If this game hadn’t happened, Dravid couldn’t have dreamt it up. All the players critical to our batting came off: Yuvraj coming off injury, slaughtered the bowling, Ganguly kept up his amazing run of form and Sehwag nearly made a fifty before he tried to do a Ranatunga by walking a single only to discover that Sangakkara wasn’t auditioning, as Sehwag was, for the title of most laid-back cricketer in the world. Older fans will remember the News Read at Slow Speed on All-India Radio. Well, this was Sehwag’s cricketing tribute to that programme: the Single Run at Slow Speed. Moved by a vulgar competitive spirit foreign to the Nawab of Najafgarh, the Sri Lankan keeper ran him out. Fancy that.

Best of all, the new boy came off: Uthappa juggled and dived his way to three catches, then made Sehwag look like Mr Sedate while clubbing the Lankan seamers for fifty two scored at a strike rate of 140. A hook that helped the ball over long-leg for six was particularly satisfying: a nice swivelling old-fashioned hook shot hit off the back-foot unlike the modern preference for the firm-footed whack that clears square-leg or even mid-wicket.

The bleak, joy-denying ghoul that lives in every Indian fan, whispered in my ear that what the match really showed for the third game running was that the Indian bowling was incapable of running through a side after its opening bowlers had blown the top order away, that Sehwag had a moment of discomfort against the short ball on a benign batting wicket, that the stand-and-deliver technique that finally got Uthappa dismissed was likely to be found out by Asif, Bond, Lee and Co. and finally that Harbhajan was a spent force going through the motions of off spin bowling, but I shook the doomsayer off and concentrated on what had happened.

And what had happened was this: chasing a more than decent total, against respectably fast (if not terribly disciplined) bowling, without the aid of Tendulkar, Dravid and Dhoni, we creamed ‘em.

Let me be the ghoul again....

This was a Sri Lankan team without two of the best bowlers in the world, Vaas and Muralitharan. Even if Indian batsman aren't as scared of Murali as say, the English, Vaas is still an enigma wrapped in a mystery surrounded by a riddle fenced in by a puzzle as far as our batsmen are concerned.
His accurate, left arm medium pace would have troubled both openers (neither known for a strong technique against the moving ball), and even at the end and in the middle, niggardly as that other great Indian bugbear, McGrath.
The fielding is still a worry; observe the two drops in the final over by the more 'sprightly' of our lot, Dhoni and Yuvraj. Add to that Sehwag's morning walk for a single ending in a car accident of a runout, and you see the dreadful possibility of an Indian team outrun, outfielded and outcaught by younger sides with a third of our experience, if not lesser average age.
However, all said and done, the wins will give some confidence to the team and should bring back some self-belief among the players after the morale crushing defeats for the last 8-10 months.
While there are reasons to celebrate, it is still too early to crack open the champagne.

terrific win for the team.
and coupled with new zealand's extraordinary run chase at the eden park just now, this has spread the world cup odds allover the field.

while australia will remain front-runners, they are particularly good at fight backs (remember world cup '99 anyone?), the other teams will go in with the belief that this aussie team is beatable.

while the super 8 is as good as pre-decided (barring mohammed ashraful, aftab ahmed & mushrafe mortaza all coming good in one match and pulling off a major surprise, in which case we should hope it will be against our island neighbours) the progress to the semi-finals could well be a game of roulettes. the format is interesting and the first three weeks of april are going to be madness.

i back australia and s.africa to make it to the semis and the other two spots could easily be anyone's game.

india and sri-lanka should be favourites to take those spots. but the home team can be a great bunch under their mercurial leader. and a resurgent new zealand can be more than a handful especially if one mr.007 gets it right. england have their own man of mystery in pietersen. pakistan have 15 of them.

this is about as open a world cup as i remember. move over x-box. it now truly is 'game on'.

Well its good to win once in a while... and, as you said, winning without the aid of some of our key performers makes the victory that much sweeter. Interestingly enough, I think today's victory (and indeed the past two series) have thrown up a variety of questions about present-day indian cricket, to which there are no obvious answers...

1. The key question - where does Pathan fit into this Indian side? Yes we have fast bowlers who're doing the job, but for those of use who remeber India's dream run a year-and-a-bit ago, Pathan was one of the key performers. At the cost of sounding cliched, he undoubtedly adds 'balance' to the side. But the solution that has been proposed by many is that he can be played as a 'fifth bowler who bats'... Somehow Im not so sure that Pathan will/can fulfill that role - his strength was always his bowling, and his batting developed enough for us to rely on him for a good innings now and then - but to play him as someone who has a limited bowling role and then depend upon his batting is a bit different, perhaps unreasonable and possibly unviable.

2. The second question undoubtedly revolves around Sehwag. I dont think today's innings did anything to calm our fears. In fact, if you look at the way he handled good balls (in this context, read: short!), I would think that the problems he's had over the past 12-18 months are still there for all to see, and you can get that messrs bond, lee (if he's fit), asif, flintoff, etc will be looking!

3. The role of the spinner - I disagree with Mr. Kesavan here - Harbhajan's not a spent force, he's every bit a 'matchwinner' as Sehwag is, and he's shown it on several occassions in the past. But he is in a bit of a rut, and somehow i dont think he (or Sehwag for that matter) inspire too much confidence with regard to their ability to pick themselves out of that rut...

phew... long post!

cheers,

Aditya B.

awesome, thats what the match was. most satisfying was yuvraj's return to form and international arena in superb style. with him and dhoni and not to forget an inform ganguly and tendulkar, we have a potentially match winning middle order. only if irphan rediscovers his mozo the team would have a solid balance. the question the match threw at me is whether we can acommodate both shewag and uthappa in the line up? great blog mukul; lets keep the joy denying ghoul at a distance for the moment.

Pakistan's success will largely depend on Afridi's fireworks and if he and Imran Nazir fires, then anything is possible. We shouldnt discount New Zealand after they chased 337 successfully with 6 balls to spare. I think Australia is not the only side who will be in contention for the World Cup. South Africa is doing well. I would say England is playing well as well. Only West Indies and Bangladesh are not playing well enough to make an impact. Bangladesh may score 250 chasing 300 against India or Srilanka but it wont be sufficient in this level.

This is the first time in one-day Internationals India finished a chase with a battery of fours-Yuvi's - and with overs to spare.Dhoni waiting in the Pavilion must have wondered why he or Karthik never employed this type of finish when they conceded a game earlier in the series.

I request Mr. Vaidyanathan to refrain from making sweeping generalizations about how India has chased earlier. He seems quick to forget how India hunted down totals last time they went to Pak.

Anyways, coming to the blog, this is one of your better efforts, Mr. Kesavan. I think the match just showed what this team which is full of out-of-form, injured people can achieve if everything goes right. Sehwag still doesn't inspire confidence and Uthappa doesn't seem to have anything other than a 5th gear. It was particularly pleasing to see Yuvi come good. That man will be vital in the World Cup. What this team achieves will still be dependent on how the old trinity of Ganguly-Tendulkar-Dravid performs. On current form though, it may well be the other trinity of Uthappa-Yuvraj-Dhoni that may be the prime mover as far as the batting is concerned. I wouldn't be too hopeful of the bowling succeeding against better teams like Aus or SA. We just need to hope that the vaunted batting line-up comes to the party every time.

Everyone also seem to have missed a couple of weak spots. Kartik showed clearly that he is not India's seventh best batsman.(Chapell has stated that he has been chosen as a batsman) His past record in one day cricket of one fifty and six scores below twenty in approximately nine outings beg the question as to how was he chosen over proven batsman like Mongia,Kaif,Gambir or Laxman.Similarly, is Pathan fit or not ,without even going into the question of whether he has regained his confidence and form ? A lovely article, without the final element of balance.

Even though India absolutely creamed Sri Lanka I doubt that India will win the world cup.My favourites are still Australia then South Africa. I'll go for India next because India is a team that is capable of anything because of there batting order, in which one name in particular stands out. His name is non other but Sachin Tendulkar, in my opinion te Best ODI batsman ever. Tendulkar can get into form in a span of days. Anyone remember the test series against Australia in australia in 2004? Sachin Tendulkar was absolutely hopeless in the first 4 tests, in which he averaged 12. He was in hopeless form.But tendulkar was absolutely determined to score something big, in the 5th and final test at Sydney he absolutely slaughtered the Aussies in his best innings ever when he scored 241* and 60*.
If Tendulkar is capable of this, what is he not capable of? Therefore i rest my case. India definately have the players to win the World Cup, the players just need to be consistant.Uttapha is the new Jayasuriya. But can he be as consistant? Ganguly is in amazing form at the momment,can he consistant during the world cup? Dravid looks to be in good touch, Yuvraj is come back to form nicely. Dhoni. He is the best ODI wicket-keeper in the world at the momment. He is a great batsman, and one of the hardest hitters of the cricket ball ever!!Indians batting is very solid and strong. But there bowling is not really satisfactory. Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer have been the stand-outs in recent times. But now here is the big question. Irfan Pathan.I think he should be in the team.He is onlly 22 and he is a great allrounder. He's the future Pollock or Kallis.I think India should use him for the world cup, even though he is out of form completely.
This would be my complete 15 man squad:
1.Robin Uttapha
2.Sourav Ganguly
3.Sachin Tendulkar
4.Yuvraj Singh
5.Rahul Dravid
6.Mahendra Dhoni
7.Irfan Pathan
8.Ajit Agarkar
9.Anil Kumble
10.Zaheer Khan
11.Harbajan Singh
12.Munaf Patel
13.Sree.
14.Verinder Sehwag
15.Mohammad Kaif/Suresh Raina

I am most happy at Sourav Ganguly's form. It's been said before but it's truly amazing, how's he come back. He has just lived up to his mantra of "Never Say Die".

I will give India atleast 75% to take that glittering cup home. We have a solid middle-order (our bane earlier) and our openers are getting starts. Our bowlers are also doing well. I don't agree with the notion that we are horrendous in our fielding. Are we dropping sitters or misfielding every alternate ball ? No ! Yes, we are slow off the blocks and maybe we cannot save the extra run, but as long as we have to batting who can avenge that extra run, I don't think there's any need for worry.

If you take a look at the Indian side that made it to the finals of the 2003 World Cup, it's easy to see that it was a combination of great batting, bowling and fielding that got India to the finals. Nehra, Khan and Srinath made the Indian new-ball attack a force to be reckoned with, the Indian fielding was fantastic, and we all know that our batting line-up is among the best.

This time around though, I'm a bit worried. It's comforting to see that Yuvi seems to be returning to form with the bat, and it's great to see Dada doing what he does best (not just with the bat, but also in the slips cordon), but I can't help but think that it's the old guard of Tendulkar, Dravid,Ganguly, and even Sehwag that the team seem to be most reliant on. True, they are great players, and our batting has depth, but if we are to win matches in the Caribbean against the likes of Australia, S. Africa and the West Indies, we need fielders and new-ball bowlers who can suffocate the opposition. Let's be frank. A new-ball attack that includes Zaheer, Sreesanth and Munaf is not one that strikes terror in the hearts of most opening batsmen, and the Indians (with the possible exception of Yuvraj and the excluded Kaif) are not known for their fielding brilliance.

It might be a wise decision for Mr. Chappell and Co. to spend the next fortnight drilling into the team that 50 runs saved on the field are 50 runs less that our batsmen need to score, and in the one-day game, tight fielding and disciplined bowling wins matches as much as batting does. I think Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Kartik need to be looked at for their fielding contributions as much as their batting. And as far as our pace bowling department is concerned, you don't have to be fast and look menacing, you just have to be disciplined and stick to the basics. Just ask Lasith Malinga if there are any lessons he can learn from Ganguly's bowling in Vizag.

While our victories against the Windies and Sri Lanka are sweet, and must be celebrated, we need to do a better job to restrict our opponents to take the pressure off our batsmen. We had no business letting Sri Lanka get to 259 after having them on the back foot at 50-odd for 4. That being said, I couldn't be happier about the fact the the Boys in Blue seem to getting back into the groove, and will embark on their Caribbean quest feeling a lot better after the drubbing in South Africa.

Everyone also seem to have missed a couple of weak spots. Kartik showed clearly that he is not India's seventh best batsman. His past record in one day cricket of one fifty and six scores below twenty in approximately nine outings beg the question as to how was he chosen over other batsmen such as Laxman.Similarly, is Pathan fit or not ,without even going into the question of whether he has regained his confidence and form ? A lovely article, without the final element of balance.

There are a lot of positives that came out from this game and that includes the bleak ones as well because knowing your drawbacks and trying to work around it is the only way to go. Nothing is perfect.

What is missing, which I would like to add to that list is:

Dravid's lack of imagination in captaincy and I am thinking it could be the biggest blow that we will pay when it comes to some crunch Indian matches.

Honestly all of this counts to nothing. Most of the grounds being redone back in the West Indies, pitches are still of a mystery.
I would like to eat my words, since i am a die hard Indian fan, else i would not write this. But honestly, i do not see any chance for this Indian team to reach even the semi-finals. Reasons!
We all are dreaming against reality. Bowling strength apart from Zaheer does any bowler instill any fear in anyone. Maybe Kumble, anyone else?
Batting confidence, Dravid, Dhoni, Saching and Ganguly, anyone else you can bet upon, with confidence either to rip apart a bowling or build an innings at any time?
Fielding less said the better.
You still expect India to win the World Cup?
Honestly i do not even understand why we are going, when maybe even the team knows, we are not even a semi-final material. Honestly look ahead for 2011.

It was indeed a polished performance by the Indian team. But the same old failings still persist, when the batting is good-the bowling is bad and vice-versa. When playing against teams like NZ, Aus, SA who have hitters like Oram, Symonds, Kemp etc., it is this aspect that will be the deciding factor. Bowling at death is still a question for which Dravid, Chappell & co need to find an answer before March 11!!!

All in all a pleasant end to our WC2k7 preparation. But I have a little doubt murking in my mind with this success is Dravid & Chappel up against another combination-- Dravid gifting his slot to Uthappa? I just hope that the batting order we saw at vizag was just to allow others some time in the middle. Its high time, that roles and batting-order to be clearly defined.

yes undoubtedly it was an exemplary performance from the indian team. they did play very well and the prospects for the world cup are lookng bright. though, it has to be taken into account that the sri lankans were without chaminda vaas or muttiah muralitharan which will transform the sri lankans into a different side when they return. furthermore, it is again for sure just how good india are on their own turf. what will be interesting is their performance at the world cup, on foreign turf. to be honest, i wouldnt surprised if they mess up in the world cup as they just arent able to play on foreign turf. though, they should be commended for the way they played at vizag but i think the world cup will be the true test for the indian cricket team

hi. the game ws great. the line up for the match looks perfect and settled.with tendulkar coming back to his fav., tournament this is the line up any country can die for. still i feel that tendulkar should open in the world cup.
mentoring the juniors can be done someother time.

No, Mr. Kesavan.
This win was just an eye-wash. Plundering runs against mediocre bowling is the order of the day for Indian batting line-up. Against a quality attack and on a lively pitch, I will tell you this battling line up will fall like a peck of cards.
Uthappas, Sehwags, Gangulys and to certain extent Dhoni (the flat pitch bullys) with no technic whatsoever will surely find it difficult against likes of Pollock, Bond, Asif, McGrath. It was just few weeks back in SA and against SA bowling these same players were struggling to open their account. And soon as they see the flat pitch and mediocre bowling of Srilanka their eyes lit-up and started licking their lips and back to form with a bang.
But Alas, As Jayawardhene rightly said; It will be a different story for Indian team in Carribean.

Hilarious to see how a victory on a flat track against mediocre bowling lifts the spirits. No worries, a genuine pace attack in the WC will soon see an outcry against our pathetic batsmen.

vass and murali making a difference?. Last time they were thrashed 6-1 with both of them in the side hence this victory is well deserved.
our bowling might not be that goos but we have to remmeber in the dream run of 17 chases our bowlers restricted opp to abt 230-280 most of the time. thats a chasable score with this batting line up. anything more would be a problem.

As Mukul says it was definitely surreal: the venue and the method of winning. Just what the doctor ordered for the last ODI before the World Cup. The team looks good. Every single player has hit form, apart from Irfan, who wasnt allowed to. Look at the plus points: Best big hitters (Uthappa, Sehwag, Dhoni) 3 old war horses who have topped 10k runs; good finisher (Dhoni again) three seamers who can go at 138-140 average; close-in fielding looking good though not as much without Kaif and Raina; Major minus point is not speciaslit death-bowlers apart from Agarkar who can get hit very badly (unlike the Gayle- Browne deadly combine which does the 45-50 death overs for WI.

Hi!

1. Our fellows crumble in pressure is a well known fact.

2. Bowling and fielding department is not that great. This is a open secret.

3. The top bowlers of top teams have already sorted out Shewag, Ganguly and even Tendulkar. Dhoni, Uthappa and Karthick cannot be considered solid... they are still immatured... If they click they click... that is all.

4. Only Rahul is a very dependable player... But he also because of his work load as captain is not shining consistently nowadays... and

5. with lot of self doubt, lack of form, intensity, and lethargy (see how shewag got out last match)i do not believe Indians to make anywhere even near to semi finals...

Guys! be realistic. stop day dreaming... Best of Luck atleast for 2011

You guys are all wrong and I am absolutely right. Sreesanth, who has ATTITUDE, blond hair and perhaps pierced nipples, should be captain of the team and VVS Laxman should be the vice captain. All the others are chokers and should be dropped, except Tendulkar, who can be allowed to play if he unconditionally agrees to keep wickets for India. Ramesh Powar should open the innings with Balaji. Ashish Nehra and Sairaj Bahuthale will be 3 and 4. By completely handing our top order batting slots to our bowlers, we will enable them to play without any pressure as they know that there are real batsmen to follow. Numbers 5 and 6 will be Aakash Chopra and Kanitkar. 7 and 8 will be SS Das and Sadagopan Ramesh. 9 and 10 will be Messrs. Venugopal Rao and Wassim Jaffer. Tendulkar will be the last man in, when the opposition least expect it. Besides he will need all the time he can get as he will also be the 5th Bowler besides being keeper. Let's face it, this will probably be his last world cup; might as well run him to the ground. Our batsmen who come in after our bowlers will perform well without pressure because our bowlers would already have made a decent start as they are not under pressure; get it?
Oh, and Greg Chappel and his cronies should be fired and Kapil dev should be made coach, Gavaskar the Batting consultant and Srinath the Bowling consultant. We should completely ignore the fielding and focus instead on our strengths. My team will win the World Cup. It is a shame that I have better things to do than be a selector.

VERY NICE ARTICLE BY MUKUL SPRINKLED WITH HUMOR!
CREDITABLE & MORALE BOOSTING WIN FOR INDIA AHEAD OF THE WORLD CUP. WITH AUSTRALIA WOBBLING A BIT, THE WORLD CUP SUDDENLY LOOKS VERY OPEN. WILL INDIA PULL IT OFF? GOOD LUCK INDIA !!
BEST WISHES
VIJAY - FT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA.

hi ..one day cricket is all about battin ..first 20 then 15 and last 15 overs..we have multiple people who can fulfill multiple roles...credit to chappel..he has brought the best out of ganguly ..no one takes their place for granted ...its a good team ...all 15 deserve to be there ...as regards world cup ...its on the day the team that performs ..a shame really ... at least in the finals u should have best of 3..also remember that teams all teams have a month or so to rest ..its gonna be agreat world cup..but i aint watchin..too much cricket ...besides i got amy exams...but best of luck for our team to reach the semis..my 4 teams r sri lanka.(tom moody )...west indies (brian lara)...india(top 7 batsmen)and ....south africa(all rounders)

The win against Sri Lanka is nothing more than just a win from the WC prospective. India and Pakistan more so than Sri Lanka are shameless backyard bullies.

India, in its favor has a more potent batting lineup than Pakistan or Sri Lanka put together and can be world beaters on flat pitches. The reason one cannot take too much out of the recent win was Sri Lanka’s wayward bowling. It seemed as though the Sri Lankan bowlers were on the field after failing the sobriety test.

Having said that I have a feeling India out of all the three S. Asian contenders has the best chance of a showing in the WC. First, the pitches in the Caribbean are a close facsimile to the ones at home, second players for the most part are getting over the injuries and third, bowling seems to be coming around and finding the groove as it were.

Being of the Pakistani origin, and with reality in check I know Pakistan does not have a chance, except to give Bangladesh a run for the money. I am also a S. Asian at heart and would be pulling for either India or Sri Lanka to bring the cup to S. Asia. AMF!

alrt mukul mate stop getting excited all ur bowlers are same pace bowlers as our shahid afridi dere all slow dnt get excited u indians dnt have a clue abt cricket jus get ecxited jus da pitrch uderwise ur bowlers are 70mph+ lol we have shoaib akhtar fastest n sami 3rd so chill out we still are only subcontinent team wid pace srilanka is ok malinga does it all da time not jus once n btw 140 isnt pacy jus 86mph all pakistani domestic bowlers bowl at that pace

I feel India and Sri Lanka will play the finals of the WC reason being. Sri Lankans are chockers when it comes to slow track. Only India and Lanka in their present team have 8 bowlers who can bowl. And Aussies proving to be a spent force and the biggest blunder by not taking Stuart Clark the man in splendid touch mite just make them pay by stepping down the throne to some other team. Clearly Ponting is not comfortable outside Australia and records show he has had dreadful time on slow turning pitches. India I dont think can be too sure on depending on players like Dhoni And Yuvraj they are players who play brilliantly on fast paced tracks or placid wickets. If we need to win the cup our spinners have to perform Shewag and Uthappa should open Dhoni should come at number 3 as his record shows he averages around 80 at that position. Well I believe india and Dravid needs to be aggressive if they need to win the cup. I am not too bothered about the fielding problem I havnt seen SA even going in the finals being the best fielding side on the planet and unbelievable bowlers.My ideal side would be
AR Uthappa(open)
V Shewag(open)
M Dhoni(on slow tracks shoudl come at number1 to make use of the harder bowl)
SR Tendulkar(number 4 I wont mind if he opens..hes a legend at tht position and we have seen him score tons)
SC Gangully(number 5)
R Dravid(number 6 of as a floater if we are 2 down early on he should go to stop teams denting the side further)
Y Singh(Number 7 can swap with dhoni if we are off to a solid start)
IK Pathan(Number 8 and opening bowler not first change as the bowl stops to move.Can be tried if he gets back in form against minnows like Bermuda etc)
Z Khan(impressive he should open the bowling without doubt)
M Patel/Agarkar
H Singh

A facile win!..
A win conveniently obscures the issues at hand. Still there are problems for this team.

nothing would have changed even if indians had lost... because when everybody lands in WI, the rhetoric is going to be "past records/form doesn't matter..it is who plays well throughout this tournament! add a bit about peaking at the right time!"..

Every team has ghouls and demons, Mukul. We had worse ghouls before we went into the last world cup: remember what happened in New Zealand 2002-2003? At least now we're going there on a winning note, we have found the perfect wicket-keeper batsman, and our batting lineup is pretty much the same. The only major worry, for me, as you say is the frustrating inability to finish a side off after having them under the pump...Dravid lets them off the hook too soon in my opinion, like in one of the ODIs in South Africa where Justin Kemp took advantage of some Indian complacency. Someone should go tell Dravid that captaincy is not about being Mr. Nice...and by that someone I mean Saurav Dada.

I don't know why everybody is criticising Karthik for his batting. He played a matchwinning innings in Cuttack when india were in trouble. No other top order batsman crossed even 25. Well, Sachin the great got a duck,Sourav was hopeless against the short ball. Dinesh came and showed aggression and gave India a respectable total to bowl at. If he didnt play that innings, the press would have taken the life out of Dravid on the batting.
Dinesh should not be criticized at least for now.

Talking about Vizag, Indians would have played better even in the presence of Murali and Vaas. Yuvraj has shown the reason why India didn't chase that successfully in the recent past. Sehwag is still vulnerable to the short ball and he does not like to be in the middle order. If he opens, either Uthappa or Ganguly should go down which will change the batting order. Instead of Sehwag, there should be Pathan who is a valuable bat and takes wickets when he is in form.

Hey asam, Shoaib Akhtar is a fat bloke on steroids who always gets smashed when he plays against India. Remember the last world cup? Remember the test match at Multan? Sami averages over 40 in test cricket...he can't even stick to a line and length. And Asif, well he might come close to Zaheer Khan when in full flow. So much for your "fast bowling."

mawali - i find it odd that you think that india has so much better a chance of winning the wc than pakistan. talent wise i think the pakistanis can eclipse any team, the only thing lacking is opening batsmen.

i must declare a conflict of interest here. i am a pakistan supporter. and it's true, our game is in complete chaos right now: injuries to key bowlers, loss of form to others, banning afridi, woolmer vs akhtar, the doping thing (of which no doubt more to come) and memories of the oval fall-out and the younis khan dummy captain episode all lead me to one conclusion: pakistan's name is surely on the cup, no? cornered tigers part 2? i must declare a second conflict of interest: i'm a contrarian investor.

well, here's to a pakistan versus india final.

Dear Ramana,

Thank you for pointing out the various faults of the average indian psyche. It gives me immense pleaseure to know brave and intelligent people such as yourself( top performer that you must be) would have a brilliant idea of how 15 gentlemen have found a place for themselves out of one billion. Indian batting lineup has had collapses and so has every other teaem in the world. Lack of self confidence is a personal huma weakness. Perhaps you relate to it. The rest of don't. Not that we have delusions of winning this cup hands down, but we certainly have the talent as well as temperment to match the occasion. We require consistency. None the less, thank you dear Ramana for showing us that you belong to that class of dejected assholes who think the know whats going to happen before it does. I'd love for you to post your resume on this. Perhaps it's credibility stretches beyond your tongue. Good Day sir. You may hide in your hole. The rest of us still look forward to a scrap.

Anish

Thanx to Mr. Kesavan for starting this thread. I just went through the comments posted by my fellow "diehard" men in blue fans (a few of them other way though). What ever our strengths and weaknesses are, lets make it clear, we all (atleast most of them) have only one thing in mind abouth this team - winning the world cup. For most part the victory against Srilanka would certainly create much doubt in the minds of many teams which would take it for granted a victory against India. We need confidence more than any thing. I would say we have a decent bowling line up (if not the best), a dencent fielding group (once again, if not the best in the world) and the best batting line up in the world. All I would think of for this team to win matches and the WC is they should be more confident. I feel that lack of confidence is the main reason we are loosing the games..

DSK

Despite india's win , srilanka normally do not play well in India. Srilanka has great balance in their team.Srilanka lost mainly due to their top order failed. I say mainly due to lack of form of Jayawardene.

Indian team is not not, Baring Uthappa and sehwag , indians are chokers. Sehwag is still out of form. By playing kumble and Harbhajan singh , india have longer tail. That mean more pressure on indian batsman to deliver every time. Indians never proved that they are good in pressure condition despite what is on paper. If only sachin can deliver on pressure situation , india will be number one team. India is still capable of making to semifinals and finals but if they face SA or AUS , they will choke. Planning is one thing and doing it is another thing. Only SA and AUS has bowlers who has the skill and talent to bowl according to plan and exploit weakness of indian batsman. To beat india is easy , dryp the run with close fielding and indian try to hit over top and do not have strength do it and gets out.

If india has to win , Greg chappell has to change the line up and upset opposition plan. Send Dinesh karthick to open that will upset everyone if he can survive initial overs.

As usual we get carried away by a win against a depleted Lankan team. How would India have fared in Lanka minus Zaheer and Agarkar ( Not exactly Vaas and Murali still our best bowlers).

We all live in a false comfort zone assuming that everything is hunky dory for the world cup. It is far from it. India's fielding is abysmal and even Chappel has diplomatically used the word "concerned" when he mentioned fielding.

There was a period in the 90's when an opposing team batsman scored a shot, Kumble would raise his hand and point to Srinath and Srinath to Prasad who would ultimately die AFTER the ball crossed the ropes. The present team is no different from it.Things changed a bit with Kaif/Raina around. Sadly they ont warrant a place in the team on fielding alone.

India will make it to the Super Eights. About 30-40% chance to make it to the semi's.

I just hope first of all that India beat Bangladesh. it will be a nightmare if india don't reach the second round, and bangladesh are the only team i think capable of pulling an upset, and just look at India's luck...in the same group as their neigbour's!
FYI, bangladesh has beaten india twice before, and they've beaten Sri Lanka as well, so really guyz, expect anything!

we now have 4 bowlers(zak,agarkar,sreesanth,munaf) who can bowl at 140+ kph,our batting is the most explosive lineup in the world,sehwag and uthappa can afford go hammer and tongs with the bowling early on in the power plays bcoz batsmen like ganguly,sachin,yuvraj,dravid and dhoni r still there,if they succeed at the top,then surely india can get 350,the pitches in the carribean i think are more likely to be belters like in vizag,otherwise the crowds will stay away which will be a disaster for the already beleagured organisers,and btw jayawardane himslf pointed out that srilanka lost 6-1 even with murali and vaas in the side.there is no reason to be pessimistic,the trend nowadays is all teams (including sa and aus)do well at home and struggle abroad. the world cup is different though with its unique pressures .the team which plays well on the given day will win.this is going to be an open world cup after many years with every team reasonably confident.may the best team win!

It was a good win especially given the fact that Yuvraj and Sehwag were able to get some runs. It also gives us some psychological advantage over SL in the league match. But we better be watchful. Last time we went to WI, we were riding on a similar ODI winning streak against SL and England.

Regarding the selection, I would have taken Powar and Kaif/Mogia/Raina in place of Kumble and Kartik. I can't see India risking Kumble in any games beyond the first two. And there is simply no place for Kartik in the team. There is no sense in playing Karthik as the seventh batsman, Pathan is a more effective batsman than Karthik and he can bowl too.
It seems like Cricinfo has some kind of deal with Karthik. Everytime I check the site, I see an article about him. He is getting more attention than every other player in the Indian team. He is a promising young lad but come on now. Other than a couple of good innings, what has he accomplished? He averages below 20 in ODIs and around 25 in Tests and first class cricket. He is lucky to be in the team ahead of more accomplished batsmen in India,

First of all I am Sri Lankan and its amazing to note how excited an Indian fan gets when India wins one match at home. No doubt india played well to win but it was the toss that cost the match to SL. The only time the ball did anything in that wicket was in the first 6 overs and the Sri Lankans did not know what sort of score to target for - hence the 4 quick wickets. But then in the end they lost only 7 wickets in total. India played well thanks to some wayward bowling !! I could have scored more than Dinesh Kartik - Where is Kaif? In bollywood? Chappell and the selectors are crazy. The world cup can be anybody's this time but one thing that this series proved was that India are not finishers and Sri Lankans can get too positive sometimes...this obviously can be corrected but India's inability to finish games could cost them a semi final spot. In the end as a South Asian lets hope the India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan get to the Semi's - now that would be something to shout about

I dont think india will win the world cup. i always felt the best fielding teams will win the world cup. 1983 India was one of the best fielding outfir, Ex: Kapil's catch to dismiss Richards. Well the current indian tream has a terrible fielding outfir barring Yuvraj. Thier groundfileding epecially out fielding is lacklustre. They take ages to to return the ball to the keeper from outfiled. The 2nd reason india doesnt have a proper fifth bowler. My predictions Aus/SA/SL will be the favourites & i wont be surprised if NZ or ENG lift the trophy. India & pakistan will have a chance only if they improve thier fielding. Dravid, Ganguly, Sehwag, Zaheer, munaf were all weak & they were certain to play for the final lineup. In 2003 under ganguly's srict leadership they forced to filed well. Dravid is too soft & i dont think they will be relly concerned of fielding well.

Well.. more comments on India's victory.. dogs started to bark and everybody else (excet the diehard fans of men in blue) started to cry and envy.. Well ths makes me more happy and proud to be a fan of the men in blue.. No team is ever perfect. So is Team India. It's players are heading towards perfeaction and I am proud to be a supporter or this team. Fighting aside, lets see how Indian tem would respond to the challanges posed by the opponent teams in WI.

Aditya Anchuri mate wat r u smokin son u hve jus made ma day wid da biggest joke of the year- asif might be close to zaheer khan if in full flow get ur fcts right mate even mukul must be laughin at that zaheer has an rubbish average of 35+ he is m asifs left hand lol as for akhtar the fat bloke u call him h eis still the fastest bowler on da planet mate who is indias fastest bowler? lol s.ganguly lol

I see Karthik to be a weak link along with Pathan.
Laxman seems to be losing out to the name Dinesh always (last WC it was Mongia and this time it is Karthik). In both cases VVS is a far better batsman.Sehwag will be sorted out easily by big oppositions. Same goes with Ganguly. Hope his form continues into WC.Also don't forget Murali and Vass were not playing.Althogh there is lo tof room for improvement, it was good to c India playing as a team and both bating and bowling coming good together.

Asam dude, what's the use of speed if the bowler cannot complete a series without an injury and whats with that taking drugs. M Asif seems to be good now, but let him play as long as Zaheer has played (without testing + for banned drugs) and we can compare then.

yes my fellow indians we will see den as 4 takin drugs issue dey have been proved inncocecnt jus dat dey were tkin bodybuildin supplements not like the weakling indian bowlers lol

Top teams have played a few games in 2007. It is interesting to see the overall team ratings according to me: ( guide 30 > top, 20= good, 10 or below = poor). SA= 28.3, Eng= 23.4, Ind= 17.8, NZ= 16.6, Aus= 15.1, WI= 9.6, SL= 3.0, Pak= -1.4.

India's top bowlers: Manuf - 4th - 43.5; Zaheer - 8th - 36.1; Agarkar - 23th - 30.9; Harbhajan - 26th - 17.6.
Top four Indian bowlers have done very well. Congrats!! Yuvi is 11th (only one innings), Sachin is 46th.

Just for comparison:
Pollock - 2nd - 53.9; Bond - 5th - 40.2; Anderson - 7th - 38.4; Flintoff - 10th - 33.1; Lee- 13th - 27.4; Bravo - 15th - 26.2; McGrath - 17th - 25.3; Ntini - 20th - 23.1; Vettori - 22th - 22.5; Gayle - 32th - 11.4; Asif - 43th - 4.6; Malinga - 70th - minus 12.1; Rana Naved - 73th/last- minus 28.6!!

What's the deal with Karthik? As an Indian, still don't understand how he was picked over Raina, especially when Dhoni is not even close to any injuries (he even misfielded a few times so don't tell me he's a world class fielder - its anyways hard to switch positions from keeping to regular fielder)...
I remember Srikkanth making a bold comment about how he failed to see any talent in Raina....now where are his 'intelligent' comments when fellow Chennaite Karthik seems to not perform so well either!!!

All this win did is it gave confidence to the Indian team and allowed some of the players to gain some practice against a mediocre team display. When the Indians play the hungry, talented and proffesional side like the South Africans and Australians, they cannot afford to drop any catches or let the batsmen off the hook after pegging them back initially. The Indians have to find ways to finish a side when their frontline bowlers make inroads. Tighter bowling and top knotch fielding is what this Indian side needs to win this cup. They have the best batting lineup in the world, no doubt about it.

The first post of Alok, said it all. Even before reading the comments, I was thinking the same thing that Sri Lanka without Murali and Vaas should not make India feel that they have done a great job. That will lead them to complacency and in the WC crunch matches complacency will get you a one way ticket back home.

New Zealand is playing well and in the 2nd ODI without Jacob Oram they fought and won it. The good thing is they have a very balanced side at the moment.

In my opinion neither SA nor Australia will reach the finals at the WC. I have ample justification to prove laterz, right now I am in a hurry and gtg.

reading all these comments i tend to agree with dsk.the indian team may not be perfect,well no team is at the moment,but they are certainly headed towards the right direction.all that a die hard fan like me would want is for them to play to their potential just like last time .and it is best to ignore ppl like asam who make tall claims about their famous pacers!lol

all da indians on da blog sayin ignore asam im not lyin am i wat indian can tl me india has a pace bwler lol u dnt i tink is dal roti

Mr. Kesavan's comments are spot on!..funny,the quality of blogging deteriorated as I went down the list from Kesavan's blog... I do believe that the men in blues did regain some confidence by winning against WI and SL..but like everybody says..WC is a different animal. Looking forward to some cracking cricket in the next two months.

Guys, nice to read all this. I only hope the Indian team going to WI simply enjoys whatever games they play.
If they win, it should be treated as a bonus.
(Logic being - you only enjoy what you are doing if you do it well. If the batsmen enjoy, they will be battering the opposition. If the bowlers enjoy, they will be bowling maiden overs (and then maidens over...lol). If the fielders enjoy...haha that will be the day !

Playing 11:

Ganguly
Sehwag
Tendulakar
Yuvraj
Dravid
Dhoni
Pathan
Agarkar
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Munaf

ASAM dude you are over rating ur bowlers man, i agree we don't have the quickest bowlers in the world but whats the use of pace if u get hammered 18 runs in ur first over (remember wc 2003, hahaha), anyways u have ur facts wronr, let me show u who the quickest bowlers in the world are (and i am not talking bowlers with steriods)- 1 Shaun Tait (160 km/h), Brett lee (160 km/h), steve harmisson (158), andrew flintoff (158), lasit milinga 155 , shane bond 155, and many many more, i guess what i want to say is that mohammad sami don't make the cut, yaar even glen mcgrath is quicker that sami when he wants to be