Bhajji Dropped

Finally, Captain Cool returned to the podium victorious. Phew… A huge sigh of relief!!! Though his teams won titles as World Cup & IPL recently, it already appears ages since Dhoni won a game. Thanks to the staggering amount of cricket played these days and the chain of defeats stuck to him like Fevicol bond. Today, he will be mightily relieved and thanking every one of his colleagues for not letting him rot in the hell, rather turned up to bail him out of Jail.

In my perspective, two things went in Dhoni’s favor for the victory he had been craving. First, Cape Cobras won the toss and decided to bat. This way he does not have worry about misplaced field setup or uncalled bowling change to screw up the defense. The second his own dismissal (despite an unlucky reprieve few deliveries before when Duminy dropped him) that brought Morkel to company Bravo. Two clean hitters with very limited pressure compared to Dhoni, the best to happen under those circumstances. Especially, after Bravo bludgeoned Steyn for 102 meter six, victory was only a formality for Super Kings.

Being an excited fan, hard not to ask myself, has the turnaround arrived for the Super Skipper? Oh yeah, why not? Having beaten a tough opponent as Cape Cobras, Dhoni should definitely fancy his chances against Trinidad & Tobago. If that is handled, New South Wales would be the final hurdle. Going into that game with 2 wins under the belt, Dhoni should feel more positive about his tricks deceiving the boys Down Under. After into the playoffs, vaguely remember Captain Cool ever returning empty handed. For now, the mind is working farfetched. Don’t mind at all. This is the way it always works. If this misses, it can be easily consoled, “Nothing can be worse than the England debacle”.

For now, Pool A is very interesting. Mumbai Indians with two wins are searching for one more to gain ground in the knockouts. Again it will not be easy considering Cape Cobras & NSW being the remaining opponents to play. Wonder who will make it to Semi Finals over the other two. Super Kings? New South Wales? Mumbai Indians? Cape Cobras? On paper Super Kings and Cape Cobras appear potent to be there, in reality you never know who will make it.

On the other Pool, life of the two IPL teams is miserable. Knight Riders have already lost two games and Bangalore Royal Challengers have lost De Villiers to injury. Seems Warriors and Somerset will have smooth sailing to the play off’s provided South Australian Redbacks don’t have other agenda.

England Tour of India

The Team for the first two ODI’s against England is announced. Much of the stars still nursing injuries, it is opportunity knocking doors for fringe players. Patel, Rahane deserve to be picked in any case for the show in England, however the bowling troupe spiced up the selection with completely new outfit. Young pace guns Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, S Arvind joins the party and spin quadrant is handled by Ashwin, Rahul Sharma and Jadeja minus Harbhajan Singh. By any chance if you are excited by the new look attack, it will be short lived when India fields Gambir, Patel, Rahane, Kohli, Raina, Tiwary, Dhoni, Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, Ashwin, Vinay Kumar in the starting lineup. The kids will warm the bench unless proved lucky. From my perspective, I don’t care too much about the result except the new boys provided an opportunity to make a testimony.

Bottom line: There is no denying Bhajji irked when the headlines read Harbhajan Dropped and not Harbhajan Rested.

Conspiracy of the Day: Bhajji dropped in the fear he might outsmart Dhoni for the role of skipper in the National Team.

Dinesh

Cricket Lover