deep delighting his
fans as he was on a hat trick.The crowd was now beginning to chant
AJ's name an soon he returned with figures of 5 for 5 .Along the way,
he effected a stumping as well to have a hand in 7 dismissals in
all.Fittingly, the last wicket to fall was a caught and bowled for AJ
making the finals his own. A verymemorable performance much to all our
delight.

The margin of victory of over a hundred runs was thus emphatic and
truly underscored the talent, temparament and technique of the
reigning champs.

Captaincy & Direction

The talk of the town is Taare Zameen Par, the directorial debut venture of Aamir Khan.

The story is striking for its simplicity in story telling,connecting with the people,and does a serious soul searching.It is a moving rendition and a hit with the children and adults alike, not to speak of politicians.

While the purpose of this blog is not to analyse the film itself,am tempted to compare with the effort with another AK ( Anil Kumble ) ,and therefore another field and bring out certain commonalities between the game and the movie to draw lessons from.

While Aamir brings himself rather late as a director and even makes his appearance at the stroke of intermission, Anil Kumble was chosen to lead as a captain at the fag end of his career.

It is refreshing to have two AKS leading change in their chosen fields and doing their jobs with aplomb.

If the responsibility of good cinema rests with a good plot and direction which will automatically ensure critical acclaim if not always viewership,so too will the game be assured of followership and repute with the basics in place.

The game must not only be taught at the grass roots level,but the onus is also to teach the qualitative aspects and why a game(a test of talent,skill, mettle, sportmanship and above all desire to win must be bounded by the rules of fair play) would cease to be one, if not played in the right spirit for the mere sake of chasing a string of records either by an individual or by a team or for the commercial reasons.

Ditto for cinema or society driven by peer pressure.

With captaincy in the right direction,we will have truly nurtured the indomitable human spirit to every Ishant Nandkishore Awasthi,on and off the field.

Keep up the good work, AK and AK.