Last night there was a tale of two bowling teams.
The Raj Royals had one.
Shane Keith.
He sliced out all the vital organs at the critical times, and kept the Punjabi Kings total gettable.
He wasn’t even put off by the fact he has a team who can’t field.
Then when the Punjabs strode out, with probably the only proper and full fledged attack in the whole competition, they let Shane Watson, yes that Shane Watson, yes I know, him, yes terry test match, smash them all around the park.
Now the Punjab’s with their well balanced good bowling side are none from 2, and the Royals with there sh1t I hope Warne gets out all their good batsmen side, are 1 from 2.
Surely this madness must end.
Brett Lee, probably the best fast bowler in world cricket.
Sreesanth, probably the only guy Andre Nel doesn’t trust.
Jimmy Hopes, Ian Harvey Mark II.
Irfan Pathan, conqueror of perth.
Piyush Chawla, the baby faced mini Kumble.
And they can’t win a game.
Warne’s side opened the bowling with Watson and Patel.
It’s not really the same is it.
Punjab’s pull your finger out, if you have a real king, I’m sure he demands it.
On a heavier note, it’s great to see Boof Lehmann out there, he’ll stretch those tops for all they are worth.
He might not have played first class cricket in 4 months, but you’d swear it was years at times, his dropped catch was superb.
The Punjab Kings seems to be getting carried away with style over substance.Why they continue to leave out the 6th best bowler in ODI rankings, especially given he pulled out of a test match over Easter to be fit for this, is beyond me.
Who would you drop for him?
Any 2 of Katich, Hopes and Jayawardene.
Hopes made a 70 in their first game. I think katich was already dropped. Surely bringing more bowlers into this is not that answer.
The bowlers got spanked for 240 in the match, so there’s a bit of an issue there.The thing is, these teams should be picking their best 4 international players, and then building the rest of the team around that.
I believe they have been doing that LB.King Sanga, Jayawardene, Lee, and Hopes – I’m sure even you would pick them over Marsh, Pomers, Sarwan, Mills, and Katich.I would.Uncle J – a bunch of retired Australians, dropped Indians and Aussies, domestic Indian cricketers, and a Kamran Akmal outplayed an international star cast.Only 20-20 can give you that.
Q,You’d have Jayawardene (not really a 20/20 player) and Hopes (what is his strength exactly?) over a bowler who is ranked #6 in the world, and has consistently led an international attack for 3 years?
With Lee, Pathan, Sreesanth and Hopes and Chawla to support I wouldn’t really look to strenghten the bowling.For Hopes strength u have to look back only till January to check out his performance in the CB series.Jayawardene is quite a decent strokeplayer, how can u say no really a 20-20 player?Without him the batting will left be too dependent on Sanga and Yuvraj. U need Jaywardene there.
If Mills was in the side it should be ahead of Sreesanth, i think Hopes gives more for 2020 as an all rounder. Mills is probably a better 2020 player than jayawardene, but if you take him out you have to find another top order player.
Punjab was one one of the favorites before the tournament began. I feel they havent got over this hype. Yuvraj’s running out of ideas too soon. They dont look like a team. There strength, batting, is letting them down. None of the batsmen are ready to stay till the end and see them through. They have good bowlers in their team. But in both the matches they have failed to stop the batsmen.Wait a minute.. they look more like the Indian cricket team to me.. Don’t u think so?
Before all you guys starting stroking the KXIP bowling attack, I again get you to look at how many runs they shipped in the 1st game.JR; Mils for Sreesanth isn’t really the issue, it’s the 4 foriegners cap that muddies it a bit here.This is great. At Sportsfreak we picked the Kings XI Punjab as our sentimental team of choice before the thing started.And they’re falling apart at the seams already.That’s exactly what we’re used to :)
LB, yes they got hit around, but the bulk of their runs were also made by Hopes.TD, maybe it’s cause they picked the most indian name of all.
I’d have thought the Viscount Linley’s picked the ultimate Indian name?Drop Jayawardene then. He should be over with the other test players at Bangalore anyway.
LB my friend, u need to understand that Jayawardene is not a test batsman. He is as good an ODI player as he is a test player.His strike rate in ODIs is in the high 70s, each one of his 10 centuries have come at over run a ball. Remember the 2 consecutive 100s against England in summer 2006? The 2nd one came of 80 odd balls.His strike rate in 20-20s is 150!He’s one of the best strokeplayers to come from Sri Lanka, I don’t see why you don’t see him as a 20-20 player.
Jrod,I think the most Indian name is the Mumbai Indians… But it does sound better if we say Punjab Indians.. thats how they are playing right now.
What’s Jayawardene’s ICC ranking?(ODIs)
TD, I feel like the Mumbai Indians are a baseball franchise that got lost on the way back to Cleveland.
19.But that doesn’t mean anything. McCullum and Jayasuriya are below him at 24 and 26.
Mumbai looks like the weakest of the lot to me. But if Tendulkar n Jayasurya fire.. God save the bowlers..
GO TRIBE!!!