Bhajji delivers a 5fer, under pressure !!

In this day and age where 400+ totals are overhauled and where economy rates of an Ambrose, Akram or even a Kapil are only a dream, a sub par 202 by India meant an automatic early finish but that did not happen, thanks to Bhajji's 5fer. Needless to say, Bhajji was under tremendous pressure - with the proverbial Damocles sword just hanging over his neck. Powar was breathing down his neck and the a dry spell of wickets meant that Bhajji was about to loose his slot in the 11. You have to give to it to the Sardar - for performing under such a pressure cooker situation. First he batted well and later on cleaned up the English middle order (but also helped by some insane strokes from the poms and some good catching in the deep).
When India began with the familiar top order failure - Viru hooking a ball that rose too much, Gambhir trying the 3rd man slash after having hit a 6 and 4 off previous 2 balls, Yuvi - inner edging and Kaif - starting out late for an easy single and failing to ground his bat - it looked that India was up against it. The failure of the middle and late order and also failure to last full 50 overs meant that a below par score for the chase but Poms made a mess of it. Otherwise, can you imagine - Yuvaraj Singh bowling is full quota of 10 and getting 2 wickets too (one with a rank bad full toss). Any way, India got one monkey off its back. They almost went into a path of no return in a streak that lasted many a match when they forgot how to win, when bowling 2nd.
I am still not entirely convinced that India can roll over England in the ODI variety, as many pundits are predicting but this pathetic display of batting by Poms is any yard stick, they are going to face some trouble against a more confident Indian side.

Postprandial madness leaves England as winners

At 75/3 during lunch on 5th day, all 3 results were possible but once Rahul Dravid committed a rare mistake, the rest soon followed him in a spell of postprandial madness with Dhoni leading the pack getting the gold medal. When the England team began the tour, who would have thought that they can level a series in India. But, kudos to them. They played sensibly, were led and driven in a better tactical manner and most important had the heart to fight. India, notorious for its 4th inning captulations, repeated its bleak history and of all people Shaun Udal took 4 wickets and that says it all.
The brainless display began on the first day itself after the toss and continued through out. The combination of butter finger display in close in catching and continued failure of top order meant that they were eternally digging out of trenches, when the opposition was doing arial bombing.
Jaffer, after the inital promise at Nagpur has fallen steeply and Viru never rose from the ditch. When Viru walked in, clutching his back and with Jaffer as runner - it was obvious that he is not going to last. Question is - why is he in the ODI team? At the end, Indian team and its management left us bewlidered with their tactics or lack of it and there were more unanswered questions than answers.
My early prediction for the ODI series - England victory in the series.

Sachin out of ODI series and India needs a miracle on 5th day

First things first. Sachin, who has been way below par for several matches (kind of understatement; in fact, below par for several years now) suddenly announced that he needs to have shoulder operation and was promptly out of the ODI team. The obvious question is - Does this have any connection with the booing, he received in his own back yard. My initial guess is YES since he has been fielding in the deep through out the series, which defies logic - if you accept that his shoulder is dodgy. Any way, India has to learn be with out Sachin's physical presence (they have been coping with out him firing for a long while). For now, let me leave it at that since any further comment will be purely based on guess work.
England went into a shell and strangely things have been very, very slow on the 4th day. Freddie got his usual 50 with 3 usual lives. In all about 15 catches were grassed by India and England limped to 190 odd.
I wish Pathan had not got out since he is one player who could have gone for the shots on 5th day morning. But, now AK and WJ have to guard themselves first and this is going to put some pressure on scoring pace later. India can still fancy their chances but the odds and history favor England.

Dodgy decisions do India 'IN'!!

Just when it looked that Dhoni was playing like the Dhoni we know of (when he rocked Freddie after lunch, during the new ball spell), Hariharan, the 3rd umpire gave a decision in favor of England. When the bail ultimately came off, Dhoni was clearly 'in' but Hariharn did him in and there ended the chances of an Indian fight back. The tail again showed great application and the Sreesanth-Kumble partnership was blossoming, when it was Hair's turn to do a la Hariharan (in fact, over the years, Hair has been a la Buckenor to India). He handed over dodgy LBW against Kumble and that is that.
In the morning session, Yuvarj fell into a trap that was even visible to a 6th grader and this is repeated twice now (earlier in Mohali) and Dravid was unlucky to get a faint tickle to a nothing delivery from James Anderson. In the end, the 121 run lead is too tall to climb in my opinion but the gritty display by tail again showed how the top order has been caving in meekly (this is nothing new, been happening from SL series). Dhoni would have easily knocked off a 100, from the manner he got going after lunch and that would have meant the lead to be half of what it is now.
In the Eng 2nd inning, Hair struck to his familiar plot of India bullying by not giving a clean caught behind off Sreesanth and you add the familiar sight of a sitter dropped in slips (Yuvi decided to be the culprit here), India's cup of woe is full. This game is in almost England's pocket now.

Butter finger display !! Top order caves in (ugh !! not again)

Indian close in catching has been nothing worth the salt for several decades but the butter finger display at Mumbai took the team to new depths. Slip catching is not the kind of thing where you just plant 2 legs and 2 arms and things will stick. India has not unearthed a real slip specialist after Azhar and one they have left with - Dravid, spills 3 times the amount he actually catches. Andrew Flintoff was coaxed into staying at the crease, even though he was wanting to get back to the cool comforts of the pavillion, not less than 3 times and twice in consecutive balls. Dravid spilled no less than 3; Kumble, Dhoni, Viru and Yuvarj did not want to let their skipper feel guilty and added their own contribution. I think in all 10 catches went down and as many as 3 LBWs were not even given the appeal by the bowlers !!. What an amount of profilgacy - there must be a cap to this idea of endless gifting, which must have broken the most steely heart of any bowler. England should have been allowed no more than 250 maximum, were allowed to drift to 400.
Add the usual failure of top order, you are looking at a familiar story. Viru, Jaffer perished due to gloving bouncing deliveries and SRT chased a nothing delivery. I am beginning to feel that SRT is nearing his end of the career. This particular dismissal is almost making it certain that he may not last till the world cup.
What is impressive is the thought process that has gone into English attack. They have plans for each batsman and they have really honed in on Viru. He has no stroke to offer for that short rising ball other than an ungainly poke and teams which have obeserved this have used this to telling effect. With another pathetic top order cave in, the pressure was back on Dravid and this kind of repeated failing defeats logic, when there is only 5 batsmen to go around.
Dravid was the usual 'wall' and although Yuvaraj played some fluent strokes but almost ran his captain out when Dravid almost was nearing hand shake distance from him and had to go back. How many times Dravid has to resurrect an inning? But again, this is something he got himself into - there was no need to bowl first and on the top of that he dropped sitters thrice.
With 111 runs still for avoiding the follow on, India is starring at defeat in my opinion. They might just about avoid the follow on with the usual lower order grit display but will have to bat on a tricky 4th inning pitch later. All in all, plenty of scope for England to square the series.

Advantage England

I remember back in 1990 tour of England, when Azhar made the famous decision of putting the opposition 'in' and Gooch hit his career best 333 at Lords and needless to say, India caved meekly (inspite of Kapil Dev's historic four 6s off Hemmings, which avoided the follow on). Rahul Dravid, in his 100th test felicitation function talked about Azhar and perhaps repeated his hero's mistake on the 1st day of the 3rd test. There was absolutely no need to put in England but that is what he chose to do and the rest is history as they say.
Andrew Strauss, one of the Ashes heros, atlast found his touch and some bad close catching combined with a placid pitch and toothless bowling helped England to 272 for 3. Dhoni, Dravid dropped catches (what is new?) and except Munaf, there was no aggression in the attack. Pathan is now almost dishing out medium pace that can not be even considered anywhere near International standards and Bhajji always bowled a 'hit me' ball almost every over.
India is starring at a huge hole which they have unwantedly led themselves into and unless things turn around quickly on 2nd day morning, they are up against it in Mumbai heat and humidity.

Rahul's Century and SRT's 132 !!

Rahul Dravid's feat of 100 tests could have almost have been 100 conseutive tests but he did miss one - Kumble's 100th test. Kudos to Rahul and I hope that he does something special in the Mumbai test. How about a quickfire 200?
In Rahul Dravid, the average Indian sees a perfect role model - Average physical build (not those WWF kind of chiseled features), Middle class brought up, Honest and down to earth, Intense and competitive and eloquent but soft spoken. Perfect profile for the millions of aspiring middle class Indians. Rahul just mirrors them in all walks of life, meets all the above expectations but still has gone to be a high achiever and there in lies the story of grit, determination, hard work and an ability to grind it out, against the odds. Hats off Rahul and my best wishes. Bring back that World cup in 2007 and fill our cups with joy.
SRT becomes the most capped Indian player, playing his 132nd test (one more than Kapil's 131). I hope that this grand occasion in his home town will chase the cobwebs out his mind and bring up the old Sachin back in his mind and blade.

Munaf, Jumbo, Viru help India to 1-0

This is going to be a quick one but let me say, I predicted this again. I pointed that Munaf will be the key to knock off the tail and his triple strike on day 5 morning did the Poms in. Freddie gritted his teeth and played a fantastic knock (incidentally, Flintoff batted on all five days of the test) and his partnership with Harmy showed the importance of what Munaf did earlier. The familiar Indian weakness of inability to dismiss tail was raising its ugly head again before Dhoni pulled off a stumping. Dhoni's keeping has gone up a notch in this match and his keeping to Jumbo showed that he is learning quick.

Viru, at last played a decent innings, especially towards the end and ensured that there are no careless repeats of the Indian failure to chase a mere 128 against WI several years ago. All in all - a fantastic victory and Jumbo richly deserves his MOM. But, will India unearth another match winner other than Jumbo? Well - Munaf has had a good start. He has to stay away from injury, burn outs, improve his attitude, fielding and batting. I wish he lasts in Kapil Devish long terms (if not atleast the Srinathish long term)....

434 Over hauled !! Death of bowling fraternity !!

ODI cricket has come a long way, from its early, humble days. There were times when a 250+ score off 50 overs was considered good. Later, it moved to the region of 300+ and 350+ and now, a 434 by the mighty Aussies was overhauled by SA. Where are all the bowlers and what is happening?
We all enjoy the bat to dominate in ODI cricket but do we want this to this extent? My guess - NO. I saw bits and pieces of Ponting's inning as well as Gibbs' live and I have to tell you, the strokes were simply out of the world. SA basically threw caution to the wind since they had nothing to loose. It was a question of either you go for it or not and in Smith, Gibbs, they had a wonderful pair. In the end, Boucher and Van der wath did their part and a world record chase was possible. May be..may be..the game might have been different, if Pollock and Mc Grath would have played but in the end, it proved how much bat is going to dominate in world cricket.

Poms starring down the barrel ! Jumbo gets into the act again !!

Wow !! what a turn of events? India came out positively in the morning and even Rahul Dravid scored freely and that said it all. There was the usual handy contribution from Indian tail and a pretty good, attacking innings from Pathan. He took on Monty and it was a great sight and I always felt that Indian batsmen gave too much respect to the Sardar in Nagpur, in his debut test.
Then, it was 'Jumbo' on the prowl and the defensive mind set of England too contributed to their woes. I saw that magical over which Kumble bowled to Freddie when he beat him 6 out of 6 times. Flintoff had nothing more than a sheepish grin to offer. Kumble was at his best and one more wicket could have really tilted it but Flintoff gritted his teeth and hung in.
Unless India repeats its mistake in the same ground against Pak a season ago or weather intervenes, the chances of an Indian win look bright. But, I have seen many a heart break and a let down and won't count them in - unless I see the last wicket falling and the last run being scored. Also, as well as Bhajji has bowled in the 2nd inning, he is still below par and Flintoff can challenge him easily. I will bet on Munaf to partner with AK rather than Bhajji, in the tail demolition. All in all, another great day for test cricket is possible and I am smacking my lips.

Kumble Clocks 500 !! Eng hold the edge

I am some what behind in updating the blog, after 3 days of play at Mohali. Indian butter fingers in slips and lack of ideas in field placement for Flintoff and Pieterson allowed England to march onto 300 score. Dravid was the main culprit on both these points. Most international, experienced captains will employ 'inside out' field when they are against the free scoring batsmen like the above two. By that I mean, men in catching positions for the edges and men in the deep for the mishits. Rahul never did this and with the result, England ran away. Even then, if he had taken that sitter on 3rd morning off Munaf, things could have been different.
I have been predicting rain, poor catching and VS's rustiness and all 3 came true. Yuvaraj was consume in a clever piece of captaincy. Hoggy bowled to a 7,2 field and YS launched one in the covers, where Bell took a blinder. With India playing 5 batsmen (rather foolish tactic IMHO - and that too Piyush on a pitch, where RP Singh could have been useful. RD/GC combo had really come up with a poor tactic here), much will depend on this pair. Assuming the usual inability of Dhoni against the moving ball on a cloudy morning on 4thday, India might coceded easily a 100+ run lead. That eliminates one result completely - an Indian win. India has managed to crawl into a hole again and I see little chance of them coming out, having become brain dead.
On India's bowling effort - Kumble was outstanding and richly deserves the march to the 500 wicket club. For a spinner, who hardly turns the ball and who had to encounter cold shouldered treatment for years, he deserves all the accolades now. Also, Munaf is a decent find and his 3 wicket haul means that he should be persisted with. I would like him to bowl better with the new ball though and also sharpen his fielding and batting.

Where are the sportive pitches ?

I remember an all time great pitch at Chennai, back in the 1975 series against West Indies. That pitch had bounce (Andy Roberts loved it) and helped our spinners too. Prasanna's 5 wickets in the 2nd, Engineer stumping Lloyd and Kalicharan's run out by Mankad are all etched in my mind, after all these years. Where did such pitches go? I do not ever remember seeing a similar pitch even in the same Chennai. That match was of course famous for not only the pitch but Gundappa Vishwanath's classy 97 not out and Chandra's loud apology to Vishy when he left him high and dry.
Anyway, coming back to Mohali, I read reports that Daljit Singh has prepared 2 or 3 pitches but they are going to opt for the grassless one. IS Bindra, the chief architect behind the Mohali ground has proved to be a visionary and a great organizer and Mohali used to sport the fastest wicket in India. But, with India's strength being spin; we have neither a green top nor a rank bad dust bowl, which they seemed to forgotten to prepare. The in between ones (thanks to ODI cricket's own emphasis on Patta wickets) are not going to go anywhere, as far as the results go. But, I hope that the pitch will at least have some bounce and will help the batsmen move away from somnolent mood at Nagpur.
With Sreesanth ill, it looks almost certain that Munaf will play. With rain in the mix, my guess is that it will be 6+4 +1 team and the 4 bowlers will be IP, MP, RPS and AK. YS will replace MK but with the caveat that VVS will get one last chance to prove. My prediction - with rain in the mix - some playing time is going to be lost, it is lame finish - draw. Unless, VS fires in a very big way, which I doubt given his rustiness, India can not score quickly enough to put enough pressure for a 20 wicket haul. England is likely to play Pluncket and he is another lower order headache for India (as if Hoggy, Harmy and Monty are not enough). My guess - another draw in the offing and a slight edge for England, given their pace attack's strength and India's inability to take 20.

Creditable Draw. Munaf is 'IN'

In the end, it was a creditable draw thanks to a sublime, serene, classy 100 by Jaffer and a decent but somewhat slow 70 by Dravid. The moment Sehwag followed his usual 2nd inning failure, chasing the target was not the priority but I felt that Rahul could have rotated the strike better. Jaffer again proved what a classy, regular opener can do and he is going to be an asset in these kind of pitches.
Sachin, Irfan played some brief cameos but it was too late to chase 8 an over in tests. All in all, not a bad draw in the context of the game but remember India was supposed to be the favorite but they managed to drag themselves in knots.
Kiran More was at a loss for words (as usual) when trying to explain Munaf's inclusion after dropping VRV. What can he say - it was a plain goof. I hope he makes it to XI even ahead of Sreesanth.

Nadir !! Sinking to banal depth

It was another wretched day for Indian fans, when England is almost running away with the match. Amidst horrible umpiring errors, with Shivram not wanting to be left behind when it comes to stabbing India behind Dhar, horrible catching and general lack of order, India surrendered meekly. Cook, hardly looked debutant class and 2 men who are supposed to have 700 + test caps between themselves, hardly did any justice on a 4th day patta wicket. Now, what is left is total captulation and complete humiliation on day5 and it looks unavoidable since India has this knack of missing the moments, all the time and every time.

It is England all the way !!

For all the pundits, who predicted a 3-0 brownwash, look no further than my preview to this test. I knew that India has this great ability to tie themselves in knots against any club attack too. It was a day, when India almost threw away the match, when confronted with the swing of Hoggy. The famed middle order collapsed and Kaif although did the rescue act with AK, failed to accelerate in the 3rd session, when the ball did nothing. Under the circumstances and the context of the game, Kaif's inning would be considered as a match saving one but in my opinion, his ugly stance, absolute lack of ability to drive on front foot or time the ball even when well set or even marshall the tail, makes him a big liability at no.6. Kaif patted down delivery after delivery and his scratchy innings made me cringe and here is where he failed to learn a lesson from Collingwood. Well !! I do not expect him to be a Steve Waugh or even a Mike Hussey, when batting with tail but he was not even a Collingwood class.
In anycase, he chipped away time but 180 runs in one whole day's play made it an horrendous display of batsmanship, making Chris Tavre look like Richards.
Unless, India gets it's act together in the 2nd innings bowling effort, they are in for a rude awakening and another thing which might happen is that VVS might have played his last test.

England off the hook !!

-"There are two different kinds of people in this world: those who finish what they start, and.........."
Brad Ramsey
India obviously does not belong to the 1st part of the above quote.You do not have to be a Nostradamus to predict what had happened on day 2. Time and again, India has let the opposing lower order bats carve their highest career score (remember that Gillespie innings at Mas!!) and this time it was no different. It took forever to get measly 3 wickets (which BTW had been pointed so many times in this blog ..go no further than the Munaf piece below) and by the time Monty was out (who incidentally was almost not even considered for any higher echelons till recently because of lack of batting), India had gifted 150 more runs than they should have and an invaluable 2 sessions were lost.
Sehwag proved his rustiness and RD/WJ combo scored too slowly aginst the negative line of England. All in all a terrible let down from Indian stand point and unless the pace of scoring picks up, India has to blame themselves.

Sedate start to test series !! Dull day in ciry of Orange.

Nagpur pitch fooled everyone including England and they must be wondering about their decision to go with 2 spinners. Flintoff, who is perhaps captaining a major team for the 1st time, won an important toss and as often in the past, Indian opening pair of SS and IP wasted the new ball but what was impressive was the manner in which the debutant Cook played. Cook, who surprised one and all with some emphatic scores in the tour match, when Aus visited for Ashes, has a compact technique and an unhurried, opener temperament. Cook was just flown barely a few days before but justified every one's faith in him.
Indian bowling worked on steadily and there is nothing special to mention in either the class of bowling nor the slow batting by the Poms. Kumble was fortunate to get that LBW decision against Freddie, But for that decision, India would have been truly on the back foot on day 1 since Freddie had put behind a pair of sluggish scores in the side matches and was beginning to look real dangerous. Hoggard is still there and he can hang around a bit with Colly but hopefully, India will not repeat their old world mistakes of allowing tail and lower order to score against them.
The other surprising factor is the amount of reverse swing, which SS generated and if this is any indication, England need not worry. Indian batsmen are not experts in tackling such swing. Here is where my opening line in this report comes into picture. England could have gone for Pluncket and he is capable of reversing, rather than opt for Monty