Where is Vidyut?

Challenger Trophy was a surprise package this time, thanks to Neo Sports Channel. Guess, Nimbus are really investing hard in domestic-cricket. The coverage was clean, with no irritating advertisements all over the picture frame and no stupid-celebrity commentators.

And the best part of this package was "Sachin Tendulkar". He really got into the thick of action in no time. I think Sachin is really too-good a player for such tournaments, that too when he is in vintage touch. Lately, Sachin has started playing those irritating knocks no one really enjoys, maybe ever since the Syndey hundred against Australia. But not this time, Sachin was playing those usual straight drives and the speciality of this stroke of course is that there is no follow-through with the bat. Sachin also took Piyush Chawla on with those really brutal cross-batted strokes which he had earlier used to demolish Shane Warne or Saqlain Mushtaq(until he got out to Saqlain in that really disastorous Chennai test against Pakistan). Another person who got rather sever treatment from Sachin was Shreeshanth. Sachin came down the wicket to hit him over long on. Damn, that was audacious. That reminded me of a similar stroke Sachin played against McGrath in the Nairobi one-dayer.

One really wishes, Sachin continues to play positive innings rather than the hugely negative, selfish innings that he plays day-in and day-out lately in international cricket.

Sachin stole the thunder of the tournament from a few prospects who were expected to shine in this tournament like Rohit Sharma(who Vengsarkar considers to be a prospective India player), Badrinath(he is still in the reckoning, guess he is yet to do something special to catch selectors eyes). Now, speaking of prospects, where is Vidyut ? Remember some of his really booming shots that he played in the last Mohali Challenger tournament. Too bad, he did not play in this tournament. Guess, he should have cause this venue(Chepauk) is also his home-ground.

Also, one wishes more under 19 players were introduced into this tournament. Maybe India U-19 team can be introduced into this tournament as the 3rd team rather than usual 3rd team. That will really make this tournament a good opening for lots and lots of prospects.