Category Archives: Cricket & Sports

Kohli-Kumble-CT musings

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cricket-players-2027502_640Gavaskar fought with Kapil.
Kapil fought with Sachin.
Sachin fought with Azhar.
Ganguly fought with Chappell.
Kohli fought with Kumble.
Same old same old.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Kohli—What happens in the dressing room, stays in the dressing room.

Kapil Vs Sachin Vs Azhar = Everyone quit as coach/captain.
Chappell Vs Ganguly = First Chappell went, then Ganguly.
Kumble Vs Kohli = Kumble quit.

Indian cricket has currently many masters…
BCCI.
Supreme Court.
CoA.
Sachin-Dada-Laxman panel.
Kohli.
Coach just went, but will be replaced.

Politics cut short…
Kapil’s coaching.
Sachin’s captaincy.
Chappell’s coaching.
Ganguly’s captaincy + career.
Dravid’s captaincy.
Kumble’s coaching.

Most Indian captains have at least one tournament final crash…
Kohli = 158 all down, 2017 CT.
Dhoni = 173 all down, 2008 Asia Cup.
Ganguly = 54 all down, 2000 Sharjah.
Jadeja = 168 all down, 1999 Pepsi Cup.
Azhar = 125 all down, 1999 Sharjah.
Kapil = 187 all down, 1986 Benson & Hedges.

Virat Kohli has 76% ODI wins as captain, unheard of in India.
In Tests he has a 16-3 W-L record.
No replacement in sight.
He’s captain till the 2019 ODI World Cup.

Fact of the day.
Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag became the first players to win the ICC troika of ODI + T20 World Cups and Champions Trophy.
MS Dhoni joined them in 2013—the first as captain.
Kohli needs a T20 World Cup to join the club.

These versions by Sunil Rajguru

Musings post India’s loss in the Champions Trophy…

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stadium-580364_640In the 1983 World Cup final, we made just 183 runs in 60 overs.
We shouldn’t have won that.
The West Indies batting line-up was the most powerful in the world.
In the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy final, we made just 129 runs in 20 overs.
We shouldn’t have won that.
England were former T20 World Champions too and were further playing on home soil.
In the 2000 ICC KnockOut final, we beat the best teams of the tournament—Australia and South Africa—and yet lost to a much weaker New Zealand team and till date that remains their only ICC tournament title.
In the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final, India was a vastly superior team.
Yet Pakistan gave the vastly superior performance both in batting and bowling.
I guess it all evens out in the end.

We lost to England in the 1987 ODI World Cup semi-final.
We lost to New Zealand in the 2000 ICC KnockOut final.
We lost to Australia in the 2003 ODI World Cup final.
We lost to Sri Lanka in the 2014 T20 World Cup final.
We lost to West Indies in the 2016 T20 World Cup semi-final.
We lost to Pakistan in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final.
No team is our bogey.
We are our own bogies.
If we don’t show up on that day, we lose miserably.

After playing brilliant cricket throughout the tournament, India choked in the finals of the 2014 T20 World Cup and the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy along with the semis of the 2015 ODI World Cup.
After this dastardly performance, whenever we enter the finals, we can’t be called the favourites but will always be the underdogs.
The glorious golden 2007-13 MS Dhoni era is well and truly over.

After the Sri Lankan team attack in 2009 when Pakistan is facing a virtual home boycott, it won its first T20 World Cup the same year, its first Asia Cup in 12 years in 2012 and its first ICC Champions Trophy in 2017.
Amazing how it keeps coming out with a superlative performance once in a while with all the turmoil and chaos compared to the solidity and stability of say a South Africa!

When India beat Australia @ Dharamsala…

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snow-mountains-662943_640ICC Test Rankings.
No. 1 team: India.
No.1 Bowler: Jadeja.
No. 2 Bowler: Ashwin.
No. 2 batsman: Pujara.
No. 4 batsman: Kohli.
No. 2 All-rounder: Ashwin.
No. 3 All-rounder: Jadeja.
India never had it this good in Tests!

Ardh-Shatak ka Betaaj Badshaah.
#KLRahul #IndVsAus

In terms of arrogance, Ricky Ponting was worse than Steve Waugh and Steve Smith is worse than Ponting.

India required 87 runs off 1080 balls at the end of the third day in this match to win.
T20 enthusiasts in the future will simply not understand Test cricket.

These versions by Sunil Rajguru

#IndVsAus #RanchiTest musings…

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Pujara: Maine double century maara!
Sehwag: Bhai sahab, 521 balls main to main do do triple century maarta!

Rohit Sharma in ODIs: 264(173).
Cheteshwar Pujara in Tests: 202(525).

Cheteshwar Pujara makes India’s slowest double century in the history of international cricket (521 balls).

Maximum balls faced in an innings…
Wall I Gavaskar: 472.
Wall II Manjrekar: 422.
Wall III Dravid: 495.
Wall IV Pujara: 525.

Cheteshwar Pujara becomes India’s first Quintuple Centurion (in terms of balls faced—500) in the history of international cricket.

These versions by Sunil Rajguru

#IndVsEng series musings…

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Jo shatak banayega wohi Sikander.
#Sachin
Jo Jeeta wohi Sikander.
#Sachin
MC-BC. Sikander gaya tel lene.
Shatak bhi mera, jeet bhi meri!
#Kohli

Test captaincy.
Test anchor.
ODI anchor.
iT20 anchor.
RCB captaincy.
RCB anchor.
3500+ runs in all the above.
Pressure? Woh kya hota hai?
#Kohli

Batsman Kohli—May surpass Sachin.
Captain Kohli—May surpass Dhoni.
Spinner Ashwin—May surpass Kumble.
All-rounder Ashwin—May surpass Kapil.

Batting Averages.
Great player…
Tests—55.
ODIs—50.
iT20s—40.
Kohli…
Tests—50.
ODIs—53.
iT20s—57.

Only two active cricketers have scored more than 650 runs in a Test series versus Australia in Australia.
#Cook #Kohli
Funny Anderson thinks Kohli needs pitches to score.

Prophecy: A Karnataka batsman will cross 200 at the Chennai Test.
Rahul out on 199: Damn! The prophecy was wrong!
Karun Nair: No it wasn’t!

#Dravid #Kumble #Laxman #Dhoni #Kohli
Greater match-winners than Sachin.
Sachin is not even the greatest in his own team.

These versions by Sunil Rajguru

General cricketing musings…

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Champs for 10 years and counting…
2007-09—T20 World Champs.
2009-11—Test World Champs.
2011-15—ODI World Champs.
2013-17—Defenders of Champions Trophy.
Pakistan.
Shortest T20 Champions 2009-10: 329 days.
Shortest Test champions in 2016: 42 days.

Have you seen the Rocky series?
Sir Ravindra Jadeja: No I am busy creating the Ronchi series.
There’s already Ronchi 1, 2, 3 and 4.
I am looking forward to Ronchi 5 in the next match.

When he comes in to bat.
JadejAA.
When he takes a wicket.
JadeJAA.
#IndVsNZ

ICC Test No. 1 rankings began in 2003.
Ganguly-Dravid-Kumble couldn’t take us past No. 3.
Now both Dhoni and Kohli have taken us to No. 1.

Our bowlers carry our #SurgicalStrikes against Kiwi batting and Pakistan loses the ICC Test rankings No. 1 battle to India.
#IndVsNZ
Headline…
MS Dhoni Biopic makes Rs 66 crore in first weekend.
All I see is Dhoni and 6 6. Makes perfect sense!

These versions by Sunil Rajguru