My prediction turns true

Well as most of us might have predicted, India won the Asia cup after beating Sri Lanka and that too in Sri Lanka which was their yet again boring encounter between the two nations. As all of you might have known by now, this was the third time destiny has had India face Sri Lanka in the finals of an Asia cup for the third consecutive time since 2004 after it was reintroduced since 2000 which was won by Pakistan. But, unlike in the previous editions of the Asia cup, Sri Lanka never managed to do a U turn against India.

In the editions of the Asia cup in 2004 and 2008, India had beaten Sri Lanka in the league stages of the tournament prior to the finals and eventually lost their ground when it mattered in the big stage. But this time, India lost to Sri Lanka in the league stages of the tournament by 7 wickets but made it count in the match which would make a difference. Another interesting feat of the Asia cup final between the two nations is that the team that batted first won the match in all three editions since 2004 which brings out a similarity in the contest.

It would be worthless to go back to the editions of the Asia cup prior to 2004 with not much competition involved. Another thing to be noticed is that India has never hosted an Asia cup in this decade with the other three participants namely Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh having had their share of the tournament. Though Bangladesh has never been the favorites to win the cup let alone winning it, they have hosted the tournament in 2000 which was won by Pakistan. And, Sri Lanka have hosted the tournament twice in 2004 and this time in 2010 surprisingly.

Though any nation in today's cricket world thinks about a million times before touring Pakistan, Pakistan has had its share of hosting the multi team starer Asia cup in 2008. But, India as mentioned are yet to host one and no news of that happening even in the forthcoming editions is hinted. Despite rains prevailing most parts of the year in Sri Lanka, it comes as a surprise that Sri Lanka has hosted the tournament successfully twice as mentioned earlier. Well, it should not matter for a cricket lover wherever a tournament is hosted as long as the excitement lives. This can be true with Information Technology, Gadgets, IT news as well.

Are Sri Lanka favorites to win the Asia cup?

They might have done it in the past two editions of the Asia cup in 2008 and 2004 when it was held in Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively. And, much to anyone's amazement, Sri Lanka faced India in the finals of the mega tournament and once again needless to be said won the same. This time as well, with India being the contenders for the title, the question (though not worth million dollars) is whether Sri Lanka still have the commitment to perform the same task which they did in the previous two editions of the same and a couple of days back?

Sri Lanka managed to beat India by 7 wickets in the league stage encounter of the Asia cup just a couple of days back and then they recently did India out of the race in the tri series involving Zimbabwe as the 3^rd team in Zimbabwe just a month back. At the same time, citing India's chances, India have been beating Sri Lanka since the past two years or so in most of the bilateral series which involved both the teams. Prior to that, India won the tri series involving India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand which set the scores level for both the teams under discussion when it comes to triangular series.

No matter what the past speaks regarding both teams, one has to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the teams ready to battle it out on the big stage. The guess is not like picking one from a set of Random Images and instead is a prediction as to who stands front to grab the title. Statistics also suggest that India have been the underdogs when it comes to the finals of a tournament containing three or more teams. Some exception to this being the T20 world cup 2007 and as mentioned earlier the tri nation tournament involving India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

But this time the onus is on India not only for their past performances against Sri Lanka but also due to the fact that they are a better opposition no matter where the game is being played. India is not dependent on any one player like it was some 7 years ago when the absence of Sachin Tendulkar hindered their performance. There are likes of Gambhir, Sehwag, Yuvraj to name a few who can deal with any opposition. Sri Lanka on the other hand are here in the final this time only due to the fact that they are the hosts and have been lucky as the hosts most of the time.

Sehwag has to go

Well if a dashing opener from a team is expected forced to return back from a major tournament, most of the time puts the team in confusion as to whom to go in for in the remaining encounters of the tournament in case the team has to face a tough opponent. However, at times the absence of a similar player becomes a boon for the viewers if not for the team to see a tough fight between the two teams which would otherwise be just another game and just another win for that team. A tough fight can be a treat for the viewers' eyes more than a win or a loss.

Here as well, the situation is almost the same with Virender Sehwag having to opt out of the remaining matches of the Asia cup. There are matches against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to go for India, before they take on Sri Lanka in the final of the tournament. It was the win against Pakistan that mattered much for India and moreover, a win against Bangladesh is guaranteed if not for some unexpected mishaps like in the world cup 2007. If that would happen, it would be another Extremes case. Anyway that apart, with the presence of Gambhir, Dhoni and Yuvraj Sehwag's absence shouldn't matter much.

All the aforementioned names belong to the list of big hitters provided they are inform on their day. Prior to the ommision of Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar has been ruled out of the Asia cup for reasons not so important here but which hardly drew a response. Out of the two remaining games, one of them being a cakewalk, the other becomes inconsequential with India already having beaten Pakistan in their opening match and with Pakistan losing both their crucial matches against India and Sri Lanka. Bad luck was that both these matches were close encounters for Pakistan with the margin of defeat being 16 runs and 3 wickets.

The absence of Virender Sehwag though deprives the team of a powerful opener, at the same time provides the platform for another batsman to prove his myth on the big stage. There is Virat Kohli, Rohith Sharma etc, all of whom are waiting for a chance to prove themselves and have even done so in the past. But, with the playing squad restricted to just eleven, the rested players will have to wait for their turn either when a match is being played against a weak team or when the match they are playing is of little consequence. Worst come, one of the regular player gets injured.

Why link this with the past

Well, if the latest article on one of the leading cricket websites are to be believed, the world gossip has now found to have shifted from movies and politics to cricket as well or may be it has happened long back and is seen offlate. Rumors suggest that India's recent win over arch rivals Pakistan was a revenge for the loss they attained in last year's ICC Champions trophy. If in case, that holds true, should that mean that India would have lost that one dayer in the Asia cup, had they won that battle in the champions trophy 2009?

Though georgetownksa has got nothing to do with the current post, I'd like to irritate you guys a bit but not before I get back to my topic which makes news for no reasons, be it good or bad. There is no reason for the win over Pakistan to be linked with India's loss to Pakistan in the champions trophy for, India lost to Australia as well in that same edition and had returned with just a consolation win against the West Indies who were fresh from their 3-0 loss at the hands of Bangladesh which was followed by a 2-0 defeat in the test series.

Pakistan has always been a team to beat for India and so is the case for Pakistan who consider India as the team to beat. This doesn't and shouldn't matter for either teams regardless of whether they had won the last encounter or not. One can take lessons from Australia who thrashed the English team 5-0 in the Ashes 2006 and not yielding to just a 3-0, 3-1 etc like victories. Thanks to the combined efforts of Glenn McGrath and co in the bowling department and Gilchrist and co in the batting department. However, what happened in the later episode is a secondary issue.

India had little reasons to beat Pakistan in the 2003 world cup after India had until then lost to just one opponent (obviously Australia). India had won the matches against England and Zimbabwe before facing Pakistan at Centurion. But, that would have made enter into the super sixes with the need to win all three games in case they needed to make it to the semi finals of the tournament. Coincidentally, India managed to win all three games against Sri Lanka, Kenya and New Zealand in the super sixes of the 2003 world cup. Still, why did India win all three when two wins could have seen them through to the semis? Rubbish isn't it?

Malings speaks

Very rarely does someone like Lasith Malinga is found throwing out his words when he recently comments on the floodlights to be a nightmare for the team batting second. Whatever, this makes bloggers like me to pen more about the issue in the form of critics and opinions. However, Lasith Malinga partly has something when he says the above statement supporting the team batting second. Mosyt of the time it has been the team batting first that wins the game but, one has to definitely make it sure that it is not only because of the reason cited by Malinga.

History says that India won the finals of the Natwest series against England in 2002 by chasing a mammoth total of 326 under lights and so was India's successful run chase against the West Indies later the same year when they chased down 324 against the same. At the same time, the other three highest successful run chases by South Africa and twice by New Zealand happened to be under day light. Here, Malinga's words have an upperhand. Whatsoever, pressure does exist with the team batting second no matter whether it is under lights or not. And this was yet again proved when Pakistan failed to get past 243 runs.

Most of the captains choose to bat after they win the toss rather than to bowl. The one undue advantage that the team batting first gets is that they have two options in hand, out of which they can choose to do one which will see them through that game. When they bat first, either they can put up a decent score for the opposition to chase failing which will see the team batting first win the game. And, in case they fail to do that, they can either get the opposition out or restrict the opposition from crossing the barrier.

Whereas, for the team batting second, the only thing left is to chase down the total imposed by the team batting first and there can be nothing like restricting the team batting first for a less score. If course, totals less than 200 are tough to defend but, the team batting second always has the task of overhauling the score put up by the team batting first. The team batting 2^nd will have to overhaul the score set by the team batting first. However, in the past 8 - 9 years or so, there have been many cases of 300+ scores being chased unlike the three occasions in the 90s which included India & Australia over Pakistan and Sri Lanka over Zimbabwe.

One thing that would be worth mentioning here would be the fact that Malinga comes from the team where once the world cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga wins the toss and elects to field first in the finals of the 1996 world cup and still ends up winning the trophy.

How come Afridi could do it!

Well the cricketing world has so far seen the Pakistani hard hitting batsman - Shahid Afridi as only a blind slogger of the cricket ball rather than a batsman who would play a calculated innings. But, as a matter of surprise, it was the same slogger who took his team to the zenith when they faced Sri Lanka in their first encounter of the Asia cup at Dambulla yesterday. It was really interesting to see that Shahid Afridi played one of the innings of his life when the lonely handled the Sri Lankan bowlers despite there being no support from the other ends.

Even today, the fact is that Shahid Afridi is a blind slogger of the ball though the batsman has two out of the top five fastest hundreds against his name in one day cricket. In addition to the fact that Shahid Afridi played a calculated innings, the other interesting thing to be noticed is that Shahid Afridi took to the crease at number six after the dismissal of Shoaib Malik. The entire Pakistani innings consisted of 7 sixes, all of which were hit by none other than Shahid Afridi. While, the entire match saw just 8 hits out of the ground and the next is needless to be said.

There have been batsmen like Sanath Jayasuriya, Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds who are big hitters and at the same time play a calculated and responsible innings and as a result of the same, the team can rely upon such players which confirms their position not only in the team but also in the playing XI squad. But, with the most important thing missing in Afridi, one has to wonder as to how on earth did Shahid Afridi manage to play more than 250 one day matches. Leaving that apart, one has to wonder even more as to what on earth makes the selection to go in for Afridi even when selecting a test team!

Whatever, this time as a rare case, Afridi could manage what he couldn't in all these days of his cricketing life when he played one of the innings of his life with the wicket hardly supporting the batsmen no matter to which team they belonged. A target of 243 was in no way a non chasable one for either of the team and more so for Pakistan. No other player from Pakistan managed even one fourth of what Afridi could. This I consider as the one more than his 37 ball hundred he scored against Sri Lanka and the 45 ball century he scored against India in 2005. For, those were on batsmen friendly pitches and without any sort of pressure.

A good decision by SLC

Well the Sri Lanka Cricket is found to make two major decision regarding the selection for the upcoming Asia cup. One the Sri Lankan selection committee has dropped the veteran opener but exhausted as well at the same time and then also has excluded Ajantha Mendis who, two years ago played a massive part in Sri Lanka's thumping win over India to win as well as retain the Asia cup which was held in Karachi a couple of years back. Of course, even Sanath Jayasuriya's role and contribution was not too less in the last two editions of the Asia cup.

Sanath Jayasuriya scored two hundreds in the Asia cups, both in 2004 and 2008 as well. Coincidentally, Jayasuriya's hundreds in both the editions mentioned came against Bangladesh and India in the second stage of the tournament. Sanath Jayasuriya scored one of the fastest hundreds of that time when he scored a 54 ball century against Bangladesh as mentioned above. However, I personally don't recommend Sanath Jayasuriya's name to be included in this year's Asia cup for reasons best known. One, Jayasuriya who is now aged 40 is not only old but is also too exhausted to be part of the squad.

And secondly, Jayasuriya not only has been off from his blasting days of glory in recent times but was also dropped by the selectors and the captain. Sanath Jayasuriya was dropped for major part of the Indian Premier League earlier this year may be regarding his trouble over his age by Sachin Tendulkar who himself had forgotten that his age was also moving towards dawn by time. That apart, in the world T20 held at the Caribbean, none of the scores Jayasuriya put forwards could prove his myth as a hard hitting batsman that he was some 4 years back.

Finally, Jayasuriya was dropped for the triangular series recently involving India and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe which Sri Lanka won at the cost of a depleted Indian team led by Suresh Raina. Sanath Jayasuriya now holds the record for two out of the top ten fastest hundreds in one day internationals but still deserves to relax with his wife and kids. He holds the world record for hitting the maximum number of sixes in ODI but is made to sit at a place where the ball lands when it is hit for a six. He holds the record for 2^nd highest run getter and 3^rd highest scorer and 2nd highest number of ODIs played. But......time is up.

Too early for Saurabh Tiwary

Well, he has just crossed 20 years of age and his name is finalized for the upcoming Asia cup that involves Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in addition to India. And, the fact that Saurabh Tiwary is chosen by resting Sachin Tendulkar should no doubt make him feel even more great. One need not question the dropping of Yuvraj Singh and resting Sachin Tendulkar for one of the most important series - the Asia cup. This is the cup that will term the strongest team in the subcontinent and luckily, the ICC is found to have made it a regular affair like the Ashes.

This is the fourth Asia cup since 2000 and as mentioned, one can hope this to be a regular event in the ICC's international calender that would take place once in two years. This was not the case previously, when there was one such event in 2000 and another in 2004 and the next in 2008 with a gap of 4 years inbetween. And this one in 2010 has happened after a gap of two years. However, that apart, coming to the inclusion of Saurabh Tiwary, one has to think whether that was a decent choice or not, for the lad has got a long way still.

For the sake, one has to recall the way Parthiv Patel was bought into the international arena which also saw him make it to the world cup in 2003 held in South Africa where India had their 2^nd final. But Parthiv Patel was not the part of the playing eleven despite there being no regular wicket keeper with Rahul Dravid doing the job for his team despite his lack of expertise in that field. And today, one can hardly recall who Parthiv Patel is. The only cricket that he plays is in the Indian Premier League where he has signed up for the Chennai Superkings. Still, one has to notice that Parthiv Patel is not made to keep wickets unless Dhoni goes off.

And, more than calling it a possibility, it is more than certain that Saurabh Tiwary will not be made to feature in the playing eleven. Similar cases have been seen regarding other players like Sourav Ganguly who made his international debut in 1992 only to become the permanent member of the Indian team in 1996 after the world cup. However, the lone player who can be kept out of the list is Sachin Tendulkar who despite making his debut at the age of 16 is still daring the bowlers and may be goes on for another world cup or so.

Was the resting of players justified?

I can still remember the way India lost the second one dayer to Bangladesh in 2005 when the then captain Rahul Dravid decided to rest most of the experienced players by underestimating the Bangladeshi players and paid the price for the same by losing the match by 11 runs. In fact that was India's first ever defeat at the hands of Bangladesh. And now once again, the Indian selectors did the same mistake by resting all the players who are experienced thinking that it can bring out the best out of the youngsters. As a result of this, once again India paid the price.

India not only lost their final match against Sri Lanka but also lost two matches rather unexpectedly to Zimbabwe, the team against which a victory was assumed before hand by the Indians and failed to make it to the finals of the tri nation tournament. Until now, team India was ill fated when they used to enter the finals of a multi nation tournament and lose there. But now, they have failed to get past the league stage itself. All thanks to the selectors who not only gave the youngsters a chance but also gave Zimbabwe a chance to enter the finals of the tri nation tournament which it rarely deserves.

Despite not deserving to be there, Zimbabwe was seen in the super sixes of two world cups in 1999 and 2003. Anyways, with that being secondary, the matter of the hour is that the BCCI did nothing good by resting the seniors starting from Sachin Tendulkar to Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The team should have seen atleast a few of the experienced lads making it to the squad like yuvraj Singh, who would be making it to the playing XI after a long time snce he has battled injuries off late. So would have been the case with Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag for whom this could have been a refresher series after their absence recently.

Following the series under discussion, there is a mega event scheduled with India taking on Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Asia cup which happens once in every two years since it was decided in 2008. With the BCCI resting the experienced players, there is every possibility that the Asia cup may turn a nightmare for both the players as well as the BCCI in case India lose to either if the strong teams or not to be surprised, even Bangladesh. Added to this would be the T20 world cup ghost that would continue to haunt the Indian team wherever they go until they find a breakthrough.