Yuvaraj impressive in big win !!

It has been a pretty long wait but it is worth the salt, in the end - in today's game, where most of the ODI specialists end up with Brute power, the batsmanship normally gets compromised and becomes unattractive to the eye, which can differentiate the finesse of the game. Yuvaraj Singh is one batsmen, who has met the demands of the modern ODI hitting but with a certain style that is worth going the extra yard to watch. The full back lift, the high flash with tremendous bat speed, the horizontal bat shot, the gorgeous cover drive and the immaculate straight drive are his Repertoire and he displayed it all in a splendid partnership with the now, new avatar of Saurav. Uthappa provided the needed momentum at the start and when Sehwag got out to a tame run out (reminded me of the famous Krishnamachari Srikanth run out in his debut test), the chase could have gone awry but Yuvi and Saurav played with a degree of ease that left the Srilankans wondering 'what is happening here'.
In the morning, Jayasuriya was getting into a phase, where he was about to unleash something big but when wickets fell, Sri Lankan top order caved in. They had a new saviour Chamar Silva, hitherto not seen against India but to allow Lanka to get away, especially after taking the first 5 wickets, was too much. India needs to work on their 5th bowler strategy and Dravid seems to be getting into a phase, where opposition simply milks it without risks. The death phase is another period, where Dravid errored by trusting Sreesanth and when Silva upped the ante, as much as 92 was coughed out in the last 10. Also, there was no fear in the minds of Dilshan, Arnold and Maharoof, even though wickets had fallen earlier. Harbhajan had a very ordinary match, bowling on a middle and leg line constantly and when Silva blasted him, he lost the enthu to come back in a spirited manner. I doubt very much whether Indian middle order can recover from such positions to post 260 like targets in 47 overs, after loosing 5 front line batsmen. The likes of Kumble, Harbhajan are simply not good enough with the bat.
Here is my final assessment of the 2 mini series - India won but let it not gloss over the obvious problems they have. They have issues about running between wickets (they have this great skill to convert 2 to ones and 3 to certain 2s), poor ground fielding, horrible catching (even Yuvaraj spilled sitters), ineffective 5th bowler, no strategy for bowling in the death and ofcourse failure of tail and lower middle order.
I also feel that Karthik is not classy enough to be a substiute batsman and his place should have gone to the Kaifs/ VVS'/Rainas, who did not get many chance to prove their mantle. The blog will now take a sabbatical till the busy Worldcup schedule begins, where I assess the chances of India to be about 75-80% to make it Super 8 and then 30-40% for a semi-final berth.

Dravid passes 10000 mark !! Fifer for Zaheer !!

The Indian run chase at Goa almost went the way at Rajkot but the harakiri in the end was avoided by Dravid (who passed the 10000 run mark and joined the select band of Sachi, Lara, Inzamam, Jayasuriya and Sourav) and a level headed Dhoni, who this time around accelerated a wee bit more so as to avoid too much pressure in the end. There was also no Malinga to fire beamers and yorkers and Indian dressing room sported smile all around but the question mark around Sehwag remained with another short ball dismissal. Yuvaraj too looked to be 1/3 of the way there rather than the full swing swashbuckler and finisher he was, mere months ago.
In the morning Zaheer bowled beautifully but to let a side score from 6 for 3 and 90 for 5 to 230 was a crime. I am not that convinced by Sachin's bowling form and he tends to give too many easy runs and when Dravid chose to combine two non-regulars, it was all too easy for Dilshan and Arnold (who has done this time in time again esp against India).
Anyway, this win atleast silenced Tom Moody who was happily calling for a certain 3-0 finish.

The act of Choking in run chases !!

I was watching this match a month ago, when Lanka was touring NZ and in one of the ODIs, NZ had to score 1 run in the last over for a win with 1 wicket in hand. Mahela called in the old, wily fox Jaya to bowl the last over and James Franklin, who was the NZ batsmen playing cameo did not see anything impossible, hoping that the number 11 Gillespie will score the single. Jaya fired in 5 delveries and all Gillespie could do was to poke here and there. The single was elusive and the initial smile in Franklin's face was turning to be a wrinkle before somehow Gillespie scored off the last ball. Bottomline, Jaya is used to bowling the last over and when cricket lovers like me could deduce such things, all the well paid gang that accompanies Indian team had no strategy for the last over.
Lanka batted first and even though they lost wickets regularly, Sangakkara who is now gaining reputation of a super solid performer anchored the Indian innings with healthy contribution from Dilshan and Maharuf. Dilshan, who was hopelessly out of form for months, must have been waiting for this dream chance to revive his fortunes and feast on the toothless Indian bowling.
The Lankan total was gettable but somehow India managed to snatch defeat from certain victory, when Dhoni failed to accelerate and Karthik got out at the wrong time. India tail, which has not won a single run chase for several years now (either India has been winning by a bucket or loosing by a bucket and tail was never tested or blamed) faced a difficult task. It is now immensely evident that Kumble can not put bat to ball in tight situations, against genuine pace bowlers like Malinga and when Kumble goofed ball after ball, the ask became too much for Dhoni to get against Jayasurya. But even here, Dhoni could have got it since 12 of 6 is not a big ask but such story board finishes happen in dreams and India trooped out wondering how they lost a match where they were ahead of balls required vs runs till the very end.

Scandals surface again !!

Indian cricket and scandals go hand in hand but thankfully, it is a West Indian who is in the hot seat now. Nagpur police came out with the allegation that they have taped conversation of Marlon Samuels talking to bookied Kochar. According to the police, Samuels revealed the team composition as well as the bowling order in advance to the bookie and all this seemed to have taken place before the 1st ODI. The big question, which needs to be answered, if the police are so sure, why did they keep quiet for so long and more important why did they let him go scot free? In anycase, Samuels own innings will be getting under the radar of the pundits and indeed at Nagpur, he slowed the tempo - to increase the asking rate from 6 odd to 9 odd.
Well !! India had won a series after a while and from the looks of it - things are not that clean as they appeared on the screen. Money, scandals, court cases, women, police, bookies, confessions, racim, drugs, I think you have the complete list of package of things that plague this game and most important ruin the gullible public, who crave for their heros.