Thursday, November 5, 2009

Ponting Looks to Punk India:

Who's your daddy now? (courtesy:freebeez.com)

It’s SO friggin ON now.

Series tied at 2-2 .  India brandishing the kangaroos in 2 games and laying the proverbial turd in the other games. What can be said about an Aussie team which has 43232 front line bowlers on crutches, wheelchairs, medication, and therapy, AND YET manages to win games against a seemingly stronger opponent (on paper atleast) away ?  Pretty Cool.

So, while the stage is set for the big game in Hyderabad, Ponting comes out and plays the sympathy card:

“If you consider everything that’s happened to us over the last couple of weeks, it would be an amazing effort if this group of players were good enough to get over the line,” Ponting said in the Age. “I think we showed the other night that if we play even somewhere near our best we’re a really good chance of winning the series.

Yes sir, that is indeed pretty amazing.

MSD, on the other hand, should be a little upset that the series is tied at this point.  While having the 2 awesome fearsome mirror images at the top order fire simultaneously would ease a lot of pressure on him, it hasn’t happened in the series yet. More worrying was the lack of Gambhir, who pretty much was on the Aussies like an evil diaper rash at the No.3 Position.  Dhoni did try to shuffle it a bit and send Kohli up front, but that move backfired in a pretty big way. Gambhir probably being back for this game would help.

A good thought would be to send Harbhajan singh opening the batting. Bhajji of late seems to have perfected the art of bitchslapping the Aussies with the bat, while being underwhelming with the ball. His bowling has been a big concern for quite a while now. Frankly, after 10+ years of international cricket and being tagged the “premier” wicket tacker in your team, it should NOT be taking 4+ games in a 7 game series to get into your groove.

Big Cajones of STEEL Predictions by MTJAG:

1. Score set by the team batting first would be 270-280.

2. Gambhir and Hussey will fail to contribute a  30+ score this time. Law of averages catches up with them.

3. Sehwag starts out like the devil again, but fizzes away, after a 25.

4. Sachin gets 70+ in this game

5. Shaun Marsh will play well for the ‘Roos, and get a 50+

6. Raina and Jadeja play very useful roles both with the bat and ball this time.

7.  Hauritz grabs 3 wickets

8.  India gets the lead here . 3-2.

9. MoM :  Sachin.

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