Let's Build a Responsible Cyber Society

Heros and Villains...7

Sehwag Fires.. Will he Fire Again?

Day 7 saw India resurrect some respect by thrashing Bermuda by a record margin of 257 runs.West Indies also won its match over Zimbabwe and cemented its place in the super eight.

Already many analysts in India particularly the talkative Sidhu has been showering superlative praise on Sehwag as if this innings against the minnows indicates that he will fire with the same power against everyone else. There are already recommendations that he should be brought back to open the innings, Uthappa should be dropped etc. But if we remember that this was the first time in the last 60 matches that he scored a  century, it is not unrealistic to expect that Sehwag may misfire against Sri Lanka. Let us therefore be cautious until we move into the super eight since we cannot afford a failure at the top of the order against Sri Lanka. If we lose that match, India will be packing their bags just like Paksitan.

Undr the NCR Review (NCR=Naavi Cricket Rating), Sehwag was the hero of the Indian match while  Chigumbara of Zimbabwe was the hero of the West Indies- Zimbabwe match. On a cumulative basis over the first two matches, Dwayne Smith leads the table at 220 points.

The top 10 NCR players at this stage are as follows.

Rank	Points	Name	Country
1	220	Dwyane Smith	West Indies
2	172	D Bravo	West Indies
3	150	S Dhaniram	Canada
4	144	Samulels	West Indies
5	134	BRM Taylor	Zimbabwe
6	118	Niall O'Brien	Ireland
7	103	Brad Hodge	Australia
	103	TBM de Leede	Netherlands
8	101	K Hurdle	Bermuda
9	95	P Nixon	England
10	92	Brad Hogg	Australia
	92	Chigumbara	Zimbabwe

It may be observed that three West Indians are in the top 10., along with two Australians. (New Zealand is yet to complete their second match and we need to watch out for Scott Styris tomorrow). No Indian is in the top 10.

Incidentally the top Indian is Virender Sehwag who occupies the 13th position in the two match player list. (Four more single match players are presently ahead of Sehwag). We shall review the comparitive positions at the end of two matches by all players.

One interesting observation is that NCR rating is throwing up many noticeable players from the minnows. Canada's Dhaniram is amongst the top player from the list of non test playing countries and players like Taylor and Chigumbara of Zimbabwe, N O Brien of Ireland and Leede of Netherlands are crying for attention.

Naavi

March 20, 2007