Cricket, for the Love of the game

Another series lost !! Aleem Dhar spoils it all !!

2007-09-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

Aleem Dhar ensured that India's party is over at Oval and raised that dreaded finger against Sachin and the rest of the match was a formality. Indian batsmen and their familiar wobble came up - Ganguly has not played one fluent innings for years and it looked as if he was blindfolded after nearly getting out on the 1st ball of the match. The rest came and went and the total was all too easy for England to mop it up.
I am going to be too busy to post regularly for the T20 WC but I will still try.

Uthappa keeps his cool ! Meomorable win at Oval !

2007-09-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

India had the 6th ODI in control till the 40the over of the England innings, when Dravid started getting brain cramps. I had warned about the ferocity of hitting from Luke Wright (in my comments on the 1st ODI) and he not only creamed the bowling with 100+ strike rate but also helped the none too confident Shaw to a maiden 100. Then came the much debated last over call up by Dravid. Dimi Masc had hit 5 6s in the first ODI and England selectors did not display much spark in not having him for subsequent games. When Yuvaraj came on to bowl, I thought - may be 15 runs..but the 5 consecutive 6s were simply too much and in the end, India looked a spent side, when they walked back for the break.
When India batted, Sachin played a rare innings of absolute freedom in stroking. His initial go at Anderson were all cricketing shots and India was motoring fine at almost 7 an over, inspite of the none too fluent Ganguly. Then came the usual wobbles and when Yuvi and Dravid got out, it looked that India had messed up another series. Dhoni, for some reason is not able to strike the ball at all (he has not hit a single 6 this whole series but forget that - he did not even hit a single 4 that was convincing; the only ones he got was a 'Powar/Munaf' type misfield by Pieterson and the scoop to fineleg from off). Dhoni was shaky and almost put too much pressure on Uthappa and inspite of poor cricket from Indian lower order, India was thro' since Robin kept his cool.
Now, India go to Lords with momentum and confidence but invariably after such a memorable match, the final matches are an anti-climax. India has to really bat well in Lords so as to seal the series. They better watch out and rectify their faiures against English lower order too.

India Win !! Inspite of Ganguly and due to D&L method

2007-09-03T03:26:00.000-07:00

Going into the 5th ODI, India's chances were none too bright and series defeat was starring at them. Their state of mind was best described by a cartoon in Deccan Chronicle (" Never mind, we have lost 3 consecutive matches, remember -we won the toss in all 3").
Dravid did not have the guts to drop Ganguly and went with 4 bowlers and adding Gambhir. Collingwood inserted them in and after 4 overs, the card read 7/0. Sachin, then uncorked 3 glorious cricketing shots off Jon Lewis and India were on their way, inspite of Ganguly's inability to rotate strike. Sachin batted quite well and his innings reminded of visions of last world cup and India were motoring on with Ganguly unable to do anything special or anything ordinary either. A typical over faced by Ganguly read like 004400 (21st over for example) and to an ordinary follower that will be perhaps a feast but out of the 2 4s, one will be an edge after a heave or be a predetermined shot and not a cricketing shot. Another over- this time the 24th, read like this 600000, with the six coming from another shot that was not that convincing to me. Ganguly was unable to rotate the strike and when he got out in the end, his 59 off 79 balls had as much as 49 dot balls.
Ganguly has been getting away with this kind of batting (that is totally not suitable to ODI innings) for years, with a few heaves here and there. If my memory serves me right, the last time he hit a match winning 100 - it was perhaps a decade ago in Asia cup. He has single handedly been spoiled the momentum so many times in the past and even after this match, he was talking to the interviewers about his consistent performance and that is the pits !! Agreed that he took 2 wickets (that were more due to Dhoni's efforts rather than anything special with the ball itself) and when you compare his innings Vs that of Collingwood's or even Sachin's, he definitely did not deserve the MOM and in my opinion does not deserve a spot in the ODI side (the catches he dropped were the usual dollies as well). How many more matches can he ruin?
Gambhir was struggling for the most part and was dropped twice but he somehow scratched around before getting out to his trade mark mode of dismissal - the pull shot, which does not cross midwicket boundary.Yuvaraj played another belligerent innings and the 300+ total became possible with little cameos in the end from Dravid and Dhoni (BTW,, I don't think Dhoni has hit a 6 this whole series). Dravid perhaps got wind of what I was advocating - promoting ZK and Zaheer's last ball 4 ended the innings in high note.
When India bowled, they grassed 2 in the first 10 minutes and I could see heads dropping. Somehow, the important breakthrough of sending back Pieterson was achieved and when Bell too got out, it was left to Colly, who almost pulled it off single handedly. Agarkar of all fielders, dropped John Lewis and another tight finish was coming up but he played one too many and Dhoni mopped his 6th victim. I felt that the D&L method definitely helped India (for a reduction of 5 overs, the deduction was a mere 14 off the chase). So, India lives to fight for another day. They go to London now and they have to win 2 out 2. Not easy, considering that the wickets will be hard (in Headingly like conditions, Indian bowlers perform but when the wickets are hard - they will have a tough time). Let us see..

Can't bat, bowl and definitely can't field !!

2007-08-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

4th ODI - There was a small tit bit when Powar and Yuvaraj were batting. The camera showed Ravi Boppara and Gavaskar comapred the 2 and said Powar can bat (and I could not avoid a laughter - Powar is a joke in the field and with the bat).
The familiar story emerged with Indian top order failing for the umpteenth time. Ganguly has not played an important innings for well over a decade (his claim to fame was innings against countries like Kenya in WC) and he was scratchy as ever. Tendulkar is a liability anywhere in the order and except, Yuvaraj, the rest came and went. The lower order is a joke (can't understand, why Dravid sticks to sending Agarkar and Powar ahead of Zaheer. ZK atleast tries to put bat to ball and succeeds with a few ugly swipes; the rest can't even do that). In the end 213 is not a big target but when I went to sleep with England down in the dumps after loosing 7, I never imagined that Boppara and Broad will win them a match; but, we are talking about India - which always manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory !! The fielding was attrocious and the rest of the energy level was pathetic.
If Dravid does not have the guts to drop Ganguly, then God only save India !!

3rd ODI - It was the same old story. Bell has discoverd his ODI potential, thanks to unimaginative Indian bowling and horrible India fielding. In the end, 282 proved too much, after Ganguly played a Chris Tavare like innings with 63 dot balls. The lower order did not distinguish itself and the looong Indian tail is a serious liability.

Dravid plays a dream innings at Bristol

2007-08-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

The fact that India was able to score a 320+ score (even in a small ground like Bristol) was a testimony to the great innings played by Dravid; and this in inspite of the selfish Ganguly and lacklustre Sachin - combination planning to ruin things with a start - that read 30 out of 10 overs. Dravid played an innings of unbelievable proportions, stroking his way to a fluent, effortless 92 out of mere 63 balls. Some of his shots were astounding and it was one of those days, where if the Indian lower order had some sense, he could have got a 100 too. Agarkar and Ramesh Powar decided to be heros, rather than giving the strike to Dravid and RD was denied a 100. This failing of the lower order - starting with the miserable Agarkar onwards, puts in a lengthy tail that lasts to a full 5 mugs with the bat.
Anyway, when India bowled - their fielding was so absymal that they almost lost the match, Numerous run outs were missed (starting from the 1st over itself, when Yuvaraj could have got Prior with a direct hit) and the amount of catches floored became countless when jokers like Powar and careless Ganguy made a mess o simple catches. When Broad stroked 20 from 5 balls off the last over from the listless Munaf, an unlikely victory was within sight but thankfully, Munaf did not bowl a no ball. It was a horrible end and somehow India scrapped through.

India fried at Rose bowl !!

2007-08-22T04:34:00.000-07:00

What a beating it was ? The bowlers got fried, the fielding was ragged and batting, which was supposed to toy with the English bowling failed miserably - all of it combined to give a nasty drubbing at the 1st of the 7 ODIs at Roes bowl, Southampton. I did not watch all the overs in the match but from what little I saw, it was sufficient to conclude that this series will go the world cup way for India.
Signs of trouble brewing were evident even in the match against England Lions, when Luke Wright went on a pace, which looked like that he will get a 200 before the 50 over mark. The 1st ODI, revealed that the white ball is not going to swing and Indian batsmen don't have the luxury of the lethargic boundaries they have been hitting in tests (with aggressive field placing).
Sachin again proved that he is only a paper tiger and as far as Ganguly's run out - it looked school boyish. Did anyone notice that this the 53rd time, he is getting run out involvement in a ODI ? What a joke that was since he got run out off throw from Monty !!..what followed was even more pathetic. Gambhir (what is the meaning of all the useless runs he made in side games) was loose outside the off and did not appear fluent and the rest (including Yuvi) came and went.
I think that things will be very very tough for India, unless there is some drastic change.

Series win after 21 years !! Dravid allows Oval test to drift to a draw !!

2007-08-14T00:36:00.000-07:00

In this hour of glory, especially after a long 21 year gap, let us not loose our objective in evaluating a test match performance - Dravid came a poor 2nd in terms of strategy and allowed things to drift and that allowed England to escape with a draw at the 3rd test match at Oval.
English batting in the 1st inning got a lease of life when Kaarthik spilled a regulation catch at leg slip (in fact, he has a habit of messing simple ones, for some reason). Cook went on to score a 50+ but Kumble fooled Vaughn at the right time and things could have gone worse had the Howell chap, not rejected that plumb LBW to Colly. Zaheer was not the same force as in Trent Bridge but the 2nd new ball worked wonders and there was a real chance to enforce the follow on by the end of day 3; but, Monty hung in there with Tremlet, who wanted to prove that he is a better bat than Sidebottom, who was sent ahead of him. In fact, this pair hung in there for 8 more overs on day 4 as well and that really delayed things for India.
In my opinion, Dravid should have enforced the follow on but somehow, he decided to play on and then came the familiar 2nd innings wobble of India. I wish, Karthik had struck it out for another 1/2 hour - that would have made a huge difference but he too got out and when the paper tiger - Sachin got cleaned out, like a tail ender, 11-3 was starring at Dravid and Ganguly. Dravid, then played an inexplicable slow killer that virtually eliminated the possibility of a result. Ganguly played a brilliant counter attacking innings but with Dravid not rotating the strike, precious time was lost and the eventual target of 500 came at least some 15 overs later than it should have.
The English batting in the 2nd innings was anhored by the peerless Pieterson, who again showed that he is the best of the lot (both teams put together); Kumble was not at all penetrative and the match petered out to a tame draw, not withstanding some artificial excitement in the end.
Indians certainly have reason to celebrate since test victories abroad have been as rare as sighting Haley's comet but let us not forget that they drew the test at Lords due to intervention by weather and by a proverbial whisker. Otherwise, the score line would have been 1-1, which would have proved nothing. The positives for India were the opening pair, a re-born Ganguly and a hungry Zaheer. The test series also revealed the old flaws of Tendulkar but as usual, everyone will forget about them, especially after a rare series win.

Kumble's Swansong !!

2007-08-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

If someone had told me that in a 3 test series aginst England, the only batsman to score a 100 will be Kumble, I would have simply laughed it away and said that 'you must be nuts'; but that is what happened on 2nd day and Jumbo weaved, swatted, swayed, hoiked his way to a memorable 100, that produced as much delight in the dressing room as if some one had hit a Brandmanisque 300 in one single day. I was saying y'ay that the tail must hang around and they did that precisely and the English morale kept dropping.
The morning session began with the sedate Tendu (what is new ?) and a classy VVS, who almost overtook Sachin with a cream of boundaries on the leg side. Dhoni then consolidated things with a clinical assault when he cleaned up the useless post prandial dollies from pie throwers. (I infact liked the way, Dhoni made Kishore Bhemani look silly in the post match interview. Kishore said - Ah ! Mahi- you have not been in the best of form to which MSD quitely replied with a wry smile - the only innings I did not score was in Trent Bridge).
As the evening wore on, Jumbo's 100 became a reality and Shreesanth (man !! if he can show some more of a temperament, he looks a better batsman than even Zaheer/RP) and he got it with a typical mess up (by who else but Prior) between keeper's legs, the Indian dressing room is a scened to be seen. Wide smiles from Karthik to Ramki and Venky Prasad, whistling to celebrate his B'lore buddy's 100.
I did not know why Dravid did not declare that very moment since that could have been used toturn the screw even further. Strauss messed up an easy bouncer but Cook looks to be in good touch and the pitch is still full of runs. Kumble must be waiting to turn his arm over in a typical India like pitch.

Karthik proves his value !! Ian Howell goes blind !!

2007-08-10T03:13:00.000-07:00

As expected, the oval wicket was a batsman friendly one and Dravid was glad to win an important toss. Jaffer and Karthik eased to an early pattern, where runs were easy to pick and Jaffer in particular looked to be in good touch. His upper cut 6 was a stand out but there were other pleasing strokes as well during his brief innings. His reach out shot to 3rd man, must have disappointed him since this is a kind of wicket, where a 100 is there for the asking. Dravid played positively and Karthik upped the anty by playing an innings full of utility - hurrying for every single run and egging his partner to run as well. Karthik's glorious off driver 6 off Monty was all class and some of his straight drives and cover drives were a treat to watch. Karthik has come off age for sure and just when things looked good - a double strike happened. Dravid got a very good yorker but I doubt very much whether Karthik feathered a touch or not.
Then came the excruciatingly painful innings, which we are quite used to from Sachin. He refused to play the hook or pull and looked every bit out of touch. He was tested by Anderson repeatedly and when Prior dropped him, he promptly shut shop. In the mean while, Ganguly was all class- his off drives, hoik off Monty and the leg side pulls were show casing a degree of class which we are used to; and then came the blinder from Howell (or Howler as Shastri put it). SG got a huge inside edge but Howell went blind and raised his finger and that was that. I wonder why Dravid and the rest of the India team did not stand out and do repeat of a Pieterson incident at Lords. The mistake was so huge and so obvious.
Anyway, VVS walked out and looked to be in good touch and if he can come up with a big score, India can put some big numbers. The tail must use Prior's benevolent byes since a mere 20 or 30 partnership can become 50 or 60 with Prior's handy contribution. India is still capable of messing up such a good start (it should have been easily 360 but for Tendu) but again, the pitch should help them to chart where they want to be.

Ahead of the Oval test - What must India do ?

2007-08-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

The traditional English last test match is invariably at Oval, which is the 'other' ground in London - A dimaetric opposite to the stately Lords. The last and 3rd test match is starting today and if India does not want to repeat history of loosing one, after winning one, here is what they have to do :

Stay positive and cut out the draw mentality. There is not going to be that much swing at Oval, compared to the last 2 matches but does not mean that reverse swing is not possible. Looking at the patchy outfield in photos, I guess, reverse swing will have to come into effect around 45th over. Neither Zaheer nor RP is good enough with that skill and they may struggle but they have to make it up by using the bounce.
If India bats first - a huge first innings score and batting over 2 days is a must - They have to watch out for Tremlet since he will get steep bounce. If India bats 2nd, they better watch out for their famous choke act in the 4th innings. Invariably, they have given it away in meaningless 4th innings trembles and they must avoid that at all costs.
Finally, Anil Kumble has to step in - he is at best mopping up tail in the last 2 and it is high time he strikes form.

Zaheer delivers the punch !!

2007-08-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

Zaheer and RP did the star turn in this match and it all started with an incredible display in the 1st innings. When England was short out for 198 especially after RP's dream ball to Pieterson, things were looking for India. The openers consolidated things thro a 100+ stand but things were going south when Dravid fell but SRT for once played decently. SG and VVS did their part a big lead was there for Zaheer to bowl and bowl did he do with venom. i read all about the jelly bean incident and motivation and all that - to me, it was the English swing which did the trick. I saw Vaughn's innings and man !! from almost a non-playing captain, he has come back to sublime form in no time. When Zaheer bowled an exceptional spell on 4th day to remove Collingwood and Jumbo polished off the tail, India were left with a mere 83 to win. Tremlet showed them on how he can be a threat when there is bounce and India will have a tough time in a true pitch at Oval. But, for now let us celebrate a rare victory (only the 5th in English soil) and hope that they won't repeat their annoying habit of loosing one after winning one.

Rain saves India !!

2007-08-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

First things first. I have not been able to update the blog due to hectic traveling but now, I am back and normal service will be restored. I doubt very much, whether this blog has such an amount of readership, who will plead me to write but all the same, I know the value of blogs - people will return, if the updates are regular.

Lords Test : India was obviously saved by rain but I was tempted to add that Steve Buckenor too played a part. The LBW appeal he turned down against Sreesanth will go into history books but still not going to negate the countless ones he had handed over against India for well over a decade. That particular ball from Monty was missing the off and leg but certainly not the middle. India survived to live and fight on another day. The take aways from this game is the form of Karthik, Ganguly and to some extent Dhoni. Dhoni especially played with common sense and ensured a draw when for the umpteenth time SRT disappointed. Indian bowling was okay but their mess up on the 1st day morning almost made them loose the test. I saw a few glimpses of Kevin Pieterson's innings and my word !! what a gem it was. He could change gears effortlessly and almost won a game for England with a price less innings studded with amazing shots. The way he dismanted Kumble is a worrying sign for India. Anyway, India survived and that is what matters in the end, especially after missing out so many such close encounters in yester years.

Deja vu

2007-07-20T00:09:00.000-07:00

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 !

2007-07-19T00:05:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-06T20:26:00.000-07:00

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 !!

2007-07-01T22:53:00.000-07:00

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 !!)

2007-07-01T22:26:00.000-07:00

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.

Tendulkar and ineffective bowling drags India down !!

2007-06-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

The more he scores, the more questions remain unanswered and that has been theme behind every innings of Sachin (not now but for several years now). His pathetic start (15 balls to open the account) and the maiden overs he gave in 24th over (and I think one more before that) are all an indication that fizz has long drained out of his efforts. Sachin was unable to break the shackles for long and his timing and placement was simply missing and in the end, his innings did more damage than good. He somehow carried on but his effort was painful and a scoring rate of 69 in this day and age is utter nonsense. The pitch was docile at best and the SA attack could be termed industrious and nothing more. There was the usual glare and stare from Nel and Ntini ran in fast but nothing earthshaking and nothing unfamiliar to Sachin but he simply choose to be an accumulator at a miserly pace until his innings ruined things once and for all. Dravid was ok (with a scoring rate of nearly 80) but he too should have pressed the pedal early but he was weighed down by the monotonous hogging of the strike by Sachin, who was simply unable to rotate the strike. I watched his run out amidst a small crowd of spectators and not one reacted with that 'robbed off a deserving 100' comment, when he got run out at 99 !! That said it all since there was a collective sigh of relief, when he got out.
The middle order/lower middle order of Rohit Sharma,Chawla and Powar showed their lack of class in batting by not applying themselves; India managed some 50 runs short of where there should have been, mainly due to Sachin's excruciatingly slow innings and clearly missed Dhoni's finishing touch.
When India bowled, they knew well that they have to get Kallis out but somehow they did everything except that. RP Singh, has somehow survived for so long without ever looking threatening. His wickets in Bangladesh were mainly some innocuous leg side glances going to keeper (except the odd good one) and here too he looked singularly unimpressive, even against Ireland. With Zaheer off color in the initial spell, it was left to Piyush for some magic. Chawla did not disappoint but SA was always under control and total was always gettable, as long as Kallis stayed and he did stay put. There was a breif period of hope, when Zaheer trapped Boucher and there was still some to get but Philander seems to be a good find and India drifted to another defeat. For some strange reason, Dravid refused to bring on Sachin and the common place stuff dished out by Yuvaraj is not going to win you games. Powar too is not going to be effective even against a lame duck side like SA, who can not handle spin. I was imagining how Srilanka would have played a similar match (1st of all, they don't have to be content with the non-performers, who chase records alone in the top end of the batting); they would have simply strangled SA with Murali's breath taking wickets and Jaya bottling one end up. Somehow, I got the feeling that India was afraid to win even; they never looked like running away with it, even though it was well within their grasp. So, another day and another loss- yikes, it gets tiring to repeat it over and over.

India Cap - Available for anyone with connections

2007-06-26T00:50:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened since my last post. So, let me start with the team selection - for a full fledged tour like this and taking on a resurgent English side, India prepared itself in the worst possible manner. There was fiasco after fiasco - starting with the coach appointment and Ford ditching them. Then, there is the usual matter of botched selection attempts. Dilip Vengsarkar saw to it that he filled the team with non performers from Bombay - I could not understand the logic of dropping Viru (mind you; I am no fan of his inconsistent ways) as well as Bhajji. Both were decent in the Afro-Asian cup and I thought that both deserved a spot in the test team at least. I also thought that Murali Karthik, the only Indian with a full county contract this year (playing for Middlesex) should have got a recall but one must remember that his name is not ending with a 'kar' and he is not playing for Mumbai and hence there was little chance of he making the 14.
So, how did they come up with that name - Chandu Borde, the grand old man from Pune for the coach. Well !! if you want to have a hearty laugh, go through this and laugh till it aches
http://i3j3cricket.wordpress.com/2007/06/18/ford-gate/
Maybe the powers that govern thought that we need a 70+ plus man in the 75th year after India began playing test cricket in England. Anyway, I have nothing against Borde per se but question the relevance in this day and age, where the game has moved to a laptop age. You can duck under by saying that it is still a game, where someone has to hit it with a wooden piece as far as it can go but believe me, things have changed. All you have to do is to look at the ODI economy rates. There was a time, when an economy rate of 4 was considered decent at best; today, if you have 4, they will knight you in the 10th game itself.
So, India lands in cold Ireland (not an ideal way to prepare for a 80+ day tour) and begin playing against a lowly Irish side, whose players felt that they have better things to do than playing India. Then, half the team gets the flu and guess what - the back room manovours begin; the thank you messages for the vote banks are reciprocated and guess what some one called Arjun Yadav (who was best known for beating up Rayadu in Ananthapur in a crikcet match.. see this link.. http://www.cricketfundas.com/featuredec52005bvs.html) gets the India cap. My god - it is real cheap man..it is real cheap. Things can not get any worse than this.

Ford ditches BCCI !! Another Fiasco

2007-06-11T21:08:00.000-07:00

BCCI ended up in another royal mess, when Graham Ford, whom they had selected to replace Chappel as coach, decided show them the middle finger. This is obviously not the 1st time BCCI had ended up with cow dung on the face and certainly not the last time also. The problem I have is that they never seem to learn from any of this mess, they are getting into.
So, why did Ford decide to dump arguably the most profile cricketing coach job especially after traveling all the way from London to Chennai. My guess - he got cheesed off, after seeing the BCCI chaos - the manner of selection, the general unpreparedness of the selection committee and perhaps even the delayed manner in which the presentation went (based on newspaper reports, the demi God of the Indian cricket {readers of this blog know who is the God!} Sunil Gavaskar, showed up just 10 minutes before arriving from Goa). Ford could have also felt the lifestyle change is perhaps not worth it but that is something he had already known before; lastly, the 1 year contract term, dished out by the mandarins of BCCI also did not deserve the merit, perhaps in his estimate.
So, what could have BCCI have done to end up where they did ? Well !! In such high profile jobs, there has to be a plan B always - BCCI should have come out a 2nd candidate as a backup and should have brought in a clause where in the event of 'Kent not releasing Ford', Embuery is the candidate (I am not sure whether John Emburey deserves the spot since he had no credentials coming from Middlesex who got relegate to 2nd division).
So, where do you end up with this kind of mess ? Well !! Back to square one as the demi God had put it.

India win but not before Ashraful's swan-song

2007-05-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

Let me begin from Day2, when the painful, excruciatingly slow Sachin resumed. His innings was a torture and he laboured through the day, without ever dominating or looking like to dominate. The only decent act he did was to hand over the strike 3 times in an over before lunch, for Karthik to get his 100. Sachin's innings, as noted in the comments below by Ram, was uninspiring and I guess that he will get an uneventful string of low scores in England or score when it may not matter much. Dhoni injected some much needed life into the innings and Dravid could declare at last. I have seen too many sedate Indian 100s whch had ruined the possibility of a result, over the years and I was fearful of one more but B'desh by then had other ideas.
When India bowled, the B'deshi batsmen had the unerring liking for the pavilion and I don't blame them, after seeing the conditions. The side had lost 5 before the end of day's play and India for their part dropped 4 catches. Karthik showed them how butterfingered he can get and Powar displayed his lack of enthu for fielding.
When day 3 began, it was a question of how long B'desh could last but when Zaheer started with a wicket in the 1st over, it was all over too quick for B'desh. Zaheer had redeemed himself after a poor show in Worldcup, ODIs and the 1st test. RP never looked like threatening and the dream ball, he bowled to hapless Basheer, should have a hit wide crack. I watched the debutant Ishant with some interest and from 1st looks - another trundler with not much of movement to boot.
The 2nd innings was going the same way before Ashraful decided to show them how it should be done. He was at the press conference the previous day, promising a better show and the way, he hooked, pulled, drove, one could see loads of talent. If he could have carried on, Richard's fastest century was under threat but Kumble did the rescue act for Dravid and India could avoid the blushes, until Morteza began freeing up his arms and clouting those 4s and 6s. The fielding got worse and in all, India should have dropped a dozen in 2 innings (nothing new of course). They wanted to compete with the West Indian side for the worst fielding award. The lack of quick strikes ensured that Morteza could muster up another 50. In the end, the only positives for India - Zaheer getting back to some form and some show of promise by Karthik in batting.

Sedate Indian batsmen & Selfish Intent

2007-05-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

It is definitely worth comparing the two 1st day's play scores of Ind-Bang and Eng-WI games (both 2nd tests). B'desh and WI are both having horrendous bowling attacks but the weather conditions were definitely worse at Dhakka. Eng managed 360 off of 85 overs but India could muster only 320 odd off 90 and that too after 2 fresh pair of legs replacing the retired hurt Jaffer and Karthik. In my opinion, India ended up a full 100 runs short of where there should have been, considering the nature of the wicket and the regulatory 2 full tosses per over dished by Raffique.
Jaffer was so scared, after the pair in the 1st test, he had asked the make shift Karthik to take 1st strike. Jaffer's selfishness was evident all through the innings, when he refused to run for Karthik's attempts to take sharp singles. In fact, he hogged the strike for a full 4 overs, when Karthik was scoring, virtually a 4 every 4 balls. Karthik, too struggled before lunch but made amends later. But, the worst scrating around was done by Sachin - he was selfishness personified. 9 off 40 balls, when he should have hit 70 to 80 in those 40, since by then B'desh bowlers were feeling like German soldiers in WWII in Stalingrad - completely spent; they were begging for rest and were collapsing around balls while fielding but for Sachin, every record counts - he never bothered about the team's intent to push things and hence played one scratchy shot after another. Dravid was decent of all but he too should learn to score at run a ball, especially against such attacks and such pitches. One can argue that the conditions were tought but believe me - it is far, far tough to bowl and field than bat in such conditions. So, what lies ahead - well !! another painful period of endurance where there will be accumulations and a delayed declaration sometime on the 3rd day...then, it will be upto the bowlers, but I guess in this wicket, even school boys can bat out 3 days.

What is ahead for India in England?

2007-05-23T01:53:00.000-07:00

The way BCCI had managed the telecasting, majority of folks in Urban India can enjoy Eng-WI test match (in crystal clear, vivid) ESPN as opposed to India's own test match Vs B'desh. With the Neosports being out of reach for most cable operators, the only alternative was to hope for DD to telecast but they never did (in fact, DD sports choose to show SL-Pak match from AbuDhabi) since DD has an aversion to the real cricket - test matches; it does not bring in the same moolah as the ODI, where you can show cricket between ads and also roll in ads to about 50% of the screen during the over.
Anyway, I got to watch Mat Prior's innings (along with Kevin Pieterson and Cook, Collingwood's 100s) and the 1st conclusion I had - India will have a tough time, when they go to England in a few weeks. India, traditionally had difficulties with the opposing lower order and Prior & co will be waiting with their bats. India is yet to figure out the opening combination (in fact, except for a brief period of Gavaskar- Chauhan and Mustaq Ali- Lala Amarnath), they are yet to figure that in 70 odd years. With the twin failures of Jaffer and the make shift Karthik, not sure about keeping that slot in greener pitches, it is back to square one. My guess, the batting will come thro' somehow - they will struggle initially but by the 2nd test or so - the English summer wickets will be easy to play and Indian batting will survive, if not excel (all they have to do is to avoid loosing the 1st test). But, the bowling will be another story - it will be an episode of gift wrappers at best - wait for Strauss..all the way to Panesar to feast on the innocuous dollies from the 3 Indian pacemen. It will one high score after another for the English bats.
Then, there is ..hold your breadth- 7 ODIs, in traditional English cricket and with some of them even D/N. Hmmm..Here too England must be waiting to revive its fortunes thanks to the hapless and clueless India.

No Pains !! No Gains !!

2007-05-22T04:40:00.000-07:00

It was another half baked effort from the Indian team and when rain intervened for the most part, the damp squib became a foregone conclusion at Chittacong's 1st test. I am not sure, who had the brains to schedule a test at this city in the 1st place but whoever did, never took the buckets and sheets of rain, which comes around in these parts. India could have still forced the issue with some imaginative batting and more important some useful bowling but they looked like a bottom the barrel, plate group Ranji side at best.
There were the usual 100s and all but considering the quality of opposition and the nature of the pitch, they should have scored the same runs at 3/4th of the time (say at 5.5 an over or something there abouts). But, the worst was the horrendous bowling. All summer, Morteza has been threatening with his fireworks in match after match; but Indian think tank decided to press on a lackluster Powar and the ill directed shoddy stuff from VRV; the end result - B'desh should have been bundled under 100 but went on to score 200+.
When India batted the 2nd time around, they batted without a plan and kept loosing wickets..the same poor effort in the bowling front was repeated in the 2nd innings by India - the only difference being, they showed the world - how low they can go. All in all, another lost opportunity to engineer a result and another test victory chance abroad missed out due to complete lack of imagination and execution. So, can the 2nd test be any different - I doubt - India simply lacks the will and most important 'urgent push' and each player seems to be interested in his record books alone.

Gambhir comes thro' (At last !!)

2007-05-15T02:20:00.000-07:00

Gautam Gambhir was frustrating his followers and himself by being a LBW bunny and was unable to cement his place, even after a 4 year span that began at the same B'desh, when India toured after their 2003 WC campaign. The conditions were ideal - docile pitch, friendly bowling and most important - 60% of bowling by spinners. All Gambhir had to do was to overcome the heat and humidity and the rest was easy. Gautam always played the spinners with ease in domestic cricket (unlike Yuvi) and hence it was relatively easy for him to pick the 3 left armers. Viru threw it off once again and Yuvi fell to another spinner (so, what is new?). India managed 285 but a good 15-20 short of where they should have been.
Once Tanim got out, B'desh was never in the hunt. There were the odd bright spots - like the 4 sixers by Morteza but that is that and B'deshis were not in the reckoning for most part. I watched Piyush's bowling with keen interest and thankfully DD allowed Bruce Yardley, the former Australian spinner's English commentary (otherwise, it was Rajender Amarnath's Hindi speak for most part and it was common place, as usual). Yardley said that the rotations and the arm speed Piyush imparts is not comparable to that of Murali or Warne. After he made this point, I watched keenly and yep, he was right. Piyush is a work in process and has a long way to go, before reaching such levels. He has a decent googly but his spin is not the baffling type. He also floats too many and will go for a few, if one uses his feat a bit more. Anyway, India took a win but I am not impressed since if some one is kidding me that this is India's future bowling plan - my 2 cents - won't fly far, even against the next level of cricketing nations.

Fumble and Tumble - Lackluster win !!

2007-05-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

If someone had suggested last year, that an India Vs Bangladesh ODI match will assume this much of significance, the response would have been 'have your mind examined'; but, after the WC 1st round exit by India (thanks to B'desh) and the new make over, there was some interest to find out what is going to happen. Things started off rather badly - Manoj Tiwary, the one young talent, everyone wanted to test out had injured his shoulder, as soon as the team reached Dhaka and before that media reports had put that the so called camp @ Kolkatta was a swing back to the yesteryears - when the players went thro' motions and a few knocks here and there.
This is obviously not the ideal time to play ODIs with energy sapping conditions but such common sense had long before gone out of the window from the gang which runs the game and counts the bucks. Then, there was the usual DD telecast, where a flickering, faded color image that appeared for the best part of 3-4 balls and over (mind you; there was no flicker in the commercials). One might ask what is new - practically nothing - missed catches, mindless bowling and some new talent pouncing on innocous offerings doled out by Zaheer - things were the same. On a day, when Dinesh Mongia emerges as your best bowler, one wonders whether Indian cricket is going in which direction. B'desh mopped up 250 in 47 thanks to a gift of about 30-40 runs on the field and some useless bowling by Viru, Zaheer and Powar. Indian fielding was atrocious as usual and the ball was routinely escorted to the boundary, perhaps fearing that a 4 is better than allowing B'desh to run 5, in case if the ball is not let go.
When India batted, things were the same - Viru - perhaps not shackled by the omnipresent GC, unleashed a few shots here and there but in no time, India was starring down the barrel with Yuavaraj failing again to lame spinner. Dhoni, hobbling on one leg gutted it out with Karthik but the end result was a painful win that cleared none of the doubts prevailing over the form and class of Indian cricket and cricketers.

Fuddy-Duddy does some whitewashing !!

2007-04-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

The grand old daddy of them all - BCCI - the very definition of Fuddy-Duddy acts, did some whitewashing - here and there and the usual 'kichidi' job was the end result. Vengsarkar, the superman of Indian selection committee, like many predecessors before him - contradicted himself umpteen times and in the end, we are left with a half boiled effort that in my opinion is not going to anywhere near what is needed. Let me look into the anomalies of all this and let me stir the pot for the post-WC edition, even when the long drawn WC is dragging on.

It all started with the appointment of Ravi Shastri as manager for the B'desh tour. First of all, if he is even an interim replacement for Greg, then is he not supposed to be a coach? Why fudge and call it as manager? Another BCCI googly, which no one can understand. On the face of it, I welcome Shastri's appointment - he is one of the few who can talk some sense but the state of Indian cricket will require much more than that and as far as his assistants - Venky Prasad and Robin Singh - neither of them in the league of a Sir Richard Hadlee or Johny Rhodes respectively. Both were average cricketers at best and I am not sure what will be their contribution be. The way things are - if they do not do anything- that itself is good since playing politicking, backstabbing, leaks to media and what not have been the order of the day. We have so much additional baggage - another 2 more will not hurt.
Let us see the other contradictions - Sachin and Saurav 'rested' for the ODI series. Fair enough; but, that decision has to come after the selection meeting and not before. It seems that Vengsarkar had called them before the selection and explained things to them. Ah !! here comes another googly from BCCI functionary.
Viru is not in the test team and there is no sensible opener for the test team. Well !! another one of those misses - when you write 40 names, something is bound to miss and this seems to be one of them. Form book will of course dictate that Viru is fine in tests but such common sense and our cricket does not go together normally.
Who is Rajesh Pawar? and why is Murali Karthik not picked - even God can not answer that. Karthik knew the vagaries of Indian selection and decided to make a few bucks by playing in English county cricket/

I can go on and on but I guess the point is made - It is one hodge podge list gleaned out to satisfy the average follower. The expected result here - somehow, India has to salavge something in B'desh and they will want the public to forget the WC disaster and all the other mess so that the moolah raj will return; sponsors will return and the billion rupee telecast rights will begin.(If BCCI is really serious about domestic cricket -why was the current 20-20 tournament not have a telecast? or why was the game not promoted enough to attract spectators? or why was the selection done before the conclusion of the tournament? What was the basis of selection after the WC hara kiri. After all, one has to wait for the tournament to conclude before deciding a few things. Anyway, I have seen stranger stuff than this and nothing will surprise me).

Crocodile Tears and washing dirty linen in public !!

2007-04-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

Well !! Well !! It is one non stop drama and saga; too many skeletons are falling from cub-board as far as Indian cricket goes and the pitched battlefield is all set for a busy weekend action at Bombay. The leaked memos to the media are claiming various 'sources' and coming out with lists of problems against the so called seniors (in my opinion, the men who made crores and are shredding crocodile tears on behalf of Indian cricket and trying to cling on to their 'Patta' wicket moolah) and of course, the so called seniors in a pitched battle against a 'high handed coach'. All the talk of bonhomie is over and the Indian dressing room would have been one heck of a pot stirrer show piece stage, for this much of emotion to cook up. Good that India lost; otherwise, all this would have been buried and the long term damage will be much more.
Let me first analyze the info in the press, that quotes the sources about Greg's report on seniors. According to these press reports :

Sourav's penchant for batting for himself and chasing records top the list (According to me, what is new ? Any sensible cricket watcher could see from the dot balls and strike rate that SG was playing for himself, even against some school team attack like Bermuda)
Tendulkar being not a team man (Entirely agreed. He stopped being one, years before. Sachin countering these by claiming about his 17 year saga and being hurt etc is hog wash and plain Hindi movie sentiment business. Let him be a man and answer for his poor performace rather than wielding lobby attacks and being ticked off for not allowed to open against Bermuda)
Harbhajan and Yuvaraj having an attitude. (could not have agreed more. Yuvaraj behaves like a Maharaja of Maharajas on the field and as far as Bhajji, his singular failure to take wickets at vital junctures killed Indian hopes)
Seniors behaving like Mafia (how can otherwise cling on to their ad roles and milk the next gullible sponsor?)

Now, let us check, what the Seniors have to say against Greg. He was high handed and was not even in talking terms with Sachin. Actually, knowing the Western culture, what has Greg got to hide? It is Sachin, with his swelled ego who created this scene. I have nothing but respect for Greg but his methods are unlikely to work in a chaotic place like India. It is like asking a TGV train to run in Indian Railways track. There is a place for everything and in a world, which is full of down right politicking, money mongering, egoistic - personal feuds, team takes a back seat and folks like Greg have no place. You need folks, who can constantly indulge in sleight of hand techniques, play politics, constantly talk nonsense and above all be used to the lethargic, below par Indian cricketer.

Final verdict : Too much water has flown in and too much dirty linen has been washed in public. Inspite of plain common sense advantages of retaining Greg, it now looks like, things are beyond redemption. Rather than me attempting at what is best for Indian cricket, let me predict on what is going to happen - Sachin and co will have an audience with 'the boss' and shed crocodile tears and paint tearful stories of how they were mistreated (rather than going into aspects like how bone headed, they were when they played BD and SL and more important how his furniture was rearranged for the umpteenth time, when it counts most) and will see to that their lobby retains the power (and of course the crores). I think that there will be a band aid solution by bringing in some rubber stamp cricketer, who will be so colorless that nothing new will happen in the muddled waters of Indian cricket.

Return of "That sinking feeling " !! Srilanka trounces India !!

2007-03-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

India ended their world cup campaign exactly at the place where they began - hopeless and clueless. Their last slim hope of survival required them to beat a good SriLankan side but as I had predicted, they were no where in this match or rather mis-match.
The team selection was again wrong and Dravid's continued trust in Agarkar to open the bowling was a disaster. Add the umpiring erros, India was starring at the gun barrel but fortunately Jayasurya got out early and Jayawardene did not click but a new, emerging, confident cricketer (who had earlier got my praise during the last series) emerged - Chamara Silva and he played a steller innings. Indian batsmen, typically stiffen up when they loose early wickets and play as if they are playing fire balls and run in hot coals but Chamara Silva knew no fear and batted freely. His partnerships with Tharanga and Dilshan ensured that the loss of Sangakara did not prove costly. Arnold and Vaas ensured that a 225 score became 255 score but the main culprit for that - Dravid and of course, the highly unimpressive, Bhajji. Harbhajan never looked like taking a wicket in the middle phase and India went to neutral, instead of creating wickets. Dravid was a complete, colossal failure in the manner he placed fielders and in the manner in which he made bowling changes but in the end, 255 was still gettable by any International side but India is not one of them. They are shortly heading to the minnow status and by next cup, I won't be surprised if they go to the qualifying tournament to play along with the likes of Malaysia, Canada, Haiti etc.
When India batted, there was still hope but one could easily observe the Ganguly of the old vintage, He has this uncanny ability to play an innings for himself - he was unable to pierce the field, rotate singles and most important converted certain 3s to a close 1 run. People who normally view proceedings with jaundiced eye, might draw comfort from all the half centuries of his - but believe me, the more I see players playing without a concern for the team, the more I will say that Indian team will go to new unheard of pits. When Uthappa fell to a reflex catch and Ganguly got out (thankfully), it was the turn of Sachin to show the world that he still counts - but Sachin has not played one important innings for several years now (If my memory is right perhaps the last world cup innings against Pak was the last time around), when it matters really - so, it was no surprise that he got out for a zero and the manner in which he got out - bowled neck and crop to Dilhara Fernando of all people- was the last straw. Tendulkar has been a non contributor in anything worthwhile for a long time and now to reward him for the ZERO he got, there are reports that he will be the next captain. Goodness me !!
The real turning point in the match was the wicket of Sehwag, who was foxed by a doosra from a revitalized Murali (It was once again great captaincy by Mahela. When Murali went for a few in the 1st over he bowled, he took him off and introduced him later at an opportune moment. Murali's enthusiastic fielding was appealing and almost infectious, when he took that catch of Saurav). When Yuvaraj got run out, it was all but over and as I had said, Dravid is not capable of playing a Miandad or a Steve Waugh kind of innings, to score this many runs, by himself. In the end, Sri Lanka exposed all the Indian weaknesses - bowling trash in the middle overs, poor fielding and running between the wickets, batsmen with bloated records against minnows and scored in useless circumstances (& patta wickets) and finally a clueless captain, bereft of strategy and execution. The Indian team's body language said it all and they looked as if they were about to be trampled.
So, what lies ahead- I hear that the lobby is out at work to make Sachin as the next captain. I do not think that it is the right step but I am willing to change my stand, if he comes back victorious from Bangladesh (I mean Bangladesh,..the very team, which was considered worst than some of the plate group sides in our Ranji teams, just a few years ago). The victory margin in each victory should be so impressive as the thrashing which West Indies gave back to India, when they toured here after the loss at 1983 WC finals. I will not be satisfied with anything less than sound thrashing but mark my words, the paper tigers, will find a way to survive and cling on to their crores. Indian cricket (and of course the poor Indian millions) will be the loosers.

Indian team at Crosshair !!

2007-03-21T23:16:00.000-07:00

The score line screamed Tigers 1- Sheep 0, after defeat of India by Bangladesh. The men in blue have to play another must win game and prove that they are the tigers esp against the Sri Lankan Lions in full form. Rahul Dravid's team will be at Crosshair, when they take the Sri Lankan team tomorrow; they will watched for every move by the media; team selection, batting order, field placement and of course the sub par fielding will all be analyzed threadbare in chat rooms and talk shows. It is time for to prove and be counted for the men in blue but the question - are they ready ?
After seeing the pummeling handed over to Bangladesh by Lanka, I will say that the odds are not in favor of India. Lankan team will fight tooth and nail for the Super 8 points and hence will be ready with their weapons against India.
A word about y'day match. Jayasurya and Tharanga ensured that the revitalized Bangladesh does not forget its minnow status - at least not yet. They tore apart the Bangla new ball attack (the very same Morteza and Rasal, who were treated as if Imran and Wasim Akram were bowling at their peaks, by India). The left arm spinners, esp Razzak was slaughtered and here is the most impressive part- when it came to bowling - Sri Lanka summarily finished off Bangla team, Lanka has been able to dismiss both Bangla and Bermuda teams for paltry scores and here is where India will loose out. They appear too timid to counter the Lankan bowling. A mere few weeks ago, things looked the other way but that was back at home and as Moody rightly pointed out, every one knows how India plays, outside India.

I wanted to list the negatives, which are plaguing Indian batting at the moment -

Sourav has gone back to his old ways and is unable to rotate the strike. His innings are more of a bane than boon because of the dot balls (he gave a maiden to Bermuda !!)
Viru has been out of form for long and neither he nor Uthappa are known for big match innings, esp when it counts most.
Yuvaraj is in good touch but by the time he appears at number 6, things will be too late and in any case, his achilles heel will be Murali. He is not a good player of top class spinner like Murali.
Sachin will have his trouble against Jayasurya and can not produce the kind of magic required to play 'once a life innings'. Dravid is non entity and can not do anything spectacular, other than playing around someone else.

As far as the bowling is concerned :

Agarkar has rediscovered his old form (of bowling trash at all times) and the fact that he opens the bowling is going to give some spine chilling moments - not for the Lankan bats but for Indian fans. His deliveries are expected to be dispatched to both sides of the square boundaries. It is obvious that Agarkar serves the cause of opposition than that of India but alas, that is evident to every one in planet earth except Dravid.

Kumble and Bhajji are looking extremely unimpressive. They are neither able to turn the ball nor pressurize the batsmen. Powar would have been handy here rather than the excess baggage - Pathan in the team.

Finally, a word about the fielding and running between the wickets. India starts at a deficit of 40 runs in any match against the Lankan team in this area.

So, all in all in all - what the percentage chances for India to defeat SL and make it to Super 8. Until yesterday, I thought that it is 25% but after seeing the SL-BD match, I have brought it down to 2%. Only a miracle can save India and I will be extremely glad to be wrong in everything which I had written above.

Slaughter of Innocents !!

2007-03-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

Dravid had at last something to smile about when the Indian team went to amaze a new record high score against of a bunch of amateur cricketers from Bermuda. I will start with the positives (for once) - The margin of victory was not bad and almost every batsmen, except Uthappa had some good net practice. Does this mean that, Viru had redeemed himself - I doubt it; at the minimum, he did not embarrass himself & Dravid any further. To be fair, the bowling was quite friendly, laced with a liberal doze of wides and in general, the match had an air of club level cricket.
India would not have reached the 413 score, if the 3rd umpire had not got into a benevolent mood by declaring Yuvaraj not out, when he his foot was clearly on the line, in a stumping attempt. Yuvi's 6s over midwicket ensured that the amount of dot balls wasted by Ganguly (what is the matter with him - in the last 2 matches, he is scoring way too slowly and simply unable to rotate the strike) did not prove costly. Sachin played a decent innings and the 413 score looked daunting enough for everyone Dravid to go out and do an all out attack.
But alas, Dravid somehow had this notion that Bermuda will copy South Africa and chase this 413. He employed conservative field and asked listless Agarkar to open the bowling (whereas Munaf should have opened and knocked the stuffing out of Bermuda or Sreesanth should have played instead of unimpressive Agarkar. Against minnows, all you need is a fast delivery on the stumps, rather than the wasted outside the stumps deliveries of Agarkar at medium pace). Dravid also failed to attack through field placement and at times did not even have a slip. He left the game to linger around, whereas with a bit of proactive captaincy, Bermuda should have got folded for a sub 100 score.
All this may not matter in the end, since India still have got to beat Srilanka and if they have to do that, here are my tips :

Contain Jayasurya. Give him no width at all outside the offstump.
Be wary of a fightback from the likes of Sangakara/Chamara Silva and lower order bats like Arnold. Dilshan and even Maharoof.
Knock the stuffing out of Malinga in the 1st spell. His 2nd spell can be lethal since he has got the ability to bowl toe crushing yorkers and lower order can not handle it at all. He is a genuine wicket taker, especially against Indian tail, which has had no practice at all and has not contributed to anything worthwhile for a long long time.
Vass has to be hit for runs and Ganguly should target him without getting bogged down, the way he has been in the last 2 matches. It is worth pursuing Uthappa and he has to take care of Malinga's short ball offerings and keep out the yorkers.
Finally, keep Murali out but at the same time, milk him for a safe 5 an over.
If India gets to bat first, they must score nothing less than 275+ and if they have to bowl first, they should see that, they do not chase anything beyond 215.

A lot can go wrong but at the minimum, India has lived to fight for another day.

Shameful, Shambolic, Shambles, Cowardly !!

2007-03-19T00:26:00.000-07:00

It looks like the whole cricketing world has almost turned upside down in a space of 48 hours...Bob Woolmer is dead, Pakistan is the 1st one to crash out of WC, Flintoff stripped off Vice captaincy - thanks to a drunken boat trip and of course India had their rear end kicked by B'desh. Let me stick to the last part for now.
To many an average India follower, the defeat at the hands of B'desh was a shock but to me it was not. I had followed Indian cricket for long and I could see through the holes very easily. Readers of the blog have to simply go through the previous post and you will see Notstradamus like clairvoyant calls.
I had said that Morteza will be too much to deal with and I also predicted that Indian batsmen, esp Sachin will struggle against the left arm spinners Raffique and Razzak and I was spot on. Frankly, I did not want any of my prediction to become true but it happened, as it has often in the past. You could visualize a struggle for India since they have always been slow to start in any 'away' series and also when there is a bit of juice on the track, they struggle against club class outfits. I don't want to go too much into the '2 runs for 5 wicket' act or the umpteenth failure of Viru or the struggles of Sachin and Dravid, enough is to say, that it was a terrible let down.
When India bowled, I still had a fond hope that they will somehow rediscover their magic but at the most opportune moment, Agarkar choose to have an off day and when Tamim started whacking, I could see the shoulders sag. Dravid's field placement, captaincy, fielder placement (what the heck was Munaf doing at Covers ? - he conceded minimum of 15+ runs) was all wrong and the shambolic display in every sphere continued and B'desh coasted to an easy win. The body language of Indian players looked like that of a line of sheep that is waiting to get slaughtered. The kind of performance with extra sharpness that was needed, when defending small totals was missing and Dravid looked as if he had swallowed castor oil and looked to be completely bereft of anything useful in terms of an idea. In hindsight, knowing how Indian batting struggles in such unknown conditions, he should have fielded first but I guess, they could repeated the same shameless display during the chase too.
So, what is ahead - In theory, India can still make it to Super 8 but the odds are not in their favor since Srilanka has a huge run rate difference and India has let things drift to a stage where they can't control destiny anymore. India has to beat Bermuda, black and blue today (best bet - India has to bowl first and dismiss the Bermudans for a paltry score and hit back in as few overs as possible. If India gets to bat first, they must score something like 375+ and hope to crash the Bermudans for something like 75-100 ). Based on my experience, India does not deliver such violent backlashes. They will win but it will be so colorless and listless, as the press conferences of Rahul Dravid.

Rotten eggs, broomsticks, broken compound walls, more burning of effigies await the Indian team and as usual, they will be escorted through the back doors through the middle of the night. They will then lick their wounds, get ready for the next ad shoot before some tamasha matches are staged to fool the average Indian on the street. Public memory is short and the common man , weighed by every day issues of rising prices, poor rupee purchasing power and inefficient, corrupt leaders will move on.

Underestimate Bangladesh at your own peril !!

2007-03-12T01:24:00.000-07:00

It has been a long wait and at last we are close to the 2007 edition of the ICC world cup. The spectacular opening ceremony not withstanding, WestIndies grounds are not going be that much in ship-shape, when it comes to preparation for hosting a tournament of this scale. The precision, the passion, infrastructure, money and of course centralized decision making are all economical in this region and hence we will have a lot of criticism about pitches, conditions and facilities.

India's preparation in warm up games was nothing spectacular (the fact that they dismissed WI for 85 was more due to self destruction than due to any special bowling spell). I saw the Netherland trundlers were able to pin down Indian batsmen for some time and even Dravid and Sachin, who did the repair act, were struggling before breaking loose later. The bowling was too amateurish to read too much into a 300+ total. Pathan was extremely unimpressive and looks to be a solid case for maintaining the 5.5 or 6.5 economy rate per over. As far as Sehwag, the less said the better - after promising big things, he stumbled out with scores of 28 and 0. It looked almost pathetic that India is so dependent on such an out of form player but you never know with Viru. The very reason he is pursued is because, he might suddenly play a blinder and that is what Dravid and Chappel are counting on (or dreaming !!).

India, a traditional slow starter in any away series, should better watch out for Bangladesh. I wish India's opening game is against Bermuda since an upset from Bangla might as well spell doom for India. Bangladesh had provided the first upset in the warm up matches by beating New Zealand; Mortaza is no flash in the pan and has been doing things well for Bangladesh for quite some time. Then there is the good old Raffique and of course the other 'Razak' and I was the Bangla captain, I will summon both these lefties, the moment Sachin walks up to bat. India batsmen should better watch out and any sub par performance or getting used to talk will spell unwanted trouble for Dravid.

Yuvaraj impressive in big win !!

2007-02-19T00:38:00.001-08:00

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 !!

2007-02-15T06:22:00.000-08:00

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 !!

2007-02-15T04:43:00.000-08:00

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 !!

2007-02-07T21:22:00.000-08:00

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.

All is well, that ends well !!

2007-01-31T21:50:00.000-08:00

So goes the Shakespeare saying but is all well in Indian cricket, after y'day's win? Are the demons in Sachin's mind gone? Is Indian bowling, as good as what it looked y'day or more important - is the big 3 ready to rock and roll on a WC stage? I would not rush into such conclusions, after having seen 3 decades of Indian cricket.
Lara committed harakiri by inviting India to bat, perhaps imagining that India will somehow cave in and they will have repeat of Chennai match. Well !! Such plans will work, if you have genuine wicket takers of the calibre of the fast bowlers of yester years from WI but not with a ragged Powell and a part time Smith opening the attack. Lara was afraid to throw in Taylor and Bradshaw for some reason and Uthappa began to free his arms quickly. He thumped an extraordinary 6 over point and arrogantly hit Powell over his head for another. He got out next ball but the stage was set. Uthappa has to quickly realize that there has been a ton of others before him, who had tried this bang-bang pyro techniques and have not been able to repeat this for long. Even Gilchirst, who can turn it on when he wants, does not go bang bang for every ball. There will be phases where Uthappa should simply bide his time' otherwise, he will end up as another Afridi or Sehwag.
Ganguly on the other hand, was in a dream touch, moving effortlessly and caressing the ball with characterisitic ease, without over hitting it. His pull 6 was a treat to watch and I have to say that I was first in the line to call for his head earlier but in this new avatar, all his weaknesses of the past - like not running the single or over dependence on 4s are all gone. Dravid was his usual circumspect self, playing the anchor role and when SG fell, one could visualize a repeat of Chennai scare since Sachin was not looking forceful either. Agreed, Sachin eventually hit a 100 but with 2 sitters drooped, it is not as if, he had hit a 100 during a successful chase or when wickets had fallen around. He was helped Dhoni, who played in his own style, pumping 6s everywhere. When it comes to judging Sachin, the bar is much higher and hence I am still not contended enough to say that the demons have gone out of his mind. Let us not rush to celebrate too much since his horror show against Paul Harris mere weeks ago, forced an Indian test loss. India is going to play Bangla in WC and I remember that there is more than one good left arm spinner there so as to remind Sachin that life is a great leveller.

In the WI innings, Agarkar snuffed any hopes with a peach of a delivery to clean up Gayle and when Lara was run out (unfortunately), it was all over. Pathan did not look threatening but at least stayed away from the shambolic show he put up in SA. In the end, it was an easy win for India. India played a XI , which in paper is probably their starting XI for WC but still there are lots of questions to be answered. Is Yuvaraj back for sure ? Can they afford to go with 2 spinners in XI? Can Kumble be a better bet than Powar? Is Pathan worth a spot for a 5th bowler? Can Uthappa deliver abroad? Some answers may emerge in the forthcoming SL series.

Robin impressive in Chennai ODI loss

2007-01-28T23:30:00.000-08:00

Robin Uthappa, more or less is now a certainity for the first choice opener spot in the world cup, after this audacious innings he played in the 3rd ODI against WI. He went bang bang with an incredible array of strokes, played mainly from the front foot and in sheer desperation Lara threw in Gayle in the 11th over. I wish Robin would have somehow waited for one more over before taking on Gayle. That airy fairy lofted shot meant the others have to pick up but with so many question marks in Indian batting, they fell by the way side, even though 268 is not a bad score. Considering where they were after 10 overs and after the Sachin/Dravid stand, Yuvi failed to deliver and so did Karthik. Raina did not impress either and the tail came and went. I was not impressed by Sachin's boring 50 (even though , Vengsarkar keeps pointing out how great he is in every available sound bite) and the larger question of his overall confidence and fluency remains as such.
When WI batted, it was quite clear that Sreesanth need not be trusted in the ODI game (at least not yet, since he has been giving away - not one but 2 boundary balls almost every over, he bowls). Samuels and Lara batted well enough and although there was some artificial excitement at the end (which led many a paper to write - Thrilling win etc), it was a tame finish by India on a wicket, where they should have scored 375+, after being 95/1 from 10 overs.

3rd ODI preview !!

2007-01-26T06:41:00.000-08:00

Indian captain and selectors might sound confident, after the 2-0 win vs WI but I am yet to become an optimist since I have seen too many goof ups over the years. With Chepauk promising to provide an absolute batting paradise, all it takes is one big Chris Gayle assault on Sreesanth to ruin things. With the kind of changes contemplated and the nature of the wicket, I foresee a very high scoring match. If WI bat first, India will have a match in their hands since they will be easily chasing a 300+ score. The same thing can be said for WI, if India bats first but with so many changes and with Yuvarj coming in without much practice, I will still give the odds to WI.

Dinesh Karthik proves his worth

2007-01-25T06:48:00.000-08:00

Dinesh Karthik silenced all the nay sayers who had been hollering 'What is this Madarsi doing @ number 6' by a remarkable innings. On a wicket which merited the term, 'the cowdung roll out' with puffs of dust coming from 1st delivery, the ball barely left boot laces. The usually consistent Indian batting habit of inconsistency returned and the top order caved. Sachin looks to be on borrowed time and he simply needs to quit before the pressure gets any further worse than what it is now. Karthik played a lovely innings and Agarkar, who hardly looked the batsmen with a test 100 for several years now, contributed for once. Joginder, who was labelled as an allrounder (after batting at 7 for Haryana !!) again proved that there is a big gulf between International level and Ranji games.
When WI batted, almost every one bowled well but they could not get past C'paul. Numerous run out chances were missed but India clawed out of a bad situation on a wicket that suited them. Powar bowled a dream spell and the rest of WI batting caved. It was a decent win but I guess, the wicket should be awarded, the worst ever possible award.

Neo sports black out, BCCI muddle & C'paul onslaught mar India revivial !!

2007-01-23T22:43:00.000-08:00

Too long a heading; but, I guess, pretty much summarizes what had happened at Nagpur. On a Sunday, when the whole nation was praying for Indian cricket revival (and where else we can revive it, other than another dust bowl at Nagpur, the infamous stadium where a wall collapse, once killed some scores of teenagers), there was virtual black out with Neo Sports being not available. I am all for giving the biff to DD since I feel that they pretty much brow beat every other channel with the usual cry of championing the cause of masses. What will happen, if Neo sports shares the feed to DD and still need to cough up what they had assured BCCI ? I am for a free market economy and I wish that fair view is taken by everyone around.

Coming to the game, I can not go into much of a detail (since it was a black out in my area too) but from what I have read in news paper reports/net, Gangs played a different innings, where he was able to correct some of the mistakes of the past – like running quick singles, not only for himself but for his partner too. Then there was an unDravid cameo by Rahul (who can imagine him to hit one handed six over point?) and muscular blows by Dhoni. In the end, the bowlers fritted away all the advantage and nearly blew the match. The fielding was the usual, school boyish stuff with a decent score of half a dozen catches spilled (please note that I am not saying, grassed. In Nagpur ground, we have no such pretensions of green but I guess in the same ground, when they wanted, they did produce a green top in that famous match when Gangs sat down as a protest, when India played Aussies). I would not read too much into this win since the wicket was the usual Nagpur special. Let us wait and see whether any consistency can be seen from this team.

Another Pointless Tamasha series

2007-01-20T18:33:00.000-08:00

So, what is new ? Absolutely nothing. Another pointless series, ahead of the all important World cup, Talks between DD and Nimbus going down to the wire (as I write this, they decided to break it off, just minutes before the 'go live' - never understood, why this tendency to reflect this 13th hour Indian mentality in every walk of life ?), another featherbed at Nagpur .....well, you can add another Indian defeat in another series.
With the brand new opening pair of Gangs and Gambhir, I do not expect any great reversal in fortune. Neither can run the quick single and both of them depend singularly for the boundary ball. Anyway, WI (Gayle and Co) are far too confident lot (thanks to the revival 4-1 against India, earlier last year) and they are unlikely to give it away too soon. Dravid will be left wondering (after these 2 series) whether he should continue playing cricket, leave alone being captain. Such will be amount of drubbing, that is awaiting India.

Familar Territory and familiar result !! Abject surrender

2007-01-08T05:07:00.000-08:00

Rain provided the odd optimist some relief but nothing could prevent the SA march and it was a sad end to another series that India lost shamelessly. Dravid has to take the blame for being naive in several areas - he neither read the wicket before the match, during the match or after the match. India should have bowled out SA for less than 150 in both innings, provided he had Bhajji (in place of the unfit Munaf) or he had bowled the otherwise umimpressive Sachin, much earlier. We all know Kumble; he can be effective only in certain pitches and with such a big patch outside the leg stump (where a bowler like Warne would have walked away with 15 wickets), he dished out some absolutely common place stuff and it is a no brainer that he can not bowl from round the wicket.
Between spells of rain and another wicket to the credit of Pak umpire (Kallis being given not out - at the worst, it would have made the match interesting), SA marched on thanks to the decision to promote Pollack (I always wonder, how such decisions made by Indians never work but again we are talking about a mindless team with NIL strategy and a sleep walking, energy less spent bunch). Prince was a thorn as usual and India lost it all in no time.

So, it was a tame end from India's point of view. The only positives were Sreesanth's bowling and Dinesh Karthik's energetic keeping and effective batting. The rest were a horrible let down and that includes Sachin. He has to gracefully retire now and move out.

In a shortwhile, India will play another series at home and there might be an odd bright spot but the maladies look deep rooted and the scars have penetrated too far for the confidence to return.

The art of grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory

2007-01-05T19:13:00.000-08:00

Indian cricket teams, over the years have perfected this technique of sliding to a defeat from seeemingly winning positions, without ever batting an eyelid and this team was no different; I have been shouting from roof tops about a common sense approach, as soon as they gave away those vital runs and decreased their lead in the 1st innings to a meaningless number but alas, the same old familiar story of mindless batting repeated itself.
I will put the blame squarely on Sachin. Here is a batsmen with such credentials (although . I am never ever convinced) in paper and he batted as if he had seen demons while facing Pual Harris. This is not the 1st time that he is dismantled by unknown lefties and the whole drag was so horrible that it proved be an embarassng display.
It all started with Shewag's promotion failing for the umpeenth time and when Jaffer failed to keep the glove out of the way, a high voltage drama followed with the possibility of a time out in test cricket for the 1st time. SG walked out eventually and played a decent innings but both he and Dravid got out at the wrong time and against the run of play. I have seen many a caught and bowled dismissal of Dravid and he repeated that here too to an innocous delivery. His failure to hit a single 50 in this series is another destabilizing factor for the anemic looking Indian batting.
I remember Steve Waugh's saying that most collapses begin with a run out and here too it was evident; what in the world was VVS thinking, behaving like an eighty year old grandpa. His run out followed by another Pak umpire victim, finished it all. Karthik put up a lone fight but the tail deserted him in quick succession.
The wickets of De Villiers and Amla might perhaps give the optimist Indian some hope but mark my words - India will loose this match. i have seen too much Indian cricket to fall for such optimistic tricks. They neither have the right bowler for this pitch (Bhajji) nor have the will to win. If not anything, the SA lower order is capable of dismantling the odd threat. It will be another pathetic ending to an otherwise engrossing test.

Even Stevens but India misses Bhajji !!

2007-01-05T00:22:00.000-08:00

Dravid definitely missed a trick by not going along with one additional spinner and Munaf proved how one can get rusty in a matter of weeks, by being a comical fielder (he was no great shakes of a fielder to start with in anycase but he was atrocious y'day and the rest of the ground fileding was horrendous too); but, he somehow hung on to the all important Kallis' catch. India gifted too many runs to the lower middle order of Boucher and Pollack and this might prove to be decisive in the context of the whole match. Because of this largesse (with AK being totally ineffective since he is no big turner of the ball on a Shane Warne kind of wicket), India ended up with a lead which should have looked 100+. Anyway, Indian batsmen will have to take the initiative now and I guess Viru will open in the 2nd innings. A quick fire 40-50 from him can set the tone and in case he messes up again, their backs will be against the wall and a target in the region of 200-250 can be got by SA even in the last day pitch.

Advantage SA !! India surrenders initiative

2007-01-04T00:07:00.000-08:00

Anil Kumble (AK) must have had dreams of repeating his New Delhi 10 wickets haul, when he saw a dust bowl at Newlands but alas, at the end of day 2, India seems to have given the advantage back to SA. They could have easily scored 550+ on a flat track like this but as in the past, some unknown spinner turning the ball squarely tied them up in knots. (I am not agreeing with this myth that Indian batsmen are good players of spin. On the contrary, most of current Indian test squad played hardly any domestic long version games and hence more or less are as suspect against genuine spin as against genuine pace. This was proved repeatedly when they fell to even 2nd tier spinners in important tests like the one against England at B'bay last year).
The 1st day efforts of Jaffer and makeshift Karthik was praise worthy. Jaffer was at his fluent best and played a nice knock and Karthik survived the new ball and helped in putting together the best Indian partnership for the series. The Pak umpire saw to it that we do not miss Mark Benson much by giving Karthik out but more than that, Dravid's dismissal after another 20+ score annulled the good work of openers. Sachin too could have taken his score beyond 100 but fell to an innocous left arm spinner delivery. Amidst falling wickets, SG did the best possible and for once- the Indian tail was a let down too, when they came back for some 20 odd - loosing the last 4/5. In the end, the Indian score is perhaps less by 150 or so from where they should have been.
Sreesanth struck early in SA innings but Smith ensured that the tempo with which he began (1st ball 6 off Zaheer) is not let down. 1st innings lead or SA coming close to India score looks on the cards since AK has been unable to look threatening. That leaves only one possibile result - India will have to fight real hard to save this test from here on.

Disappointment at Durban !! History repeats itself?

2007-01-02T01:21:00.000-08:00

We have seen this shambolic show too many times in the past and hence I doubt very much whether the average Indian cricket fan will bother too much. After some miracle victory, they will come back and promptly hand over the advantage to the opposition and this time was no different.
If one looks carefully through the trend, right from one dayers, the batting has been a let down (for both the sides) and bowlers were made to look good. India won the 1st test primarily due to one afternoon collapse of SA batting and not due to their own batting skills.
India's lack of solidity at the top against genuine pace and its inability to take wickets at vital stages did them in again for the umpteenth time. It was disappointing to see India go down without a fight. They should have easily drawn the game in the last day, given all the deductions in time due to bad light etc. The top order caved in again and it is time to pack Viru. VVS promised much in the 1st and even in the 2nd but did not carry on to make it decisive effort. As far as the rest, the less said the better. Finally, between umpiring mistakes, bad light and horror show by top order (Viru, Dravid, Jaffer - what was he thinking,playing that pull in 2nd innings, SG and of course Sachin), India lost another test and went into history books as one country which is almost sure to loose the next test, after winning one.
The scene shifts to Cape Town, which is not that bad of a wicket when it comes to aiding spinners and the bounce will not be as bad as the traditional Durban wicket. Kumble will have to take some thing like 6 or 8 wickets in each innings, for India to have semblance of a winning possibility. The SA batsmen (Price and Kallis in particular) hopefully will get out quickly and not repeat their acts of past.

Is this for real ? History @ Joburg

2006-12-20T06:27:00.000-08:00

Can anyone who had followed the Indian team for the last several years, could have predicted a test victory in SA under 3 1/2 days against SA ? Very, very unlikely. The 3rd day started with India consolidating through VVS and a new look Zaheer. Zaheer's role in this partnership was such a key factor in the context of the whole game, since Dhoni and Kumble had fallen qucikly and a traget around 300 would not look that imposing for SA. Zaheer, who fell to an ugly stroke in the 1st, gritted his teeth and held his end and later uncorked some amazing strokes. VVS was the usual calm self and kept collecting the singles, amidst an odd 4 here and there. When both of them fell, an incident which took place (and it will be replayed 100s of times in our TV screens) enjoy this video if you had missed it http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8805298664838411956&q=sreesanth%2C+nel
Sreesanth was sledged by Nel (as usual) after he missed connecting a ball. Nel ran in and bowled the next ball and it was hoicked for a massive 6 over his head. Sreesanth ran to the other end, doing a war dance with his bat before Nel. Nel had to simply shut his mouth and move on.
Ranjan Madugalle, who wanted to take a leaf out of Chris Broad's book later fined Sree for this act but I simply do not understand, why he did not do anything - not even a warning to Nel?
The target of 400 was quite imposing, given the jittery nature of SA batting. Gibbs was out before lunch (bagging a pair) and the SA slide started right there. Zaheer plugged on one end and Sree kept continuing his good work with another 3 more wickets but it could have been easily more, but for MARK BENSON, who made sure that INDIAN CRICKET LOVERS do not forget Steve Buckenor, when he said not out for an edge which flew at a 10 deg angle from bat by Prince.
Prince and Pollack revived the SA innings but it was kind of too late and old warrior AK contrinuted a couple of key wickets. To me, the hero of 2nd innings is Zaheer. His one hand pick up and a direct hit runout of De Villiers, who is no slouch with the speed between wickets along with early wicket really made sure that there was no hope for SA.
It was a great, historical victory, given the fact that Indian test victories abroad have been far and few. Let us revel in this glory for a brief while, before the challenge revives on a hard and boucy Kingsmead at Durban for the 2nd test.

Sensational Sreesanth

2006-12-16T17:59:00.000-08:00

Well ! South Africa must be wondering how the tide turned with the change of color of clothes. Well ! The tide turned indeed for India's good and I am happy to be wrong in my predictions.
It all started with a hasty attempt by the groundsman to repair the cracks in wanderers so that Kumble will get no benefit. Imagine the stink that would have created by Ranjan Madugalle, the match referee, if an Indian groundsman has done anything close to such a tactic. Play started off 90 minutes late and Dravid raised a few eyebrows, when he decided to bat first. Jaffer and Viru are in no form and were back in the hut for almost nothing. Then a brief partnership followed between Sachin and Dravid. Sachin exploded with some pleasing drives but after promising big things, let Indian supporters down by getting out to Kallis. The rest came and went but everyone including Dravid and VVS wasted the starts they got. Ganguly survived the pace test and uncorked a sensational pulled 6 off Ntini. But, the Indian fortunes turned when VRV Singh defied all conventional wisdom and decided to just enjoy himself. His 29 in a brief with some move off to leg wallops in a 1/2 hour stay revived the Indian spirits and the total of 249 looked okay. One other point to mention - that man Pollack - I am sure how he defied the limits of gravity and took that sensational catch to dismiss Dhoni.
Zaheer and Sreesanth began a dream spell and SA were 5/3 and they could have been 5/4, when Benson negated a certain LBW for Kallis. The rest of SA innings was a terrible let down and but for Nell, things could have been even worse. Kumble bowled only 2 overs but even in that spell, it was evident that he will be a handful in the 2nd. SA innings lasted a mere 25 overs and it was almost unbelievable.
The 2nd innings for India was one of another wasted opportunity for most of the top order but when the lead is so much, even a mere quickfire 30 or 40 is going to turn the tables. I hope that VVS will help in making the target as impossing as possible. It will be then Kumble's turn to deliver.

Demolition Derby !!

2006-12-14T23:17:00.000-08:00

SA completed another emphatic series win, mowing down India in the last 2 ODIs. There is not much to write on the performance or the lack of it from the Indian side.
The 4th ODI saw, Gibbs salvaged some of his reputation and it was another woeful display by Indian bats. Jaffer must have realised that it is not at all easy to score against such levels of keen fast bowling. Pollack bowled the usual maniacal length (the final analysis of his spells will reveal that you can place a handkey on the short of good length spots he chooses to pitch, so regularly). The manner in which Sachin got out, edging to the keeper, once again proved that he is not only in form but for all his tall talk (of briging last world cup memories back ) is another empty promise. A score of 244 was easy to chase but as usual, Indian innings fell apart and that was that.
The 5th ODI was not much different (the brief interlude of a 20-20 consolation victory in between against some 2nd string was nothing much to crow about). Indians found some new ways to loose. A score of 200 was not going to challenge even the Kenyans and the Bangladeshis. I saw column after column, asking for VVS' inclusion and there he was- getting a golden duck - therby putting tar on everyone's face who wanted him back in the ODI side. The Indian batting was so pathetic that there was absolutely no momentum; no one to take control of the whole thing (the lofty Sachin hit a painful looking 50 but his innings lacked the bite and did not dominate anyone, other than assuaging his own ego). The bowling for once also turned pathetic and the ordeal was quickly over, when Smith found some form and De Villiers was able to make use of the opening slot and stroke his way to a nice unbeaten 90 odd. Pollack - was by a long way - the man of the series for sure. His incessive bowling, combined with the mean spells meant that India never got a start, leave alone dominate the bowling.
The test series starts today and Ganguly is back. I am not too optimistic about he doing anything special (his 80 odd against Rest of SA not withstanding). The Indian bats will be subjected to a pace battery in seaming wickets and it is fairly easy to predict another 3-0 SA win.

Beleaguered India gets another beating !!

2006-11-27T02:32:00.000-08:00

Zaheer must have felt like slapping half the Indian team, especially after the way they let things slip from 66/6 to a 274 score. Few teams have risen from such a depth but we are talking about India and its inability to finish for a long time and here it showed up again. Justin Kemp, who did not have a 100 till this match was waiting for a feast against an innocous attack like India and it was all too easy since 4-6 chances were grassed too. Some 100+ runs were scored without a loss of a single wicket in the last 10 over, as Kemp kept it hoisting it taller and taller and Indian bowlers responded fuller and fuller. It was a shambolic display and even school boys would have thought better than what was dished out by Indian bowlers.
When India batted, it was a familiar story. In sheer desperation, they had thrown in Dinesh Karthik as front line batsmen and he too flattered to decieve (After hitting 2 fours and a well hooked Six). Dhoni and Dravid hit 50s in a loosing cause but it was too little to boost even the morale, leave alone the victory.
With the injury scare to Dravid now, India is almost over the cliff (and as well can jump into the ocean, as once Bedi threatened them to, since they are going to a convenient location - Port Elizebeth for the next slaughtering).

Can it get any worser?

2006-11-23T21:00:00.000-08:00

I think that it can get worse. 3 Indian batsmen managed double figures in the 2nd ODI and I doubt whether they can achieve such a feat in the remaining matches against SA !! Give me a break guys !! This is all becoming too easy to predict - I would love to be wrong but based on current form and the Durban drubbing experience, Indian batsmen may not able to put more than 150 score in the remaining ODIs.
Coming to the Kingsmead game, Zaheer started off ok with 2 wickets and although he ended up more expensive than he should be, he was decent enough and way better than the other option Sreesanth. Kallis played a majestic innings with some booming front foot drives and both Zaheer and Munaf were guilty of pitching it too full but I have not much grouse against the bowlers. We all know what Kallis can do but the gift wrap in the end to the likes of Nel were too much. India gave some 30 runs more than what they should have but considering that it was home conditions for SA, it was ok. Sachin's 9 overs were a treat of guile and deception. But 249 was a very much gettable score but few team have troubled SA in SA, other than Aus.
When Jaffer fell in the 1st over and Kaif hung around for his usual 20 balls before opening his account, it was all too predictable. Sachin tried a bit with a few lovely off drives but they were up against it, with this class of attack. Pollack bowled a clinical opening spell and Nel and Kallis did the rest. Raina, Mongia and the rest were looking like wax in a fire house and they were simply blown away, one after another. At this rate, India may not ever reach a 3 figure total in the remaining matches.

No Contest. Lame duck end to Champions trophy

2006-11-06T00:40:00.000-08:00

With the way, Chris Gayle and Chandarpaul began, it looked like WI will hit something like 300+ and I thought 'at last some one will tame the Aussie Juggernut' but it all proved to be a flash in the pan. Normal service was restored as soon as Bracken got into the act then the seasoned McGrath came in and cleaned up the rest. In the end, it was tame end to an otherwise enjoyable tournament and for the umpteenth time, Punters walked away with the trophy.
I have to say a word of appreciation about the pitches used in the 3 venues; instead of going in for the usual 'patta' wickets, where batsmen would have feasted to hit 300+, this tournament featured sub 200 and sub 250 scores and it proved be an even contest between bat and ball. For once, even the outfield at Jaipur looked ok to look in the TV and India managed a tournament with no major hiccups, inspite of the ongoing spat with ICC. As far as the sorry state of the Indian team, well !! they got to blame themselves and it is high time GC comes clean and tells us what is in his head.

Mediocre batting & Pathetic bowling eliminates India !!

2006-10-29T22:35:00.000-08:00

India played their elimination round against Aussies in predictable lines. Dravid looked as if he had swallowed castor oil and the body language of the whole team looked as if they had given up long before the toss. Sachin failed for the umpteenth time against Aus (for that matter against anyone when it really counts) and there lies the difference between him and Lara (who played a beauty of an innings against Aussies, mere weeks ago in DLF cup). I will never ever be able to count Sachin as the game’s greatest since he has not been able to come up with a single innings in the last so many years, when the we really wanted him to. Mongia was an ok choice at number 3 but his inability to run the singles made it as a misfit. Viru had numerous chances but once again the timing of his dismissal and RD’s dismissal meant that India will end of some 50 runs short of a winning score. Raina was in such a bad form that he was unable to put bat to ball for as much as 3 full overs and with all that, India’s limping off 249 looked as if they had already given it up.
When the Aussie innings started, none of the bowlers displayed anything close to cerebral in terms of strategy (where were they when Mcgrath bowled that 6 over, ridiculously predictable good length outside the off-stump delivery for a meager 12 runs and of course the usual wicket of Sachin’s). Every one pitched it short and the rest was easy meat for the Aussie line up. Another noticeable feature was the superb running between the wickets; Indians were as usual struggling in that department (with all the big talk of professionalism and a bunch of staff to look after every part of the body, no improvement was visible in anything in Indian players. If anything, they had gone back to good old days of lethargy and apathy).
What next ? Indian cricket is in total shambles. The gaping holes in all department of their game is pretty evident. The coach is obviously under fire but more than that the captain is looking out of place now; with no other candidate around, he will linger on and hopefully things might change but I doubt it since the next tour of SA is equally going to be tough. They will welcome India with pitches like the one where they shredded Pakistan, the other day at Mohali. Indian cricket and its love affair with mediocre displays will continue until there are some fundamental changes brought in and that will obviously be at the game’s basics – like running between the wickets, building partnerships, bowling to a plan and most important,fielding. Till then, the money might alone can not carry India beyond a point.

India come 2nd in a thriller !!

2006-10-27T01:15:00.000-07:00

This is all becoming way too easy. I predicted another Indian failure (see the blog note below, after WI win over Aussies) and that is what happened exactly. India ended up some 50 runs short of a possible winning score - thanks to Viru - being out of form forever, Yuvi and Raina- not making use of the start, Dravid - not doing the simple, school boyish stuff of running hard. In fact, Rahul's dismissal at the most crucial time (with all this big talk about professionalism, training, mind games etc by Greg, the captain not running hard - it looks pathetic) robbed India off a fighting total.
When India bowled, it was the usual issue of lack of penetration and poor fielding. Except Munaf and Bhajji, the rest dished out ordinary stuff and even though - it appeared to be heading for a thrilling finish, WI won it long before psychologically; India, simply got beaten in their minds and stumbled out like trudged ants - off the field. They now await the elimination encounter against Aussies and going by recent trend, I do not expect any upsets from the men in blue.

Will WI win over Aussies affect India's chances ?

2006-10-19T00:27:00.000-07:00

What a contest it turned out to be !! There was an air of defiance (from Chris Gayle), inspiring leadership (from Sarwan), breath taking bowling spells (Taylor) and of course great batting from Gilchrist (Lara and Morton earlier too) but in the end, the WI victory more or less eliminated India from their semi-final hopes. With their current form, India is in no frame of mind to upset either WI or Aus, unless a miracle occurs. All in all, another disappointment is awaiting Indian cricket lovers !!

India limp to a win, chasing paltry 125 !!

2006-10-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

In terms of contest, India Vs England is best billed as the clash of minnows (some thing akin to Zim Vs Kenya or Bangladesh) going by the recent ODI form of these 2 teams and it turned out to be exactly that. Both the teams wanted to display on who can put up a worse show and India somehow came unscathed because they were just chasing 125. In terms of positves, I will say india perhaps got the much needed bowling form of Pathan and I must say it was brave of Dravid to win the toss and bowl first on an unknown wicket. There was not much in the English batting and once Pieterson and Collingwood fell, the rest was just about as easy as driving the knife in butter. Munaf and even Powar put up a decent display but I will say that they are all up against more serious contenders later in the matches against WI and Aus.
When India batted, Sachin showed glimpses of his form in recent DLF cup but the rest came and went. Viru, Dravid, Dhoni and Raina did nothing to improve their confidence and the whole middle order looks shaky. The men in blue somehow stumbled on to get a scrappy win and in the end were left wondering what would have happened if they had to chase even 40 - 50 runs more. All in all, not much of a contest by these lesser lights. I think, India needs to get their batting act quickly and come back strong against WI, if they need to progress any further in this tournament.

Chokers deliver repeat serving again !!

2006-09-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

A target of 214 with 7 batsmen should have been easy against any attack but as usual, India contrived to continue with their 'ULTIMATE CHOKERS' tag. Aussies had just 1 real wicket taking quality bowler Lee but somehow Indian batsmen after batsmen (and that includes Rahul Dravid) decided to mess up rather than put up a fight.
I had been asking for Dinesh Mongia for a long time and he proved to be valuable with a decent spell as well as ended up as top scorer. SRT's scores against Aussies in big matches have been disappointing for a long time and that is the reason, I am still unable to accept him as the greatest, as touted time and again by the pundits. As far as the rest of the pack, they are a woeful, awful bunch, who can not kunckle down and deliver when it counts most.
The bowlers performed incredibly well with Bhajji delvering a stand out spell but the repeat acct of the chokers killed the day for the Indians. Dravid and Greg need to re-examine it all, if they want redemption in Champions trophy.

Indian bowlers pull it off

2006-09-21T06:03:00.000-07:00

WI virtually gave away the match even before the 1st ball was bowled by going in with just 3 regular bowlers but even with that 2nd class lot, Indian batsmen messed up (What is new?). Who is this DR Smith, who swallowed the top order ? Well - Smith has some 30 wickets in 45 odd matches but he was suddenly put on a pedestal by the tentative Indian batsmen, who batted as if they had closed their eyes. The way Viru and Yuvi got out suggested that both of them are not in the great knick and Indian think tank might need a re-think about the batting line up. I will recommend Mongia in place of Yuvi, going by current form and Mongia can also roll his arms over against spin suspect Aussies. Sachin batted wonderfully but could have accelerated a vee bit more and it took some good bifs from the sardar before a decent total could come up on the board.
When Indian bowled, the first 40 odd runs came without a problem but suddenly WI collapsed all of a sudden and with Lara coming in so late and W.Hinds scoring 8 out 58 balls, the rest was easy for Indian bowlers. India now, lives to fight another day against Aussies but with both Lee and McGrath back, any target above 225 will be difficult for India. If India bats first, any target set by them can be achieved by Aussies thanks to friendly Indian attack.

Lara's Blitz almost eliminates India

2006-09-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

It required the full flowing brilliance of Brian Lara to conquer Aussies but WI almost made a hash of things before Bravo put in a brave show to see them through. I think that the fortunes for WI turned for good during that long 11 ball Clarke over (30th), when 23 runs came of it and wheels came off; Lee created some scares but Bravo batted well enough to see WI win. This means that India is virtually eliminated for all practical purposes since they have to win both their next matches and hope for other equations to work in their favor. I think it is hard for India to even overcome WI at this form leave alone Aussies.

Rain Gods show mercy on clueless India

2006-09-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

The script was looking all too familiar. Some unknown bat decides to feast on innocous offerings of India which is followed by absolute mayhem, while facing some decent quality bowling. Shane Watson, till recently confined to number 8 or thereabouts was asked to open and he decided to take on the Indian trundlers. Bhajji and to some extent Viru applied the brakes (I am simply amazed - why was Powar not playing ? What is the use of having RP Singh or what has happened to Pathan ?) and in the end it was a reasonable, attainable total. But, when India batted, the old story repeated itself and half the side was back in the hut thanks to young Mitchell Johnson, who incidentally is flying back due to the Aussie rotation policy. Indian batsmen start having butterflies and go tentative, the moment they face some quality pace bowling and it was repeated shamelessly again. McGrath was too good too and applied the pressure from the other end and it would have been sub 100 score but for the rains. India live to fight for another day but believe me, they won't reach the final with such shoddy performance.

Tendulkar's brillance and Indian Bowlers' LARGESSE

2006-09-15T04:31:00.000-07:00

I don't mind eating humble crow on SRT - man ! what a treat it was. There were all round gasps everywhere and the power he unleashed in those 6s was breathtaking but all his brilliance, India still came short thanks to the largesse of the ineffective pace bowling + D &L questionable 20 over limit law. SRT could have gone early (he was dropped by WI keeper) but he capitalized on the let off and built an awesome inning, which could termed marvelous considering that it is the 1st come back match for him, after such a long lay off. The only minor observation I had to point out is the high number of dots in Tendu's inning. If he could have controlled that, 175 kind of score would have been possible for him easily.
As far as the Indian bowling, the less said the better. They are going to await another solid round of pasting from the Aussie bats and as usual Dravid will come back home empty with no cup.

India-WI preview - Can they hit WI spinners?

2006-09-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

The normal assumption will be that Indians can play spin eyes closed but believe me - this is far from true. Right from the old times when an unknown John Bracewell of NZ strangled India in B'bay of all places, to when an Englishman, 37 year old 3 test experienced Shan Udal cleaned them out; it almost looks inexplicable that they can not get into off-spinners. In the recent WI series (when India got beaten 1-4), if one would have carefully noticed, Gayle and Samuels pushed in 20 overs for measly runs against players, who are supposed play this kind of fastish, non-turning offspin, even blind; but the Indian bats looked as if walking on fire and did almost nothing against such innocous bowling. This same duo will try and repeat the same tactics again today and strangle India. I am not sure whether Chappel and Dravid have thought of anything different, other than thinking of sending Viru down. I am not in much favor with this move since SRT-RD opening will not give the momentum required, in my opinion. All in all I feel that another disappointing end awaits the Indian viewers.

DLF Cup - Chanderpaul Dazzles but WI loose

2006-09-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

There is an old saying in cricket 'Don't take anything for granted until the fat lady sings'. The Aussie outfit, even with a load of upcoming talent simply refused to cave in to the aggressive tactics of Gayle and Chanderpaul(Gayle -not a great surprise, he is a dasher but Chanderpaul took a new Avatar and the 4s and 6s that poured from his bat looked unreal, almost - a la Saeed Anwar kind of swaps and slaps). Anyway, the end result was pretty much as expected - an Aussie win. After a woeful and horrendous batting display by the rest of WI bats, the familiar story of Green bags winning repeated itself. Mcgrath looked sharp enough in his come back and the rest were a decent professional lot in the field to close out an easy win in the end.

India begins their 1^st match on Thursday without Yuvaraj Singh but even with him, the chances of an India win against the reserve Aussie outfit looks slim at best. The type of wickets which might suit India are the slow and low tracks but the Malaysian pitches look anything but that. India can at best not repeat its mistakes against West Indies in the recent tour (when they were trounced 1-4) and hope for some significant luck to favor them in the finals against Aussies. All eyes will be on SRT but my own guess on his form is that he will need more time in the middle than the school boy stuff at Lashings or created situations like the practice matches in MAC last week. All in all, I feel that another disappointment awaits Indian cricket lovers.

Uphill task down South !!

2006-08-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

India has come back empty handed many a time from its island neighbours - Srilanka (SL). Talking of SL, it looks like a blessing in disguise that Atappattu went down and Jayawardene grabbed the chance with both hands. The change in fortune has been so steep that from the 1-6 blanking they received from India earlier in the season and after a not so inspring start in the test series against Eng, SL came back to level the tests and take the ODI 5-0. The achievements are really praise worthy considering the margin of victory in these Natwest ODIs.
Jayasurya, India's old tormentor is back and Tharanga has improved by leaps and bounds. There is always Sanga and Jaya to follow and of course in the slow pitches in the swamp @ Premadasa, SL are masters in winning. Their spinners will strangle our batsmen and Jaya is getting innovative in field placing too. Murali will be a threat always and so is the much improved but unpredictable Malinga. I hear that there is a move to send Viru @ 4 to take care of Murali. I hardly ever remember Viru getting on the top of Murali and infact a few times in the past, he was simply caught at the boundary off him. This move will bring down the opening overs momentum since I don't expect SRT to hit at 110 S/R from day 1.
I expect that India will have a tough time in conquering SL; they might beat the depleted and walking wound SA but SL will be a different ball game. My prediction - Dravid will come back empty (again) !!
BTW..is anyone reading this blog? I am going to change the settings that will allow 'anonymous' comments. Please do take a moment to add yours.

Kumble and Dravid take India back to heady 1971 days !!

2006-07-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

I have hardly seen any Indian win in the last decade or so, where Kumble had not delivered (Perhaps, the Adelaide win against Aussies when Agarkar took a fifer is one exception). The last time when India played a test in Jamaica, I remember the bandaged figure of Kumble coming bravely to bowl (and take Lara’s wicket too); this time around, he delivered the knock out punch (in spite of the Brian Jerlings negativity, where he said no to half a dozen clear LBW shouts), with a fine 6 wicket haul and sealed a 1-0 win over West Indies, with more than 2 days to spare.

On a pitch which had some juice for the bowlers, Indian batsman sans Dravid and Kumble failed miserably in the 1^st innings. It all started with Sarvan bringing off a blinder of Viru’s firm flick at short leg and it was uphill from there for India. A score of 200 was way below par and Taylor had to be complimented for the fifer. He ran in hard and kept the pressure on Indians. I felt that Dravid should have accelerated a bit more but that is the way he plays and his contribution was way too valuable considering the lack of application and form from his other colleagues.

Srisanth, who had been getting collared by Gayle, produced a beauty of an indipper that cleaned the off stump of Gayle and the flood started. Ganga resisted a bit but Bhajji bowled with some venom and West Indies were done in for almost half the score of India

Bhajji must have wondered at the what an irony this game is – he bagged a fifer with hardly an effort and within 5 overs, it was all over.

Indian start at the 2^nd innings was as bad as the first and the middle order was fared even worser than the first. Yuvaraj was hopelessly out of form, Laxman got to double figures in both but caved in with hopeless pushes outside the off and Kaif was short of international class. Dhoni hung in for a a while but he got a beauty from Collymore that hardly climbed an in inch off the pitch.

Srisanth repeated his 1^st innings feat again of removing Gayle early. For once, the slip cordon held a decent catch and when Munaf had Lara out plumb, it looked like that it is going to be a walk in the park but Bravo and Sharvan had other ideas. Bhajji was collared for easy runs in this phase and even Kumble was slightly ineffective but having said, this is the phase when Jerling did his usual contributions of not giving plumb decisions. Kumble relies on fast indipper or the straight ones but when such decisions are given not out, India has little by way ammunition to pick up wickets. Srisanth came back again to take an important wicket of Sharwan but even then it was not over. Ramdin played with a ‘ can do ‘ attitude an stroked his way to a beautifully complied 50 in the company of Taylor and then Collins. With close of play approaching on 3^rd day, it looked like West Indies will live to fight another day (with 50 needed exactly) but Kumble pushed one hard and fast and Collins fell and a ball later Collymore’s edge was taken well by Dhoni, setting off an Indian celebration.

It had been a long wait from 1971 Wadekar days for India. India came so close so many times (and with their spin only bowling, it was felt that they can not win outside Queens Park oval, Port of Spain) but Kumble proved them all wrong.

The positives for India – Jaffer seems to have cemented his place, Srisanth and Munaf are getting there. Dhoni’s keeping has got better and better as the series progressed. Also, India showed a new found attitude – climbing from the ditch when confronted.

Areas where improvement is a must : - Close catching- slips and shortleg (is Jaffer the solution for 2^nd and 3^rd slip?) , middle order bats in place of Yuvaraj and even Kaif (in spite of a 100 in the series). Laxman needs to be more consistent and India should find a 3^rd seamer.

Half hearted attempt by India !! BG Jerling flop show to continue !!

2006-06-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

At the lunch break on the 5th day, it looked like a historic 4th innings chase was possible, with Viru delivering punch after punch. Lara must have had butterflies flying in his stomach, especially after realizing that 2 catches were spilled off Viru; the luncheon Ten sports 'Straight Drive' featured Sanjay Manjrekar, at his conservative best (" couple of wickets can change the match " was his tone) and Ian Chappel, ever the aggressor saying "Dravid should think about the type of batting order, he must plan for the chase". But, all this vanished with the 1st ball after lunch, when Sehwag was out LBW and out walked VVS @ No.3 and down went the possibility of exhilerating chase.
India could have still gone for it around tea (with 7 an over requried) but somehow Dhoni decided to shut shop and it ended in a tame finish.
So, what do we take from this match : Nothing new, I guess :

India lacks fire power in bowling
Indian close catching is horrendous
Other than Sehwag, no Indian batsman can maintain a run a ball tempo
Dhoni is still a work in process and is way too below the 'superman' he is made out to be.

What is new is that, we have a new umpire in the 'elite panel' who has taken the 'India bashing' to new heights. Jerling negatived about 15-20 clear appeals and gave at the minimum 3 absolute not outs as outs, there by setting a new world record for India bashing. Steve Buckenor, Darryl Hair et al are poor seconds, when you compare the amount of contributions Jerling had done. Here is the worst - JERLING will stand in the next test as well, as neutral umpire !! (ugh !! is there no system of evaluation for umpires? can they not be dropped, after these horror shows?). Dravid must be hoping that this Jerling character falls sick or something. Even a West Indian 3rd umpire as substitute umpire will be more neutral than this Jerling.

New umpire BG Jerling delivers the punch !!

2006-06-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

I am always surprised that India with all its money might in cricketing circles is still unable to get umpires who can be fair, when their team plays in tests. India, it seems , always manages to get some raw deal or other. Either it is an outwardly biased umpire (Example :-Tendulkar getting out LBW after getting hit on the helmet) or incompetent ones or sometimes absolutely raw stock like this BG Jerling, who incidentally is making his debut in the ongoing 3rd test against West Indies. I am not sure what is the qualification of this Jerling to officiate in tests, when similar umpires from India are totally ignored by the so called 'elite' panel.
BG Jerling negatived as many as 10 certain LBWs when WI batted and gave an outright free pass to all WI batsmen, who could plonk their foot in front at will. Having said that, all the Indian bowlers were a terrible let down (nothing new, of course) and that includes Bhajji, who somehow managed to get a fifer, inspite of a horredous display.
When India batted, BG Jerling decided to suddenly wake up and go for kicks with LBWs that were obvious not outs to even to TV viewers. The LBWs he handed over to Kaif and Dhoni were for balls that were on their way to 3 stumps away from leg stump. He also said 'not out' to an obvious catch when Srisanth was batting (even Srisanth could not believe his eyes because he had already started walking. Such is the class of umpiring on display these days that it is almost a laughing stock. This Jerling chap will perhps ensure that the past scares of having to face with such esteemed umpires like Steve Buckenor et al are never forgotten and the happy ways of India butchering will continue.

In the end, VVS salvaged his career with a determined 100 and it took some meaty blows from Sardar to come close to the follow on target. Kumble pitched in with a very decent cameo and Lara was forced not to enforce the followon (perhaps due to bowlers who were tired and Collins had an injury scare). I hope Jerling does not get to trigger happy mode, when India bats again on 5th day.

Lara and Rain save West Indies

2006-06-21T03:56:00.000-07:00

India let another one slip through but it was also held in check by a brilliant innings from Lara (who decided to live up his call of 'show some character') and rain, which washed off the 4th day's play and withit the Indian hope. Dravid must be wondering about his luck since that 'Away' Test win looks so elusive - another story of so near and yet so far. For comparison, in the last Eng-SL test, England were in a similar position and went to 5th day's lunch w/o loosing a wicket but yet lost the test. Here, 3 WI 2nd innings wickets had fallen by lunch on 5th day and yet, India could not force it. The crucial difference being, there is no Murali in India's arsenel. For winning matches, you need bowlers with tremendous strike rate. Kumble tried his best but again, he is no match to Murali's guile and there was absolutely no fire power at the other end. Close in catching has been India's let down for decades and even safe fielders like Dravid had their share of spills. In the end, it was the same old story. I think, Gavaskar's old quote 'Indians think that their job is well done, if they do 60% of their job' is apt. It is a matter of will and skill and Indian team simply does not have it.

Kaif measures up, for once

2006-06-12T04:14:00.000-07:00

I am happy to be wrong about Kaif and he proved a point by playing unlike Kaif innings. For once, he was more fluent (not the strike rate of 70-80, which you will expect for fluent, front line batsman but decent enough by Kaif standards) and more important ran every run, as if his life depended on it. Dravid did his part and notched up his 23rd 100 before falling to rank bad long hop that was directed towards gully, rather than the stumps.
I did not understand on what Dhoni was trying to do after lunch. He batted uncharacteristically and Gayle, who had been dominating India with bat, as well as ball, slipped in over after over for very few runs. Dhoni's failure to accelerate in this phase cost India atleast 50 runs overall.
It was good that India picked up 3 wickets but all said and done, Gayle's wicket is going to be the key and he can save the test for WI even now.

Viru provides a Feast !!

2006-06-11T02:40:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a wait and I have been one of the most vocal critics of the Indian Vice captain's form (and his waistline) but man !! what a treat it was. He played an innings, which only he could have played, albeit in a none too threatening pitch (which resembled as if, someone had a bad haircut) and none too threatening attack. Sehwag's glorious counter attack had the potential to break so many records and it looked as if he had plenty of time to achieve it all but in the end, even he had to slow down and his disappointment of not reaching the 100 before lunch was visible. I thoroughly enjoyed Viru putting Bravo in his place with those glorious 6s and 4s but more than anything else, Viru simply disassembled almost every bowler to perfection. His customay, no footwork off side heaves, straight drives, cover drives with great bat speed and leg side drives were such a treat that I will not forget it for a long, long time. Dravid for his part, played a perfect test calibre inning and India ended up with a significant 364/4, inspite of the ever shaky Kaif.
VVS and Yuvi failed against the grain and detractors of both of them will be sharpening their knives but among the 2, I feel that VVS should have grabbed this chance with both hands. He came after a wonderful opening partnership, nice , small ground with little threat by way of movement, swing or bounce and he makes a duck. Come on VVS !! only last week, you talked about how well you are timing the ball and all that and end up with a zero !!
I hope that India will press the pedal (inspite of that eternal pain called Kaif ) and declare with enough time for taking 2-3 wickets of WI before end of day 2.

Another Close one - not in the bag !!

2006-06-08T05:54:00.000-07:00

It was a fitting finale but in the end, lack of fire power at both the ends cost India another match, which another team would have won easily. Kumble bowled his heart out but the rest of the Indian bowlers were a let down and in the final analysis, I will also blame Kaif and Dravid for being not forceful while batting in the 2nd inning. I have witnessed so many close matches that never go the India way over the years and I take these in stride like true desi. What else I can say ! simply got to stomach it and move on...Good job Gayle, Mohammed..

"Too little, Too late" feeling inspite of 215 by Jaffer

2006-06-06T02:44:00.000-07:00

In my closing comment y'day, I certainly wanted Dravid to stay around till tea on 4th day and he almost did it but with enormous damage to his and India's cause. Dravid had taken about a complete session for every 20 runs he scored and in the end, such stone-walling left hardly anytime for taking 10 WI 2nd innings wickets IMHO. Rahul's self denial (and run denial) is perhaps due to lack of confidence in the rest of the batsmen and also his bowlers (I can understand the concern since they have been leaving him high and dry for match after match).
Jaffer's effort is impressive but he too could have accelerated. I am also not convinced about his ability to pierce well set fields. Over after over, he hit drives off Bradshaw straight to fielders and all this had a telling effect on the crawling scoring rate. In the end, Dhoni restored normalcy with some meaty punches but Kaif was a pain as usual and his inability to score even in ODIs is well documented.
I have a feeling that India can not repeat SL's y'day's act of taking 10 wickets off opposition in the 2nd inning. The crucial difference - India has no Murali or not even close to Murali's wicket taking ability (man !! 53rd 5 wicket haul !!!). Kumble can give it a go but the pitch looks too slow for his style and Gayle and Sarwan are in confident form, when they see Indians. This is heading for a tame finish unless WI committs the usual mistakes of the past.

Disappointments Galore !! Jaffer restores sanity

2006-06-05T05:44:00.000-07:00

Every International cricketing team, from Bangladesh to Zimbabwe has done the same thing, when their stock gets real low - invite India to their home and be assured of a back to form scenario. West Indies, who had been in the loosing end for years now and looked beyond redemption till a mere series ago, suddenly looks a good team - thanks to bungling Indians. Otherwise, how could you explain the pathetic performance in batting and bowling in 1st innings. Every batsmen, except Dravid was a let down and every bowler disappointed completely in bowling. Srisanth ofcourse lost it all, VRV never looked ready for International cricket and Munaf was inconsistent. Kumble was tamed partly by the pitch and partly due to enthusiastic hitting from Bravo and the rest fell into place easily for West Indies. But for all this they owe a big thanks to the gift from Pak umpire Rauf, who negated a stright forward LBW for Gayle; that ball was just missing the off and leg but not the middle.
In the 2nd innings, Jaffer has restored some sanity through his patient knock but the 2 wickets that fell were to innocous deliveries and well set Viru and VVS bungled again. Much depends on 'the Wall', whether he can carry on till tea or close of play on day 4..the rest are quite undependable to contribute anything big.

Unbeleivable !! But, true !! 1-4 score line

2006-05-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

If anyone who had followed the WI team in the last few years through their horror run, would have told you that they will beat India 4-1 before the series began, people would have simply asked ' what are you smoking'?; but, long time, seasoned India watchers like me know that this will come to a finish line like this. I predicted most of the happenings in my preview- Munaf Patel's failures, Sarwan/Lara feasting on Indian attack along with Chris Gayle's likening for the dollies from Indian pace but even I could not predict such a free fall for Indian team.
4th ODI : In a make or break game, Indian batting messed up thoroughly. Every batsmen (including Dhoni) played as if they had molten lead in their hands and ran as if they had stuffed concrete in their feet. Gayle and Samuels, who again dominated the Indians with their fastish off breaks, applied the brakes and it was a horrible site to see the Indian batsmen push and plod against some straight forward attack. With all these owes, 216 was the score at the end of 50 overs and even WI batting could hit such a low score, especially after some horrendous bowling by Pathan and a lacklusture effort in fielding.
5th ODI : It was turn of the bowlers to let the team down but before everything else, Dhoni spilled a sitter off Gayle and it was all downhill from there. I was thoroughly impressed with Bravo. He not only thumped the ball with vigour but ran with such assurance that he took on for 2s when others would have just run 1. His first few 2s set the tone and there was no looking back from there on. I wish that India has a strong middle order bat like him. The likes of Rao, Kaif and even Raina to some extent are not the sort, who will inspire confidence match after match. With Dhoni misfiring and Yuvaraj being inconsistent, India's woes were complete.
When India batted, it was the familar story of mismanaged chase through poor shot selection, run outs and lack of responsible top order batting. Viru found his touch but it was trifle late in the series.
Conclusion : Over the years, I have watched India to sink to some abysmal depth but this is one shock indeed and it was primarily due to :
- lack of penetration in bowling (other than Agarkar, the rest did not look like taking a single wicket). Pathan was totally off color, Srisanth was expensive, Bajji was uninspiring and Muanf was a complete disaster.
- Dhoni and Raina would have realized that success is not easy to repeat series after series but hopefully, they would have learnt their lessons.
- Inconsistent batting coupled with lack of confidence in running between the wickets or being aggressive while chasing. Once Dravid was out early, there was no solidity in batting.
- Over confidence after the first ODI win especially during the 2nd ODI, which was a series turning point.

Rao and Run outs kill India

2006-05-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

Viru was just getting back his old touch, Kaif was batting wonderfully and scampering between wickets in the usual hussle-bustle fashion and Edwards was bowling atleast 1 wide per over - all this pointed to a 300+ total but enter Rao, the misfit in any ODI team (who BTW single handedly wrecked the A team ODI series as well) and all the woes began. Rao was hesitant and his shaky 2 of 9 balls forced Kaif to accept the call for a non-existent run, which resulted in a needless run out. Most Aus batsmen, who get themselves involved in such mishaps ensure that they stay and contribute heavily to make for their goof. But, Rao is no Aussie; infact, he is not even the go getter like Raina. His timid, shaky, hesitant persona makes him a misfit in any team but in the ODI team, he deserves absolutely no place. The lower middle order and the tail folded all too easily and a match which should have been won with ease was gift wrapped by Rao and the runouts (Kaif and Dhoni especially).
Dravid, who failed with the bat and also did a couple of crucial misfields, had got his selection wrong (Uthappa should have replaced Yuvi and not Rao. Rao is best to do the towel duty in my opinion) and India finds itself against the wall. I had predicted that India has the ability to make things tough for themselves, even when dealing from a point of strength and that is precisely what had happened.

Chase run snapped !!

2006-05-22T04:46:00.000-07:00

Wow !! what a game it turned out to be. I am sure that the 2nd ODI will be often retelecast in all the sports channels in the next few years, under the category of 'ODI thrillers'. It really went to the wire but Yuvaraj tried to do much to a yorker, when the match was almost in the bag and paid the price for it.
In the morning, there was an improved display of bowling and Agarkar was given the new ball by Dravid, therby ensuring that the 'senior most' bowler gets to contribute soon. Pathan and Agarkar bowled at the right pace and swung enough to confuse the batsmen. WI should have collapesed but the usual gifts in the slips (Raina , the culprit - BTW, when is India ever going to find a slip fielder, other than Dravid) and missed run outs (Yuvaraj). Sarwan was slow to start with but with wickets falling steadily, he decided to play till the end and this proved to be vital, in the ultimate analysis.
The target was not threatening but with the horror run of Sehwag and out of form players like Kaif, India was bound to struggle, if Dravid gets out early. Raina did his part but the middle order played too many lofted shots and in the end paid the price. With 2 required of 3 balls, I felt that Yuvaraj should have ensured a tie first or atleast not swung blindly at a yorker that was also on the slower side. With this one run defeat, the great Chase run is snapped and I hope that the wrong selection by all the Indian batsmen have not gone unnoticed by the coach and players.

India stutters to a win, inspite of Kaif !!

2006-05-19T04:19:00.000-07:00

Crickinfo predicted that the match won't even start due to the quantum of rain and they extended this gloom not only the 1st ODI but the 2nd too but with hardly 10 overs lost, the match will go as testimony to the new drainage system in place at Sabena Park. It was one of those chases where you wished that Kaif will get out but as expected, he dragged his feet forever and somehow

India

stuttered to a win inspite of his presence. Dravid played a masterly knock but we are so much used to his steady hand that I am not sure what will happen, if he fails in the odd game. The rest of the game went into the predictable lines. Viru’s flop show (absolutely nothing new here), the flop parade by bowlers (RPS, Pathan and Munaf were way below par and Pathan beginning with a forgettable opening over and opening spell as well). Chris Gayle’s hammering of the bowlers was also predicted y’day. The match would have been totally out of

India

’s hand but for Agarkar and Bhajji. WI somehow seemed to forget that it is a 45 over match and scored some 30 runs below than where they should have been and somehow India scrapped through thanks to the countless dropped catches, misfields, throws to wrong end etc by WI fielders and of course Kaif, who ground out a nervous, fidgeting innings that made the spectator cringe and almost made the win impossible.

Amidst Calypso drum and Jamaican Rum !!

2006-05-18T02:45:00.000-07:00

Well !! Another cricket tour is all set to begin for the men in blue in the islands of West Indies with Calypso music and Jamican rum but this one has began with an injury (Ramesh Powar) even before ball 1 is hurled in. WI, who had fallen to absymal depths over the years is on a slow path of desperate redemption. With the world cup round the corner and with woes of inadequate infrastructure, gross negligence, cement shortage, stadiums half built, slow pitches, spectator neglect and more Calypso variety troubles like intra-insland rivalry, protesting players, low morale - all around, WI board somehow managed to appoint Lara as captain. That is a master stroke considering the amount of negativity which surrounds WI cricket but with Edwards and Taylor bowling decently, India might suddenly discover some resurgence from WI. India should have a walk in the park in theory but over the years, I know how Indian side is a terrible let down, when they tour abroad especially outside the sub-continent. They have had their moments like loosing to Zimbawe in a test and somehow picking unimpressive wins over Zimbabwe/Kenya in ODIs, loosing to B'desh in a ODI etc. I can also remember a team that had Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly and Lakshman failing to get 100+ in the 4th inning chase in a test in WI. Having seen all this, I won't be surprised if India manages to make things hot for themselves , even against such weakened outfits like WI.
I don't want to read too much in the practice match against Jamaican 2nd rung outfit or WI's sound thrashing of Zim but there are some hard realities, which can not be ignored. Sehwag is totally out of form and he will find life difficult against Edwards and Taylor. Kaif as well as Rao do not deserve a spot in the ODI side (Kaif because of his form and Rao because of his horrible, selfish, below par show in the ODI A series matches) in my opinion but I guess they will continue to be around and hamper India's progress when they bat first and will help in increasing the required run rate (and blood pressure of fans) during run chases. With Srisanth and Powar out, bowling looks terribly anemic and bowling in the death is going to be a mess against the likes of Lara, Sarwan, Chandrapual, who are waiting to feast on India and revive their shambolic run of the last few years. Chris Gayle is also a seasoned hand, when it comes to thrashing Indian attacks and he must be waiting to lay his hands on the dollies of Munafs and Agarkars. All in all I think, India will display another episode of letting their fanbase down but in the end might just about scrap through (weather permitting !!)

Men in Blue redeem themselves

2006-04-20T03:56:00.000-07:00

Dravid won the toss for the 2nd consecutive day and decided to bat again, when the thought about the record 16 chases would have crossed his mind. It was a good decision and not the run of the mill variety, which forces you to stick to your strengths alone. Sehwag was back in his elements (man ! he loves the Paki attack) and Dravid played a methodical innings, which only he can play. Sehwag had his moments of fortune and hesitancy but in the end managed a very decent innings, clubbing a six too on the way. Dhoni played in a relatively restrained manner (by his own standards) but those behind the wicket drives off Malik were one splendid piece of improvisation. At the 40 over mark, India was well set for a finish around 300, with plenty of wickets in hand but Afridi/Asif and then Rana fought back superbly. Not withstanding a brief cameo from Yuvi, India ended up with a very 'chasable' 269.
When Pak batted, Pathan got a lucky break - getting Farhat for his 100th ODI wicket (Pathan is a mere 21 years age - imagine the distance he can go with this potential !!) and then cleaned up Afridi, who in the past had destroyed many an attack (and heart) from India. With that 'flesh in the thorn' Younus Khan going early, the victory was always round the corner but Inzi never gave up till his inevitable run out. The glee in Rahul's face, when he ran to the stumps to catch Inzi short, was very 'un Dravidish but I can understand that considering how Inzi had spoiled party so many times in the past. Inzi had his moments of fortune - he was atleast out 2 times to straight forward LBWs (Rudi ..watch out !!) and should have got caught too twice. Ramesh Powar bowled superbly and he has been one revealation indeed. His style is almost classical 'Prasanna' variety - no doosras but slow, slower and slower flighted ones with adequate spin. I wish Powar can get to some decent fitness levels and also improve his fielding. This type of bowling will also be ideal for tests too.
Coming back to the game, India fought well and were led well by Dravid. He should have got the man of the series rather than Inzi, in my opinion. The cricket calender will be inactive for a few days for India before the WI tour begins later. The next thing to look forward is the selectors meeting on 20th but I do not expect any surprises at all here.

Desert Disappointments !!

2006-04-18T22:28:00.000-07:00

The middle eastern desert - Sharjah especially had been a bane of Indian cricket with countless losses to Pakistan over the years - since the days of Javed Miandad sixer off Chetan Sharma. The desert was deserted by BCCI after the match fixing scandal but things seemed to have taken a new turn with a new venue - Abu Dhabi but the Indian luck continued to be the old variety.
India won the toss and their innings never took off. Robin Uthappa, as expected chipped one in the air (with his pre-determined run down the wicket and uppish drive tendency - more and more sensible bowlers will eat him for breakfast, lunch and dinner together). Then there were the needless runouts (against a horrendous fielding team like Pak that is a crime) and a listless innings by Venu, who is trying to establish himself. In the end, the total was way too low for being defended and Younus Khan, who is yet to get tired of feasting on India (he is almost going in the Miandad, Zaheer Abbas proportions in accumulating runs against India) saw to it that there are no last minute heros from Indian bowling attack.
India could have set the record and all with those 16 chases in patta wickets but they are yet to master setting up a total, when they bat first, especially when early wickets fall and Dravid gets out too. They do have a valid excuse here - the punishing schedule - BCCI has not allowed them to sleep for any time - from the time the season began against SL. Gavaskar's 'take pride' statement not withstanding, the gruelling schedule did seem to have impacted India since I saw jaded faces , compared to have a relatively fresher Pak team. They at least had a few more days off, after their SL tour. I was also very, very impressed with the way Mohd. Asif has assumed the Pak attack's mantle. He is very economical and not easy to get off in the early overs, unless one is prepared to take risks. All said, India should put in one last hurrah of effort and redeem themselves today.

Listless Poms show !

2006-04-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

Another listless display of England team was on display in the last ODI at Indore. From where they were around 40th over, they could have gone to a 300+ score but lost their way later. Shreesanth picked up 6 wickets but I am not impressed; most of those wickets were towards the end and that too given in an attempt to slog. These wickets remind me of the typical Agarkar spell, where he used to pick some cheap wickets in the end. Shreesanth is definitely improving but still far from being a finished product.
India used its strong batting line up and finished the match in style. A quick word about Robin Uthappa - I did not see one impressive, honest cricketing boundary from him. Most were hit with the deliberate front push of the foot work (in quicker wickets, this will land him in trouble) and most 4s were 'air fairy' uppish types. I am not convinced that he is the answer to the opening woes but in sub-continent wickets, he might still survive and provide some early impetus to an innings. Anyway, the leg weary, heat drowned poms limped off with another defeat and they must be glad that the taxing schedule is over at last.

Flop parade of Viru and Kaif continues

2006-04-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how many more innings have to be gifted to get Viru back to form. Trust me, with more matches, it is getting no better. As far as my memory goes, he has not played one significant ODI innings in the last 25 or so matches (except that consolation innings against SL, when he came down the order). Same goes with Kaif, who has this unique ability of making batting look far more difficult than what it is. Amidst all the flop parade, Dhoni uncorked a special for his East Zone/Jharkand fans. Powar was also a pleasant surprise and the two produced a good partnership and a decent total for the Indian attack to bowl later in the afternoon.
That was when the trio of medium pacers took their captain's example and continued the flop parade even later. The trio, which is expected to don the blues for the next decade simply were not upto it and England benefited from having a specialist batsmen opening the innings (Ian Bell) rather than the 'neither here - nor there' Mark Prior. Bhajji and Powar restored some order later but it was late.
My take from this Jamshedpur match - Without Dravid, Indian batting will be at cross roads in either form of cricket and this is all the more important, when wickets fall early. Same goes with Pathan. His early strikes with the white ball in the ODI variety is simply the tonic before the spinners can strangle the opposition. It is alright to bowl at 140 with high arm action (VRV) or stick to line and length (Munaf) or do neither but follow the old Agarkar path (RPS) but when you are leaking at 6-7 an over, no total is easy to defend or no field is worth being set. Munaf especially has been a distinct flop, after his decent show in tests earlie.
I also hope that Kaif and Viru get the can now at least.

Abject Surrender !

2006-04-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

This is a tale of captains, who both gambled but one came out with flying colors thanks to the state of the wicket and the recklessness of the opposition. With Pieterson and Collingwood scoring at a canter, Dravid gambled not to take the 2^nd powerplay but when he eventually took it, instead of ending up with a huge acceleration, English wickets tumbled one after another. Yuvaraj Singh, bowling his innocuous left armers picked 2 wickets and even the hapless Sehwag bagged 2. In the end, 237 is not the kind of score that is going to test the rampaging Indian side, even with several out of form batsmen. England should have atleast gone upto 300, considering the blistering knock of Pierterson but Flintoff and the rest did not have the gumption to go for it, in the hot sink of a climate at Kochi.

Sehwag failed again and was promptly rewarded with captaincy for the next 2 ODIs. I am yet to see a significant innings from him, right from the SL home series. I am not sure whether he should be persisted with and that too as captain. But again, the favors dished out some players has gone to such an extent that anything is possible and I do not rule out all oddities. Kaif’s horrendous run of failures continued, but the rest are in good knick and ensured that the 4-0 brown wash was complete without much ado.

Another day and another win ! Why Uthappa?

2006-04-04T00:43:00.000-07:00

It was another routine day at the office for the Indian team. The usual top order failure was there on a strip that resembled more of a beach cricket turf than real international cricket pitch. The ball hardly rose but even in such a wicket, Sehwag and Kaif failed (again). Yuvaraj was in fine touch even in the brief innings at Faridabad and continued on his good form. His partnership with Raina destroyed England but more than that, the English show lacked any will. There was no real quality in bowling and except Flintoff, the rest was routine stuff. Yuvaraj did not waste an easy opportunity like this and stroked his way to his 7^th ODI 100, through powerful strokes all around. Raina, played decently and got a half century but he could have gone for less but for the gift from Geriant Jones. Raina and Dhoni, in the later part of the inning ran a 2 when the ball was hardly 2 feet from the stumps and that said much about the will of Poms.

When England batted in the afternoon, they had too big a score to chase, considering the afternoon heat and the form of their batsmen. Colligwood showed some gumption but it was all too late.

Later in the day, More announced that Robin Uthappa is selected in place of Gambhir for the remaining ODIs and the Dubai ODIs too. I am no fan of Gambhir but they seemed to have decided to drop him even before the 3^rd ODI started since otherwise, why was he excluded from the XI? More talked about performance of Robin (IMHO – he has not set Cauvery on fire. I can’t remember any substantial innings, other than the one he played in the Challengers) but here is bad trend that only looks for youth and nothing else. If you go by performance alone, why is Kaif and Sehwag persisted with? Different yard sticks for different folks I guess. My selection would have been Vidyut Siva for opener slot and Hemang Badani for the middle order slot and I would have rested Sehwag and dropped Kaif once and for all.

Raina and Dhoni see India through to 2-0

2006-04-02T22:04:00.000-07:00

Cricket in the outlands of India, away from the main cities has always been dicey proposition – plagued by mis-management, horrible wickets and poor facilities to players as well as playing public. The mega bucks with BCCI has not really helped in improving the situation and we had another thoroughly mis-managed affair at Faridabad for the 2^nd ODI. The wicket was so so but I am getting tired of the run feasts and it was okay to see a match, where the bowlers had some say; but the lathi charge to spectators and damaging the body of a woman and a 9 year old child spelled the kind of treatment that awaits the brave souls who are pouring into the coffers of BCCI, unmindful of the discomforts.

Coming to the game, England was back into self doubt mode and after a reasonable start, thanks to Powar messing up a simple caught and bowled, failed to take the initative. Raina off all people, floored one in the deep but still England could not put up a big enough score that could challenge India. Ramesh Powar, bowling traditional off spin bagged 3 and Sreesanth came back with some cheap wickets in the end. All in all, neither Peterson nor Strauss’s effort was sufficient enough and England ended with some 40-50 runs short of where they should have been.

The Indian chase had a decent beginning for a change but I am far from convinced about Sehwag’s form. He needs to be given a break for sure and he rarely looked to be the old Viru we know. The usual collapse happened and the usual contribution from Dhoni was called for but what is a refreshing change is the youngster Raina rising to the occasion. He played the big hits when needed and in general was kept in check by constant advice from Dhoni. Two strokes, which stood out from Raina’s innings were the wallop over midwicket and the flip-hoick he played a couple of times over fineleg for deliveries outside the off stump. Has India discovered a new Michael Beven ? Too early to say but the potential is there and what has to been seen is whether consistency can be combined with the talent.

Bhajji delivers a 5fer, under pressure !!

2006-03-28T21:24:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-22T06:30:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-21T19:09:00.000-08:00

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'!!

2006-03-20T04:40:00.000-08:00

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)

2006-03-19T04:28:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

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 !!

2006-03-17T19:51:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-13T04:12:00.000-08:00

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 !!

2006-03-12T15:56:00.000-08:00

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 !!

2006-03-12T11:23:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-11T07:10:00.001-08:00

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 ?

2006-03-08T03:40:00.000-08:00

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'

2006-03-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

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.