What did "Dale Sting"have in TEA?

Now thats the question which our men in blue turned white & pale must be asking each other when they sit to "recollect" what happened there on the field. Yes! recollect, I am sure they are pretty dazed.Things looked a bit smooth as Sehwag and Badrinath held the fort diligently. But as is said "cricket is a game of patience, you don't lose your wicket but your patience", and that is what happened to Sehwag after a much needed and a splendid knock of 109 of 139 balls.The rest is right in our face.
All the credit for these mis-happenings goes to the fiery Dale Steyn, this guy who was not happy even after taking Sir Tendulkar's wicket early in the morning, went on to take 5 wickets after tea. It was a quick-fire session for South-Africa.

Day 3 First Innings.

At tea : India 221/4 in 57 overs.


Post tea : India  233/10 in 64.4 overs

And yes thats it!, we get a Follow-on.

Not finished yet,

Day 3, Second Innings 


India : 66/2 in 23 overs

One of the two to fall was our Viru Bhai, and the culprit again was Dale Styen aka "sting".That makes 8 wickets for the day.

Now as to what did he have for tea click here to know, because I myself am feeling dazed about tommorow's prospects.

Kings XI Punjab - Punjabi Sangakkara Shouting Chak De Fatte!

IPL is back in India, after having been to South Africa for the IPL 2009 season. You know this, I know this. So, why I am saying this? Well, I am not the one saying anything. It are the captains of the sides that have been talking. So, hear your captain talking to you for 25 seconds, on All Padded Up! Of course, you could do that on Youtube, but that doesn't have your padded up player talking to you!

We were the first ones to inform you that Kumar Sangakkara was to replace Yuvraj Singh as the captain of Kings XI Punjab. And replaced he has. Thus, in the 25 second advertisement we now see Kumar instead of Yuvraj.

Of course, it is targeting the Punjabis all over India out there, and thus Kumar talks about how "WE" Punjabis like every thing King Size. The ad does not try to do anything apart from the Punjabi wording at the end of the ad, and the Punjabi war cry.

The ad leaves a little to desired. At least, I was not completely satisfied. To put it simply, the ad wasn't King Size!

Jacques Kallis Score Card - H : 34 DH: 0

"My second appearance on All Padded Up, in consecutive posts - Benefits of playing well"

A lot of experts spoke too soon. Jacques Kallis, yet again, failed to score a double hundred.

However, in the disappointment of Kallis scoring a double, most of us tend to forget that this hundred of his was his 34th, which puts him alongside greats of cricket like Sunil Gavaskar and Brian Lara. Only Ricky Ponting at 39 and Sachin Tendulkar at 45 is ahead of Kallis now.

And this no mean achievement for sure. Kallis is the first player who has scored 10K runs, taken 200 wickets and held on to 100 catches in both forms of the game, Tests and ODI's!

And those are statistics to be proud of. There is no double hundred for sure, but then there are 34 hundreds, and a lot of runs, wickets and catches, that makes Jacques Kallis, one of the greatest all rounders of our times! In both forms, of the game!

Match Update:

Session 2 on Day 2 has begun, South Africa had gone to Lunch at 379/3, adding 88 runs since the morning and losing the wicket of Jacques Kallis to Harbhajan Singh. South Africans are still going strong! And MSD did not read All Padded Up last night!

[Live Score Card]

South Africa Ahead - India v/s South Africa - Match 1 - Day 1

We had said at Lunch that India needed to take early wickets to make this match interesting, from an Indian perspective that is. Well, Indian bowlers did not listen to us and have paid with their teeth.

Hashim Amla (115*) and Jacques Kallis (158*) have both score centuries on the opening day of the match and have helped their side reach a strong 291/2 at the end of 91 overs. No bowler could create any breakthroughs for India after the 7th over of the match, and toiled to stop the flow of runs from the Saffer bat.

[Score Card]

All bowlers have fantastic economy rates, but a test match is about taking 20 wickets, which exactly was our advice. Lesson learnt?! Always listen to what All Padded Up says!

Hashim and Kallis must be feeling pretty satisfied at the end of a hard day's work. South African camp must be breathing easy, and planning on putting up a mammoth total in quick time tomorrow.

What would MSD be doing?! Reading All Padded Up, I hope. Because here is our advice, GET WICKETS in Session 1 on Day 2. Probably, put up an attacking field.

West Zone win Duleep Trophy Final After Record Chase - Great Advertisement for Domestic Cricket

Fortunes Looking Up!

I had put up a post on Bored, how Duleep Trophy final was a match for the Indian discards, and what a match it has turned out to be!

Riding on Pathak's century and Yusuf Pathan's double, West Zone have lifted the Duleep Trophy after a record chase of 541 on Day 5 of the final.

[Score Card]

Thanks to the centuries of Dinesh Karthik (183 and 150) in both innings of the match, South Zone were able to put a target of 541 for West Zone to chase down, a target that not even the most optimistic of West Zone supporters could have imagined to be chased down.

But then, they hadn't counted for the resilience of Yusuf Pathan, the man who almost single handedly won the match for his side by scoring a 108 in the first innings and 210 in the second! I use the word almost, for a fact that Pathak's 130 gave some chance to the West Zone on Day 4 itself. However, West Zone ended that day with six wickets down and the score at still 379, a good 251 runs behind the target. It is at such a time that the best in the not so good comes out. While Yusuf was hammering the bowlers from one end, Pinal Shah held the fort at the other, getting out only after playing a total of 116 balls for his 16 runs.

Jaffer must be happy. So, must be Yusuf Pathan. I can only offer my sympathies to Dinesh Karthik. Indian discards like Wasim Jaffer (Captain of winning side), Dinesh (two centuries), Yusuf (One double and one single century), Irfan (6 wickets) and Dhawal Kulkarni (7 wickets) have certainly made this match memorable.

Congratulations West Zone!!

Certain Disappointment

India v/s South Africa - Match 1 - Day 1 - Lunch - Almost Live with Two Debuts

That is one hell of a long title.

But first things first. When the squad for the tour was announced, a lot of experts and bloggers had pointed out the obvious. With Laxman almost unfit, why not include more batsmen in the squad? Well, the selectors are dumb wits. Laxman was declared unfit, and Rohit Sharma, who did not sizzle in the match for his side Board President' s XI was send in as replacement. And as has been his wont, he got injured on the morning of the play.

This brings us to the important announcement of the debuts of Wriddhiman Saha, who was a surprise inclusion and S Badrinath, the man who had been waiting in the wings for so long!

South Africa won the toss on the morning of the first day of the first test and elected to bat first, considering they wouldn't wish to face Amit Mishra on Day 5. Yes, Mishra has been included in the side. Probably, it is after his 50 against Bangladesh, as India may fall short of batsmen.

Zaheer and Ishant opened the proceedings for India. Zaheer struck in the 5th and the 7th over of the match, gobbling both the openers, Ashwell Prince and Graeme Smith. While Prince fell to a short bowl, Graeme Smith, who is fast turning himself into Zaheer's bunny, was out to a beauty of an incoming delivery which caught Smith at tentative defense.

Going for Lunch, South Africa are 90 for 2, with Amla and Kallis going strong with a 84 run partnership. If India break this early after Lunch, the match is going to be one hell of a contest. As much of a hell, as this long title!

[Live Score Card]

Australia makes sure Pakistan return empty handed!

One of the reasons why one would have been glued to this match, would have been to find out if Pakistan win any out of the tour. Well, Pakistan did not!

Well, another reason that the players gave us was they made it a riveting contest. Australia won the match by mere 2 runs. Well, the fact is that after putting up a target of only 128, they won they game.

[Score Card]

Shaun Tait created havoc for Pakistan by returning with figures of 4-0-13-3. Well, probably he was just returning Umar Gul's favor, who returned with figures of 3.4-0-20-3.

And when a T20 is so low scoring, there is certainly not much that can be said about the batsmen. However, there are two batsmen who deserve a mention, one from each side. David Hussey from Australia stayed his ground when other around him were falling down and returned with a score of 40* while it was Kamran Akmal who scored a 64 in 33 balls. It was after the fall of Kamran's wicket that Pakistan lost the plot, not that any body except him had any inkling whatsoever.

Well, Pakistan is returning home with out a win and a Shahid Afridi ball tampering controversy. Things couldn't get worse for their cricket. Oh, it is Pakistan cricket, lets not make predictions!