SRI LANKAN batsmen suffering from IPLaria...

Sri Lanka bowled out for 82 in 24.4 overs on the 5th day succumbing to a humiliating innings loss to a rampaging England. Whenever someone says Sri Lanka has a strong batting line up, he actually means Sangakkara, Jayawardene and Dilshan are in top form.Against a top class English seam bowling attack on English conditions, these 3 surrendered without a noise. These were the players who were fighting the Sri Lankan Cricket Board to allow them to play in the IPL and miss the "unneccesary" warm up games. While the 3 could n't do much for their franchises and left them at the bottom of the table, their lack of practice in the longer format made them  vulnerable against the likes of Tremlett and Broad. There is no doubt about the batting abilities of Sangakkara and jayawaredene but their negligence for the warm-up games and playing in the circus..err.. IPL made them look like scapegoats in England. While the rest did n't  show the kind of resilience they had shown in the first innings. The likes of prassana jayawardena and paranavitana fell like nine-pins. The seaming red ball on the final day of a test match was just too much for them. I feel Sri Lanka batting line up is not what this test match reflects. They are far far better than this. They just need to get over this IPLaria. I don't know why these international players leave their national commitments for an Indian domestic league which in anycase would benefit India only. They can get money in IPL but not the kind of respect they would get in scoring a match saving ton on the final day of a test rather than smashing the ball around in small Indian parks.Only time will tell whether the Sri lankan batsmen live to the expectations and bounce back from the IPLaria.

DHONI- The Trophy Man!

Mahendra singh dhoni......well the name dhoni itself nowadays is mentioned along with a tournament victory. Phew... Its a Dhoni overdose in cricket right now. It seems the captain cool was born to lift trophies and mind you trophies of world stature. A world T20 victory in his first captaincy assignment, commonwealth bank series in Australia, Asia Cup, IPL 2010, IPL 2011, Champions league and the biggest prize of world cricket- The ICC cricket world cup. Really you name it and dhoni has won it. And the fact that he is still unbeaten in a bilateral test series.It seems as if he loses only those matches which he does n't want to win. While you can argue that even Aussie captain Ricky Ponting used to win everything that he came across but then he did it with the same bunch of match winner guys and when they retired, the victories went away. But dhoni has done it with different set of players. We all know India's Test, ODI and T20 squads are pretty different from each other and he has led Chennai Super Kings to IPL finals 3 times and has won it twice. He is turning the Chennai super kings into the Man U of EPL.Many say that he has the goddess of luck with him all the time but I really can't see the point in giving luck the credit for so many tournament victories. He is a performer and a big match player. He has got nerves and he showed it in the world cup final. And his captaincy, well what can I say its just amazing how he can handle so much pressure with a smile on his face. He never loses his cool and shows immense faith in even the most inexperienced player in the side. We saw it when he gave that last over to Joginder sharma instead of the tried and tested bhajji in the T20 world cup final. He has already made India the world champions in limited overs cricket and the no. 1 side in test cricket. Surely India seem to have found their leader under whom India can scale greater heights in cricket, possibly becoming the next Australia in cricket. Hats off to DHONI....

England vs Sri Lanka- England's test before the INDIAN face-off

So as the great Indian circus err... IPL-2011 nears its end, a great cricket summer is about to start with the England-Sri lanka test series followed by the much awaited India-england test series in july-august this year. That series would be the decider on who is the real numero uno in test cricket. While India holds the no.-1 ranking in tests,  a series win over australia at home(2-0) and a drawn series in South Africa with a notable victory on the fast paced Durban track whereas England have a precious 2-1 ashes victory in the Kangaroo homeland  which has sparked the number 1 debate.

But before this clash, both the teams have a practice opportunity with india playing the west indies and england playing sri lanka. While India-west indies series is not expected to test the high-profile Indians much but the England-sri lanka might actually be a test of character for the English. Sri lanka have a very strong batting unit with an unexperienced but unpredictable and lethal bowling attack. With the newly elected skipper Dilshan they will look to register a victory on English soil and themselves move up the rankings and contest the no. 1 spot. While England is in the 3rd position trailing a meagre 2 points behind South Africa. England is looking  the most balanced side in test cricket right now with a good pool of fast bowlers, a world-class spinner and a resilient batting unit. Young sensation Eoin Morgan has been impressive along with Graeme Swann who has become probably the best off-spinner in world cricket currently leaving behind the turbanator Harbhajan Singh. With skipper Strauss and Pietersen in good touch, Engalnd look more than a force to reckon with. But they are up against a spirited Lankan side who have just lost a world cup final. Players like sangakkara and jayawardene never look out of form and it remains to be seen whether England is able to uncode the mystery man ajantha mendis even though he went for a lot of runs in his county stint. But they have lost 2 of their legendary performers Muralitharan and Malinga which certainly will be their weak link in the upcoming series. The first day of the test match was symbolic of a resileint Sri lanka fighting the english as Lankans were 133 for 2 at stumps with the slow and steady paranvitana not out on 58. So england have to cross this Sri Lankan hurdle before they can be worthy to challenge India's crown. Surely, TEST cricket is back..