GIF of the day: Gilly dances

Saturday, May 18, 2013 adam gilchrist, dance, gifs, ipl 6

Adam Gilchrist? More like Adam GIFchrist! (sorry)

The Ashes are over

Thursday, January 06, 2011 adam gilchrist, australia, cricket, cricket comics, england, ricky ponting, rishabh bablani, shane warne, the ashes No Comments

IPL Preview # 3 - Deccan Chargers

Thursday, March 04, 2010 adam gilchrist, cricket, deccan chargers, ipl, preview, rishabh bablani 7 Comments

The turnaround team. They were filled with the best ball-tonkers in the first season, yet failed miserably and ended up in last place. Then, in IPL2, they realised the importance of Indian players, and under the captaincy (and general awesomeness) of Adam Gilchrist, they proceeded to win the title. Gilchrist led from the front, Laxman had a couple of decent innings, Rohit Sharma and RP Singh did well in something, Pragyan Ojha was one of the best spinners around, and Suman and Venugopal Rao were capable in their roles as batsmen and part-time spinners.

This year's squad -

Adam Gilchrist (capt/wk), Azhar Bilakhia, Andrew Symonds, Arjun Yadav, Bodapati Sumanth, Chaminda Vaas, D Ravi Teja, Dwayne Smith, Harmeet Singh, Ashish Reddy, Herschelle Gibbs, Kemar Roach, VVS Laxman, Mohnish Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Ryan Harris, T Suman, Venugopal Rao, Anirudh Singh, Rahul Sharma, Mitchell Marsh. 

Gilchrist and Gibbs seems like an amazing duo, but Gibbs, usually hit-and-miss, is more 'miss' than 'hit' these days. Gilchrist could emerge from a cryogenic state and still hit sixes at will. Symonds will be looking to prove he can still bat and bowl in a big stage after being chucked from the national side, and Dwayne Smith is always good for a quick 30, and he bowls too. I don't know what kind of role Chaminda Vaas has or why he's still here, and I'm not sure Laxman should be playing T20 either. It's a good all-round mix apart from that, with three good middle-order batsmen, who all bowl handy off-spin, in Rohit Sharma, Venugopal Rao and T Suman. Ravi Teja is another very good batsman who is yet to prove his talent in the IPL, while the bowling looks strong as it is, led by RP Singh and the crafty Pragyan Ojha.

Kemar Roach is the replacement for Fidel Edwards, and more than adequate, as he lacks the 'spray-around' quality that Edwards has but matches the pace. Ryan Harris has risen to international level since last year, and another great buy is Mitchell Marsh, younger brother of Shaun Marsh and no less talented. My preferred line-up is:

Adam Gilchrist (c) (wk)
D Ravi Teja
Rohit Sharma
Mitchell Marsh
Andrew Symonds
T Suman

Y Venugopal Rao
Azhar Bilakhia
Ryan Harris
RP Singh
Pragyan Ojha

I've gone with an extra batsman in the above line-up, as there really isn't another Indian pace bowler apart from RP Singh, and there's no need to play an extra spinner as most of the batsmen there bowl, too. Symonds will probably have to chip in with medium-pace rather than his off-spin. RP and Harris can shoulder the pace responsibilities well, or there's always Roach.

My Official-sounding prediction for DC this year: Semis. They've found a good balance, they have talented batsmen and variation (somewhat) in the bowling. And Gilchrist. So 3rd Place it is.

Kings XI Punjab up next. Until then, Go Chargers. Really, go.

The Final. FINAL!

Saturday, May 23, 2009 adam gilchrist, anil kumble, cricket, fake ipl player, ipl, mumbai indians, preview, rishabh bablani, sachin, sanath jayasuriya No Comments

Welcome back (that one's for me).

I haven't posted one of these for a bit now. A combination of 'no time' and 'frustration' kept me away from my blog, but since the IPL is about to end, I feel obliged to expose you to my cricketing brain once more.

It's been a great IPL, lots of close matches, some amazing spin bowling - thanks to the end-of-season worn-out South African pitches. Kumble's 5-5 and some Murali magic come to mind. Fantastic innings - be it the biggies from AB deVilliers, Suresh Raina and Manish Pandey (he's my age!), or the short and sweet ones like Rohit Sharma's or Abhishek Nayar's. And of course, there was that one absolute stunner from Gilchrist that had the Daredevils peeing in their pants and yelling "Uncle!" Which he probably is to some of them, age-wise.

The Mumbai Indians failed to get to the semis again. Befuddling captaincy and side-selection from Sachin and losing from impossible-to-lose situations did them in yet again. They experimented throughout their campaign, and my analysis is that Jayasuriya has to go. The middle and lower order kept struggling in his not-so-long shadow after repeated failures, as wickets slow down the run-rate. Mumbai needs to bring in someone fearsome. Someone who will bat with a brain, yet is able to accelerate when needed. All fingers (10, or more if you're a freak) point to an Aussie. Can they nick someone like a Hussey in the transfer window next season? Time will tell.

I've gotten ahead of myself, thinking of next season. So then, about tomorrow's match. The final, that is. Last year's winner and runner-up of the wooden spoon have made the finals. Don't know why, don't know how. They didn't even change their teams! (I'm not counting Pietersen and Jesse, zero impact). This should be entertaining, though.
Prediction - Can't. This IPL has numbed my clairvoyance. I'm gonna be brave though, and root for Kumble's disciplined bunch. And I declare that Gilchrist will (gasp) fall early.

Also, Fake IPL Player has a hilarious bunch of awards to give out. Read here.

Until next year (for IPL, I'm still here).