Transcendence

Sachin scored his 5th WC century, overtaking the records of Ganguly, Mark Waugh and Ponting yesterday. Sachin blasted 10 fours and five sixes in a devastating display of batting. Strauss' reply was grand. He scored 158, a brilliant innings and won the Man of the Match Award. Yesterday during the time of the toss, an adverse star Moola was ruling ( adverse for India ). We had warned Dhoni, Sehwag and Sachin about the adversity and advised them to be careful ! Was Imran right ? The Dew Factor. The Make Up or Break Up factor. The bowlers will not be able to bowl with a wet ball and this comes as a huge advantage to the team batting second ! India was well poised to reach more than 350, at 300/3. Then England bowled really well and the last seven wickets fell for a mere 38 runs ! Some weaknesses of both teams stand out. Both teams are formidable in batting and mediocre in bowling. The fielding of both was below par. India will have to improve her rate in the death overs and there is a

SA crushed Australia in a warm up game by 9 wickets. We have warned all teams about SA. They have five world class batsmen in Amla, Smith, Kalli, Duminy and De Villiers. They have two world class fast bowlers in M Morkel and Styen. All teams beware ! Smith was confident when he said that he will lift the Cup ! On paper, they appear to be formidable with the form of their batsmen and fast bowlers. Imran Tahir is their secret weapon. In both warm up matches, they have won. Clarke, the Aussie skipper, said the warm up games do not count. His opinion was seconded by Amla. "Obviously the result did not go the way we would have liked but again we all understand that they are practice games. It's more about giving boys an opportunity than about winning." said Clarke. "A practice game is a practice game. So it's important to maximize the chance to give everybody the opportunity to bat and bowl, and more importantly, to get used to the conditions." "We play Zimb