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.
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.
posted by Crick_Love at 12:38 AM
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