Charge completely drained...

One thing Adam Gilchrist and co of the Deccan Chargers, Hyderbad can be happy of is that the DLF IPL (Inconsolable Premier League) is over. Very Very Special Laxman may have faced only the initial part of the drubbing, but the captain nor his deputy could give anything special. So much so that they couldn't register a win at home and skipper Gilchrist had to apologise for his undefined crime to the home crowd, which was spirited enough to attend their last match in search of some last repsite. Gilly accepted the harsh truth that their skills needed to be polished ( and it doesn't take a genius to realise that he meant the play during the final overs of batting). Many a time, 3 or 4 matches to my knowledge, they have squandered good starts to end up only in the region of 140-150.

It all seems as a season destined to go wrong, when after getting into a fighting chance in their opener against kolkata, they had to make a return after lights went out. Even though getting an eye back in is more difficult for batsmen, the bowlers lost some momentum too as Ojha pushed a couple of wides. Then came traumatic ends, with andrew symonds being plundered by Virender Sehwag for 30 runs, and Shane Warne and Mohammed Kaif for 15 runs to bring about more losses. Then for a change Mumbai were drubbed by Gilly's 42 ball 100 as they lost by10 wickets in the fallout of Harbhajan's slapgate. Thier next and final victory came against Chennai where too Gilly's 50 set it up. Expected to improve from thereon, everything other than that happened.
It can be seen how bad its gone as the then bottom-sitters Bangalore managed a double on them.

Everyone knows that the bowling was the weak link. Chaminda Vaas couldn't produce the same effect as Shaun Pollock for Mumbai. The same comparison can be made of Scott Styris (who had played 45 t20's prior to IPL) and Dwayne Bravo, and also Herschelle Gibbs and Sanath Jayasuriya as far as batting is concerned. But despite the claims of bowling falling short RP Singh was always in the hunt for the purple cap and Ojha has 11 wickets in 13 games and has been quite impressive. Paidakalva Vijaykumar along with RP Singh has been Gilly's death overs man in the past couple of games. It was still nice to see Gilly encouraging him after Vijay completed a 8 run 19th over despite 3 wides. The experience will be very valuable for Vijay.

The other star for them in the IPL was Rohit Sharma. Hailed as the heir to Sachin Tendulkar, Sharma lived up to it with the kind of clean striking and sensible control of aggression. He is their leading run scorer and donned the orange cap once. VVS Laxman compiled a couple of 50's after he promoted himself to opening to give time for himself and gave great pleasure with the flowing strokeplay he is attributed with. Venugopal Rao flunked at the opening slot, but played some near-match-winning innings against kolkata, and also the following games. He has proved to be able to switch on perfectly. Possibly he'll find himself back in the indian squad after just one series in 2005 against Sri Lanka. But the big blow package, Shahid Afridi, blew up big time. Save 2 innings against Chennai and Mumbai of 20 n.o. and 33, others seemed very immature and turned into losses which could've been victory had he made more thought. He is the biggest culprit for me, but as all know thats the way Boom-Boom plays.

But the agony is over and as Gilly once again said, the most difficult time could be from now if they have to stand any chance of avoiding this again. Plenty of work to do before the next edition. Every detail of their play need to restudied, lot of skill honing to be done. But the biggest challenge will be to recover from this holocaust, especially for Gilly who's never experienced this kind of defeat streak in his career. But after all, he is Gilly, who is well known to rise to challenges and perform when least expected. And VVS, Gibbs etc are pro's and they should be able to correct things around. Hopefully VVS and Gilly, will ensure that VVS stays as ' very very special'

Chelsea - the season that was....

This was the season everything was expected to go wrong for chelsea after chaos in september. It somewhat did in the end, but only after getting close to a dream season. So close that little fairness from the forces above could have earned them a coveted double. Avram Grant replaced the irreplaceable 'special one' Jose Mourinho, and he endured a season of total criticism from Chelsea fans, including me, until i was forced to rethink about him after realising how good a position chelsea were in about mid-april. Grant earned unpopularity chiefly by replacing the special one, and also due to questionable tactics and questionable changes that turned some victories to draws in the premier league, but the fact remains that they lost only one premier league match since december, and that this is the first time chelsea have reached ECC finals and almost won it.

Other things that have stood out this season another transfer flop in a 15 million deal for Nicholas Anelka, the frenchman from bolton scoring just 2 goals in the premier league since arrival in january and one in the Champions League. Florent Malouda scored only on the opening fixture, though he's done considerably better since april. Michael Ballack has been nothing short of wonderful since his return, and played a big part in chelsea's fortunes besides proving that he can be effective alongside Frank Lampard, something many doubted.He also served well as the captain in Terry and Lampards absence. Drogba missed a month and a half to the African Cup of nations, but has given chelsea important goals especially the ones against arsenal in the EPL and the against Liverpool in the Champions league semifinal. But he was not close to his threatening best shown last season. Frank Lampard continues to be the heart of Chelsea, doing every bit in creating chances, scoring goals and one will never forget the penalty he took against liverpool to take chelsea to champions league finals, a week after his beloved mother, Pat's demise. Carvalho has been good at the back, pressing forward whenever needed with a couple of goals to show, and a couple of send-offs wont stain his season. Captain John Terry had a month off to injury incurred at the emirates stadium thanks to emmanuel eboue. Except for the disheartening miss in the final penalty his season was a clean one. 30 million man Andriy Shevchenko is still being wasted due to injury for most of the season, even though he has impressed every now and then especially during mid November-December in Drogba's absence. It was otherwise an eventless season for Sheva and may have to take over as the spearhead as Drogba seems keener on a move to Sheva's former club AC Milan. Chelsea can take heart of being the second best in Europe and approach the next season afresh with a bang.

Season Highs:
1. vs Birmingham City- Chelsea start their campaign of the EPL on a winning note.
2. vs Manchester City - a 6-0 win improves a weakining GD and the morale of chelsea
3. vs Rosenborg - Chelsea come back to win 4-0 away at rosenborg after a tame draw at home which was followed by Mourinho's departure.
4. vs Aston Villa - though Chelsea managed a draw they managed 4 goals and saw Michael Ballack find his scoring form which eventually proves vital for chelsea
5. vs Arsenal - with the race for the title getting tight and arsenal losing form this was chelsea's best opportunity to improvise. Despite arsenal scoring from unlikely Sagna, Drogba's brace earns them an important win.
6. vs Everton - having lost crucial points the same week conceding late to Wigan, this victory away at goodison park closes the gap.
7. vs Liverpool - liverpool have a annoying record vs chelsea in champions league. With Hyypiia putting in an own goal in the 94th minute of first leg, chelsea won the second leg with a drogba brace.
8. vs Manchester United - Chelsea took the title race to the final game thanks to a brace by Michael Ballack
9. vs Manchester United - Chelsea may have lost the final but the way they sent Manchester united looking to the skies with, defying all frustration that came along, they still showec thorough determination, as Petr Cech asved Ronaldo's penalty. And Manu had to win 6- 5 on pens despite heavy hand of luck. A double runner, up losing only in the last minutes in both is a applaudable achievement.

Season Lows:
1. vs Rosenborg - Chelsea start their champions league in poor style drawing 1-1 at Stamford Bridge to Rosenborg. Within days, Jose Mourinho left the club.
2. vs Manchester United - Chelsea lose in their first game under Avram Grant at Old Trafford.
Didier Drogba speaks out about low morale in the team under Grant.
3. vs Fulham - Chelsea draw at home against Fulham, extending their streak without a win to 4 games and end up in 4th in the table.
4. vs Tottenham - With Chelsea pinning their hopes of silverware on retaining the Carling Cup, Spurs dealt a severe blow with a 93rd minute winner from an unlikely source, Jonathan Woodgate.
5. vs Barnsley - Having already upset Liverpool in the previous round, Barnsley caused another as Odejayi heading in a goal after Cech's attempt to claim the ball failed. Further disappointment for Chelsea.
6. vs Fenerbahce - Chelsea created anxiety by losing 2-1 away in the 1st leg of the Champions League Quarter Finals, with their goal too only an own goal by the opposition.
7. vs Wigan Athletic - Emile Heskey struck in a 90th minute goal causing Chelsea to drop 2 points at home. It ultimately proved vital as otherwise Chelsea would've led Manchester United by 2 points on the final fixture, causing different situations of pressure besides making Wigan go for more.
8. vs Bolton - Chelsea needed nothing than a win to push Manchester United to the end. But thanks to some debatable decisions by the referee Steve Benett in Manchester's match changing Wigan's approach, Manchester united led by 2 goals in the final minutes. The news demoralised Stamford Bridge and Chelsea yet again let in a late equaliser.

Bhajji - the cupboard of controversies

With Sudhir Nanavati banning Harbhajan Singh for 5 odis's and Sharad Pawar saying "The BCCI have also told him and any further misconduct on his part would invite a life ban.", it makes me wonder whether, if the statement in followed in word and spirit, Bhajji will last beyond the Test series in October against Australia given his strongly deplorable relations with them.

Bhajji's un-understandable hate exclusively for the Aussies seems to have stemmed way before the age of Andrew Symonds's or Mathew Hayden's establishment in the Aussie team. In his Debut series in Sharjah involving also New Zealand, he was found guilty of breaching ICC Code of Conduct for "pointing to the pavilion" after dismissing Ricky Ponting during an ODI in Sharjah. He was fined 50% of his match fee and given a one-match suspended ban. Whether that triggered Ponting to have a red-eye toward Harbhajan, thus building up to a opera series this january is a wild thought, but that instant was the beginning of a series of poor behavior throughout Bhajji's career.

Harbhajan was involved once again in another notorious test match ( though the match referee was the object of notoriety) when he was found guilty of breaching the ICC's Code of Conduct for showing dissent at an umpire's decision and attempting to intimidate the official with repeated appealing.

Coming back to Bhajji and Aussies, he went public with derogatory comments for the first time when he proclaimed the aussies as 'whiners', after the aussies labelled the surface sub-standard after losing the last test of a 2-1 victorious series which was played at such a bad surface in Mumbai's Wankhede stadium that made the match end in 2 and half days despite rain interruptions.

It seems he didn't leave aussie retired players even if they were the coach to the indian side. After a horrible stint for the indian side losing the champions trophy at home and a series in malaysia that they failed to reach the finals, he called coach Greg Chappell as a strict disciplinarian who had sought to instil fears and insecurity among team members. He later apologised for his comments.

Then started his stint that is fresh in the memory of everyone - the monkey chapter. It started in a one-day match in India in the series prior to their tour down-under. Andrew Symonds complained that he was abused by a section of the crowd. Later in the infamous Sydney test, all that we know happened and Bhajji had the BCCI rope in a kiwi official for the hearing, and went out saying he didn't call Symo a monkey, but a word in hindi meaning ba****d. And the nation was behind him all this while and Bhajji was made a hero.

And winning a series first time wasn't enough for him. He had to end the series by calling Hayden a liar. Atleast that was in response for being called a 'lil obnoxious weed'. But he want on to even question Gilchrist's credibility, one of 2 aussie players to visit the indian dressing room congratulating them on their perth victory.

And now after this slapgate with another bad-boy of the indian team ( is bhajji so bad that he can make another bad-boy cry like he needed preity zinta's hug to stop the tears???), it will feel like a big act of betrayal for the BCCI for making them a fool now. And with Nanavti and BCCI's verdict one is seriously left to wonder on how long this will go. Probably the weed is being pulled out now......

(with inputs from www.espnstar.com )