De Ghuma Ke World Cup...

The world Cup 2011 is simmering and started living up to the lyrics of its anthem, "De Ghuma Ke". It seems to have inspired quite a few players including a totally unknown teenager called Hiral Patel, of Canada!! The caning he gave to the world cup champions in a lost cause, especially the six over covers off the fastest bowler in the tournament Shaun Tait, will linger in the memory long long after the dust has settled in Mumbai. There has been a lot of talk about the minnows bashing; for a change it was nice to see Champion bashing! That's the beauty of sport; king for a day is far better than a pauper for life. Love it!!

 One swallow does not make a summer, agreed; but it can make a painfully bad memory for life for some! Ask Zubin Surkari, who copped the brunt of Tait's thunder and came away with three balls! The Great Australian selector Andrew Hilditch must have been moved sufficiently to say "Tait needs to improve"!! What? for missing the goolies?? For heaven's sake, Taity looked like the best bowler even in that game with searing reverse swings! Ah, but then what else do you expect from an Aussie chairman of selectors, the only one to have lost three Ashes?

The tournament has by far, looked the best in all editions............er, except 1983! Writing this just before the 39th game between South Africa and Bangladesh begins, a couple of upsets, an associate member scalping a test side, a high scoring tie, smash-bang batting, 19 tons, 6 fifers and two hat-tricks! Bowlers in general have been at the receiving end though with the advent of subcontinent spring (which is more than summer in some participating countries) slowly but steadily, they are beginning to dictate. The wickets like highways earlier, have started changing their nature to more brown coloured and slow low challenging 22 yards that normally batsmen, that spoiled species of this sport,  lament; some indeed start calling it names like "rolled mud"! Thank god for the summer, or the killing fields of the subcontinent would make every young boy and girl throw the ball away for a bat. I don't mind wickets yielding a bit of spin or slowing down a bit. This is sub-continent and you expect that. Gives bowlers something to work with and generates a bit of doubt in the minds of the batsman and prevents him from clearing the front foot and give it a heave-ho! Thank god for the summer for bringing cricket back to its original form rather than converting it into that cross-batted Yankee contraption, better known as Baseball.....

That's why I am very happy to note two wonderful new comers, two bowlers, two leg spinners, who have announced themselves in this world cup. South Africa's import from Pakistan, Imran Tahir has had a great start. At the time of writing this, in 3 games Tahir has highest wickets of any in SA camp. 11 wickets at 8.9 ea and a great economy rate of 3.84.
And bowling against Bangla later today,  he will have every opportunity to improve upon that. Admittedly, while he has is yet to play against major teams playing spin well, like India and Sri Lanka, his start is looking very promising.

Tahir though is not a young man as this next fellow, Devendra Bishoo. What a gem this kid is. I reckon we will hear more about him in future, if Windies management treat him properly. At the young age of 25, his control over leggies was quite remarkable, even while playing against experienced English batters. He is also a very good fielder. I am not sure if he will play against India in the last group game or not; I would love to see more of him and against top batters. He has a good slider but I did not see a good googly. Enough time for the young man to learn a few tricks of the trade, which in my opinion, is the hardest skill to master in cricket.

Talk of surprises..It is very hard to expect surprises from Ricky Ponting. Like it was no surprise to see a glum and grumpy Punter hurling the ball on the ground in disgust after catching a Canadian batsman; annoyed at his younger colleague Steve Smith for rushing in for the same catch. Now, neither the batsman nor his team were likely to derail Aussie world cup campaign. Perhaps, Ponting's grumpiness reveals the stress he and his team may be feeling in this world cup campaign? May be all is not that well within the team?? However, the surprise was when Ponting offered an apology in an interview for his behavior, after the game! I did look for the morning Sun in the west!! While Aussies have been the only team to win all of their games so far, they do not look that dominant as in previous editions of the world cup. They were lucky to escape spin-test against SL due to rain. They will be tested tonight against Pakistan. Aussie batsmen have struggled to put up runs which is clear from the fact that not a single batsman, on these batting friendly wickets, has been able to post a three-figure mark so far. Countries like Netherlands and Ireland have batsmen who have got tons, but no Australian!! Now that IS a surprise.

Really this world cup is the most open we have seen for a long long time. Hard to predict who will be able to wrap their hands around this trophy on 2nd April. And that is good to see. Any one from South Africa, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia or even England could be holding the trophy ....could feel like an April Fool joke, a day late!!