Deja vu

In Early 90s, I was a part of my school cricket team in Chennai and we were a regulars in the TNCC's school cricket league. My school has this dubious distinction of getting knocked out of the tournament in the very first round.

It used to be a 40 over affair and that we used to pray for our skipper winning the toss: not with the intention of getting a positive result but with the hope that we can send the opposition in and that we can have the entire day off from the school. Otherwise it would be a 20 over affair.

The opponent's highest scorer, not to belittle their batting line up will be the extras. This is due to the fact that we bowl too many wides and no-balls and I from the third man position used to run to fine leg region only to pick up the ball from the boundary.

This is exactly what happened yesterday. The new ball bowlers sprayed the ball in all direction and that took the pressure off Strauss and Cook (if there were any). Cook for me looked like the aggressor; however, this isn't the Cook we are used to seeing. He used to be more like an accumulator. I guess the pressure of breaking into the one day squad is making him take this new role. Strauss looked calm and composed and looked very sure of what his role is.

The first hour was nothing but a disaster for the Indians and the breakthrough came from Sourav (that speaks loads about the new ball attack) albeit a lucky one. The hawk eye clearly showed the ball was missing the off stump but just.

Later in the day, the bowlers operated with purpose restricting the batters. That for me was the best phase of the day in terms of mind games played. Dravid set an in-out field and the batsmen were not in a position to score boundaries. That I guess put a lot of pressure and eventually Strauss perished to Anil.

That magic ball:

Why wasn't RP Singh operating from around the wicket when nothing was happening initially? I guess this is more to do with experience. Wasim would have immediately switched to around, if not anything but just to try and mix up things.

I expected a night-watchman to walk out; instead poor old Colly walked out and immediately walked in, thanks to Anil's googly.

Weather update:
Not an ideal start for the day. It is dark, murky and was raining all night. On-time start I guess is unlikely.

Cheers
PG


PS: Indian fielding better left un reported. What happens to KKD when trying to catch sitters? I guess, the boys should have a thorough lesson on sliding stop as-well. Robin, hope you read this.

Oh Lord !

The start of the English Summer for the Indian Cricket Team, and what better way to start than to walk down the corridors and the steps at the Lords : The Mecca of World Cricket.

The following are the various factors this might influence the outcome of the first test match.


Indian Openers: Where are they?
Barring the 1986 and 1996 series, Lords has been a virtual death trap for the touring Indian Team. Even the supposedly successful 2002 series encounter at the Lords was nothing but embarrassing. India lost by over 170 runs and the saving grace in that encounter was a century by the Bombay Duck Ajit Agarker.

Why is this so? The simple reason for this is lack of quality openers. In the year 2002, the test match was played between the 25th and the 29th of July. What happened then, Jaffer, in the very first over, decided to play across the line and was bowled between the gates.

This raises a serious question, are the openers capable of handling the pace/swing attack?
With the absence of Harmison, Hoggard (back spasm), and Flintoff, the answer seems to be may be yes.

Jaffer seems to blow hot and cold. Either he scores a century or is out in single figures. This is a bad trend as loosing the opener in the first hour puts lots of pressure in our middle order.

This is where I guess, Aakash Chopra was very very useful in the famous Oz tour of 2004. Personally for him he did score a big century but what he did for the team was more than a century. He blunted the new ball attack and that allowed the middle order to play their natural game i.e. to attack.


English summer:

This year seems to be a bit weird with regard to the summer weather. In 2005 & 2006 the average temperature in July was around 27C however this time around it is 20C. Now that is a significant fall. Also this was considered to be the wettest July in years in England.

This should, for sure, make things a bit more interesting.

With persistent rain, it would be difficult for the ground staff to prepare a typical Lords wicket i.e. assisting Seam bowlers in the first 2 sessions. Having said that, the wicket should play good and that the spinners will have something for them in the pitch on day 4 & day 5.

Also watch out for the old saying "Wine, Women and Weather in England can never be predicted"


Monty Factor:

Don't underestimate this chap. He is too good and is the best thing to happen in English cricket for over a decade. He has the quality and the patience to work out a batsman. With Indians being traditionally week against left arm slow bowlers (Remember Ray Price, Michael Clarke, Paul Harris, Ashley Giles to name a few) I guess Monty should have a very big say in the outcome of this series.

However with the absence of Harmy, Freddy and Hoggy, Monty will find the going tough as there isn't any quality bowling from the other end to restrict and put pressure on the Indian Batsmen.


Vaughn vs Colly :

This is interesting, as we are gong to have to leaders, one for the ODI's and the other for Tests taking field. Sure there will be some comparison in their leadership abilities but I don't think there should be any problem in Vaughn handling Colly. With English tabloids comparing both, the pressure will definitely be felt.

Dravid's leadership abilities:

This will be very critical for the outcome of the first test / the entire series. He should lead from the front both with the bat and in the field and should not let thing drift too much out of his control. This is going to be a key series for him in terms of his future as captain.


Indian Combination: 74 or 65?

I guess Indians should go ahead with the 65 combination with 6 batters and 5 bowlers. KKD should take up the responsibility of keeping wickets. If need arise, Dravid / VVS can open the innings along with Jaffer. So my combination will be a 65 combination with Kumble and Romesh Powar as spinners and Zak, Shrishant and RPS as my seamers.

There is no point going into this test match in a defensive frame of mind. We should aim to get 20 wickets and the best possible way is to play 5 bowlers.


Prediction:

With Hoggy pulling out, I would rate it as 65 - 35 favouring India.


Cheers
PG

To dos for India @ Hove

India begin their long tour of England with a 4 day match against Sussex at Hove. From all accounts, the weather seems to be an issue (as usual) and I think, India will be lucky to squeeze in about 3 of the 4 days of practice. Sussex is one of the top sides in English county and has decent bowling to offer in the form of Pakis Mustaq and Naveed. The to dos for India are pretty simple : -

• Learn to score quickly and get a result in their favor. A boring 225/4 on opening day won't do any good and it will certainly ensure an useless draw.
• The openers (Jaffer+Karthik) have to play the swing well.
• Catch everything in the slips. India is routinely weak here.
• Get 20 Sussex wickets and let me not forget - let not the lower order irritate you.

I am hoping that these 2 practice games will help VVS to claim a place in the XI. He has to come out with guns blazing and score a big one, if he wants to elbow out Yuvaraj in the number 6 slot.
All in all, I am hoping for fair amount of practice but I still expect India to struggle against a resurgent England, let by a real astute captain - Micheal Vaughn.
PS - I am trying to rope in another contributor as well for this tour and hopefully this blog will have someone with a different perspective, in addition to me.

India lifts Future cup !!

Dravid again won the toss and had no hesitation in deciding to bowl, in a rain curtailed 31 over encounter. Agarkar had come back after missing out the last match and his presence turned the match India's way in no time. The delivery that trapped Van Wyk was a good indipper but the dream ball that castled Kallis (for the 2nd successive ODI, he got bowled) brought back memories of vintage Agarkar of the Adelaide days. Zaheer was leaping in with usual vigor and when DeVillier's edge was pounced at 1st slip by Sachin, it was a dream start; but somehow, Aleem Dar decided to have a temporary blindness and DeVilliers himself should have walked. I am not sure how Aleem thought the an edge will fly to slip, other than from bat. It was a horrible decision and the very next ball, Gambhir floored a tough chance. De Villiers hit the next one for a pull shot and I thought that Indian bowling will get back to days when they used to get distraught quickly with umpiring debacles but they did not. The overs kept ticking and the SA batsmen could not accelerate until Kemp showed up. Sourav's 2 wicket package was a bonus and Dravid was not complaining, when Ganguly slipped in a quick 6 overs at 4 apiece. Kemp had played that brilliant innings against India during the last tour and his kind of batting is something normally India does not prepare for. Here too Kemp willed his way through and when Gibbs decided to anchor the innings, it was another fruitful partnership. In the end, I thought that Dravid should have planned for a medium pacer to bowl the last over but Sachin came up with 2 wickets after being hit for a 6 by Kemp.
148 off 31 is by no means threatening score and a good start should have put SA out of the game but that was not to be. Sachin was all edges in one over from Ntini and when catches were routinely getting floored, Boucher came up with a beauty. Gambhir does not have the technical ability to play a tight innings and he got out bowled and when Ganguly too went, it looked like that India will find it tough. Dravid and Yuvaraj somehow hung in there with neither looking fluent until the very end, when Dravid took on Kallis. Dhoni provided the last bit of acceleration and India was through.
The man of the match award to Yuvaraj was a bit generous. He played well but not fluent enough in my eyes; I would have given to Agarkar, even though he just took 2 wickets. When Sachin, unexpectedly called Yuvaraj to share the man of the series award, it was even more surprising but anyway, all in all - a good series for India. Couple of things went in their favor - Dravid won 2 important tosses and they had bowled well using the new ball. Question is - do they have the bowling to be a threat when they bowl second? I doubt it, unless the bowlers are backed by a huge score and that will require real acceleration from the top. The long tour of England is about to begin but I hope that Uthappa will get a game in Scotland, to prove his worth.

Tendulkar delivers ( At Last !!)

A man of the stature like Tendulkar should have got tons of headlines like this but believe me, they have been far and few but this one took the viewers back to vintage days. He uncorked stroke after stroke - Short arm pull, straight drive, hook that went for a 6, lofted 6..the innings had it all and more than anything else, the manner in which these strokes were played did produce a counter attacking theme. More of this later but let be begin with SA innings.
Dravid was lucky with the toss and India began bowling well in the 2nd ODI ; The freak run out of De Villiers (no slouch in running) definitely started things well. RP Singh, who has been a passenger for a while produced a good delivery to castle the dangerous Kallis and from there on it was an uphill battle for SA bats. Van Wyk, who is filling in for Greame Smith is not the swiftest of scorers and SA innings was of to a slow start. Zaheer and RP bowled well but Ishant had an ordinary beginning. Chwala was decent and Yuvaraj was amongst the wickets but somehow I felt that India should have closed out things, as soon as Gibbs or later Dummy got out. Boucher came up with one of those useful knocks he is known for and 226 was a decent score, considering that SA was at one time 4-131 in 32 overs.
Ntini ran in hard as ever and tried short pitching it to Sachin and the viewers were up for a treat; it almost looked like the last edition of Worldcup match against Pakistan and Sachin was off the blocks quickly. Ganguly played sedately and was unable to rotate the strike but with the ask proving to be not that much, there was no panic. I liked the awesome six off Nel , when Sachin hit a gorgeous hook and the omni present grin disappeared off Nel's face. When the big 3 got out quickly, the ask climbed and there was another crisis brewing when Dhoni got out with India still 85 adrift but found a cool head of Karthik. Dinesh is not going to be your power hitter but his hustle- bustle style of play can be depended on for run a ball and India had to tread carefully since they had a long tail. Another wicket would have put the series away for goods but Yuvi- Karthik partnership gritted it out. Yuvaraj, who did not look to be in good touch was finding it difficult to be fluent but he hung in there and when he deposited Hall over square leg, the ask had come down. In the end, it was a hard fought victory for India that will keep up their spirits for the decider.