India Vs Australia - 1st Test

After a dull and lackluster series against Pakistan, We were expecting some intense cricket between India and Australia. Looking at the Way India Succumbed in the first test, we all can expect what is in store for us. Agreed, India should have at least a couple of practice matches to get acclimatised to these alien conditions and BCCI should be held responsible for this, but the MCG was the only pitch which suited the conditions back home. A slow turning pitch. The Pitches in Sydney and Perth are typical of Australia. We have infact lost out on a golden opportunity.

It was only Anil Kumble who came out with some praise worthy performance. None of the other players were close to their best. Hats off to Ricky pointing for declaring just before the Close of 3rd Days play. It takes a lots of guts to set a target of 500 with two days of play still left. None of the Indian captain could even dare to think like this. By Declaring, in way was demeaning the famed Indian line up.

Opting to Open with Dravid was a risky option, but worth taking it as it would mean leaving inform batsman "Yuvraj". IF this mistake is being repeated in Sydney (2nd Test )it would be a blunder. Yuvraj has showed he still does'nt have the technique to cope with quality bowling on fast pitches. Dravid has shown his unwillingness to open by being bogged down. He is being put at risk. I Just wonder if Sachin will ever again score a test hundred. He has just forgotten to play a long test innings. Dhoni too has showed that he lacks in technique to play in such pitch.

I was surprised to see Zaheer and RP bowling at speeds of 125 to 127. There was literally no teeth in their bowling. I really pity Kumble for the burden he has to shoulder even on fast pacy pitches.
I only hope that in 2008 these players prove me wrong.

Wishing all the reader a very happy New Year

IND Vs Australia - 7 Match ODI series

Oh thanks god, it was not a white wash.It could very easily have been 6-0 instead for 4-2. I am saying this because the two matches which India won was totally under the control of the Aussies for most part of the game and India literally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on both occasions. Contrary to this, all the four games that the Aussies won were one-sided and India lost its grip even before the half way stage. Our players showed no inclination to fight it out.It was a collective failure from the Indian team. No consistent performer both with the ball and well with bat. One innings of brilliance from Yuvraj on a lost cause, One match winning figures from Karthik was all on offer from our team on a 7 match series. Sachin once again turned out to be the leading Indian run scorer for the second time in-succession which goes on to shown that India still is heavily dependent on him. Our new ball bowlers were pathetic through out the series. Consistently being in-consistent with their line and length. In comparison,Australian bowlers were on target hitting the line just out side the off stump consistently.This made the life of Ricky Ponting very easy. Stack his field with fielders on the offside. Indian in turn were very wayward and one could not fault Dhoni much on this. He should be commended for resting Dravid on the final one day owing to to awful form. I would have been happier if that place was taken by Rohit or Badri instead of Dinesh Karthik.
It took only two players to win the series for Australia. Hayden and Symonds. I just wonder when are we going to have a plan in place for Hayden. If we cannot get him out at least try to contain the runs flowing from his bat. Aussie had a firm plan in place for each of the Indian players be it a batsman or a bowler
Let me try to evaluate the performance of each player and rate them.
Excellent :
Murli Karthik: By far the best of the bowler in the Indian side. was consistently economical. Thoroughly deserved the six wicket haul. Marks : 7/10
Good:
Bhajji : Though was not among the wickets was also economical when the others were going at more than six an over. Mark 4/10
Uttappa:
Played a couple of matured innings. If his 18 Balls 30 in the slog over turned out to be a match winning one, his 47 in the final one-day showed his willingness to stay and fight. Marks : 4/10
Zaheer Khan :
Had a mixed tournament. Bowled splendidly in the final one-day inspite of runs flowing at the other end . Marks: 4/10
Pathan : Was the only bowler who consistently end up figures of less than five runs per over despite the fact that Aussies reached 300 on about four occasions.But did not deliver any match winning figures. Marks 4/10
Dhoni: Just one good innings in this series. But a little cameo that was. Very ordinary series otherwise. His match winning abilities are vanishing day by day. Marks 3/10
Sachin : Gave good starts but could not convert it to big ones. Literally unreliable when batting second. But still ended up being the highest run scorer for India. Marks 3/10
Poor :
RP Singh and Sreesanth : Just Pathetic and nothing else. Bowled on both sides of the wickets. But did pick up wickets in the initial matches. Main culprits in allowing Australia reach 300 on four ccasions.Marks 2/10
Yuvraj : Just one innings of brilliance (121). Nothing else to show on other matches Marks 2/10
Ganguly : Helped India to a good start in one match. Nothing else. Should be rested against Pakistan.Marks 2/10
Dravid : A No Show literally from this great batsman. Should be given a chance with Pakistan Marks 0/10

T20 Campions 2007 - Chak De INDIA ,

Oh Oh, What a fitting finale it was. It was a See-Saw of a battle. India started off well batting first and the match was totally under our control untill the 12th over were we believed 180 was achievable. Then it Umar gul almost shut the door for india and restricted them to a total which one would have thought is easily attainable on this pitch. Then Sreesanth's handed over the match to pakistan with his first over itself giving away 21 easy runs to Imran NAzir. Irfan then brought us back into the game with two successive wickets , that of Shoaib Malik and Afridi. At this point , we all believed the game was all but over and it would be a cake walk for india after that. Misbah , thought otherwise and he brought pakistan on the verge of victory with 3 Sixes of a bhajji's over and 2 Sixes of Sree's over ( that was hit by Sohail though). Final over 13 run. Easily get able. Then 4 runs off 3 Balls , should have been a cake walk for pakistan. In the end it was joginder sharma who held his nerve and bowled india to victory. Chake De india.

At the start of the tournment, India were clearly the underdogs, then how did we achieve the unthinkable. Well possible reasons may be -
Dhoni's Captaincy- Hats off to dhoni for his captaincy. He did things differently and took decisions which any conventional captain (Read Dravid) would not have thought of.
In the final, it was commendable to bring in Joginder and Yusuf before Irfan or harbhajan as there were new batsmen at the crease and pakistan had lost a few quick wickets enabling them to play safe. Thus the fifth bowler went for lesser runs. Sending Yyusuf as an opener was another brave decision. Dhoni could have played safe by opting for Uttappa as his second opener. Though this decision did not make a major impact on the result of the game. But credit must be given to dhoni for bringing in the unknown factor. Also, Dhoni must be complemented for his total faith in Joginder at the slog overs. His decision to bowl Bhajji at the dearth in all the matches was also intelligent. The way he managed and controlled his bowlers in all the matches was commendable.
Fielding - Yuvraj, Rohit Sharma and Uttappa inflicted four run outs between them which turned the game at crucial junctures in india's favour. Imran Nazir's run out by uttappa was the turning point of the final. Imran Nazir looked ominous untill then. Rohit Sharma ran Kemp out with a direct hit against SA. We all know what a dangerous player Kemp is. Then yuvraj was also in action against Eng which were turned it in our favour.
Yuvraj Sixer Singh - Both the Fastest fifty in T20 champion ship was brought up by Yuvraj. One against Eng (12 Balls) and the second against Aus (20 Balls). Both these innings were match winning ones. These innings from yuvraj were the only difference between the two sides. Otherwise india would have surely been on the looser side. However we still managed to win three other games without major contributions from him.
Strategy to Bat first - Win the toss, Bat first, Make a decent start, have wickets in hand untill the 10th over and then go slam bang. This strategy worked wonders for india. Sehwag and Gambhir on most occasions gave us a decent start. Infact, the scoreline after six overs were mostly less than the runs scored by sachin and saurav in the 50 overs matches in the just concluded Eng series. Gambhir has once again proved himself by being the second highest run scorer in the tournment after hayden.
Bowling at the Dearth - India Bowling which was always wayward and went for runs in the slog overs mended their ways. Teams like SA, Aus and PaK who were chasing targets looked well set to win the match untill the 15th or 16th Over. They floundered mainly in the last few overs. Credit to harbajan for bowling those yorkers consistently (Forget the finals though)

Hip Hip Hurray

Its an Indo Pak Final

Oh, what an eventful week it has been for the Indian cricket team. Beating England, SA and Aussies on the trot. Indian Fans could not have asked for more.
Of all the three wins, i believe the win against the south African was the most memorable one. SA were the only team who came into the game without a single defeat and with their team looked almost invisible. Australia on the other hand have still not come to terms with this shorter version. Their loss to Zim and Pak made us believe that they not unbeatable. All we needed to do was to have a crack at their opening partnership.
India Vs SA: I had lost all my hope as soon as it was announced that Yuvaraj would not be participating in the game due to injury. He was the one match winner for us especially after his Six Sixes exploits against England. Winning the toss and elected to bat first was crucial as the bowl swung a lot in the later half.
Dhoni was excellent with his captaincy, bringing about important changes at the right time. It was heartening to see a Captain who was not afraid to gamble
Rohit Sharma is a big discovery for India from this tournament. I still believe Dhoni is not at his explosive best while RP Singh is at his swinging best.

India Vs Aus : It was big big match for India. And this time too Yuvraj obliged all
his fans with a cracking 70 of just 30 balls. This innings turned the tide towards India, since otherwise Aussies bowling was very disciplined. From 60/2 in 10 overs to 188 in 20 Overs it was Yuvraj all the way.
When Aussie batting started, Things started the way which we feared the most. Gilli and Hayden at their attacking best. With RP bowling to Gilli's legs and on driving lengths it was bread and butter for them.
Then Sree came with that beauty to Gilli. If RP was offcolour in his first spell, sree was terrific. Just Six from his three over including a boundary of a first ball full toss. Joginder was horrifying in his first over going for 18. With his slow pace and no movement he has to consistently bowl yorkers otherwise there's no respite for him. The Sehwag over turned the momentum towards Australia in which he went for 20 runs. This was a gamble which Dhoni had to take especially after joginder went for runs. Hayden again is proving to be a nemeses for india and i have no hesistation in saying that he is going to run away with the India- Australia series.

Now, Whats our strategy going to be be in the final? After the wins against SA and Aus, India would be clear favorites. Our Openers have consistently been giving us a good start. We should have a Plan B in place if they fail early. In such a scenario, it makes sense to send some one like Rohit sharma since the traditional first down Uttappa is not someone who is accumulator of runs but a stroke maker. Running between the wickets has been excellent for india, something we missed in the Ind-Eng series. Captaincy of Dhoni has been refreshing. India should be vary of Afridi and umar Gul with the ball. Umar gul is very consistent with his yorkers. Key players with the bat are mismah and Shoaib Mallik. It would be foolish to rely on yuvaraj all the time. Its time some one else picks up the mantle from him and shown we are dependent on one single person.

India have played two games in the ongoing T20 World cup until now. First was the inconsequential bowl out game against Pakistan and the second was against New Zealand. I say inconsequential because the two points earned from game could neither be carried over to the next round nor place us on a group which has weak teams (Read Bangladesh). Hence am focusing more on our game against New Zealand.

New Zealand set India a target of 190 Runs after being reduced to 94/5 in 13 Overs. India after being 76/0 in less than Six overs were all out for 180.

So, What were did we go wrong? What are the things to learn? Well, here it is.

- Our Opening bowlers are not utilising the conditions well. Too many short balls are being bowled

when the ball is swinging.(Especially for RP)

- Just wonder, whatever has happened to the Yorker Balls. All our fast bowlers forget to bowl one or not practised enough to bowl one. Ironically its only Harbhajan who is bowling it regularly. Makes sense hence to try him around 16 to 20 Overs.

- For me, More than Sachin, Rahul or saurav the player we are missing the most is " Zaheer Khan". He is a bowler who takes wickets initially and also bowls yorker at the dearth.

- Our Bowlers are bowling the Short Balls which are pulled away for Sixes and not the unplayable bouncers. Remember, bowlers are allowed to bowl one each over.

- It was foolish on the part of Dhoni to bring in Yuvaraj for his third Over. Agreed he did bowl two good over. Dhoni should have said, that's it thank you. You cannot have your non regular bowler bowl 4 successive overs. Batsmen would have read you by then. Especially everyone knows what Mascarenas did to him at the Oval. Not bring in Sehwag was a blunder. Lack of anticipation did him in.This over changed the momentum towards New Zealand

- Just wonder whats happening with Dinesh Karthik. He is making it a habit to drop easy catches inspite of excellent ground fielding skills. He has buttered his fingers since the English tour.

- If India Cannot manage to win matches from such excellent positions, then no way are we going to get into the Semis. Failure of Yuvaraj in both the matches taking a heavy blow on the team's

fortune.

- Dhoni bringing himself up the order was an excellent move. But he is not being in his explosive self.He is trying to play the sheet anchor's role. Playing quite overs initially and then try to accelerate at the end. This is a role suited more to Karthik or Dravid or Sachin and not Dhoni. We know dhoni as someone who attacks from the word go. Attack means not trying to hit the ball over the fence. He is perfectly capable of hitting safe powerfull ground strokes. Fear of loosing his wicket has crept in his mind during the England series. He is something much above this. He should not contain himself

- We need a bowler who bowls at a pace similar to Ganguly in such conditions. That why i think we drop agarkar and bring in Joginder Singh. Atleast he can bat a bit. Else, need to try our Yusuf Pathan.

- The Biggest gain so far in this tournament for India has been the comeback to form of Irfan Pathan. Sadly and surprisingly he bowled only two overs against NZ.

Thanks for being patient with me.

India Vs England - 7 Match ODI Series, an Overview

India must be relieved to complete this long Twin tour of Ireland and England. They must be thoroughly disappointed in loosing out the series 4-3.

For me, One major difference between the two teams was the way the two captains lead the teams. Collingwood was spot on with his field placings. His field placings was planned for each player. While dravid adopted the more conventional methods.
Dravid i felt made the following mistakes.
- After having won the toss on most of the ocassions, he failed to make the right decisions on whether to bat or bowl first on at least three occasions. When he was playing 5 Bowlers, he is a batsman short. under such circumstances he choose to chase targets than set one. This was a big mistake. However, in the last oneday, he choose to bat on an overcast conditions. It turned out to a belter of a pitch during the second innings. I feels, rather than understanding the ground realities, lots of external factors are playing a key role in decision making
- Another mistake is the persistence of Agarkar over RP Singh inspite of the former going over 6 an over in all the matches.
- I believe there were a few instances were the situation demanded Dhoni to be brought up the order. This could have been a surprise package.

One big plus point out of this whole series was the way the two spinners bowled. Especially Powar. He was ne er afraid to flight the ball and entice the batsman. This is where Chawla got carried away. On most of the occasion he either bowled flat or provided width to the batsman.
Six Wickets each to the spinners in a seven match series , does not speak of their efforts.
As the series progresses, the English began to read the two well.

This series goes to prove that , india is still totally dependent to one man "Sachin Tendulkar".
Yuvarj,Dhoni and Dravid had a very quite series by their standards. Dhoni doesn't seem to be the same care free guy he used to be when he first came into the international scene.

Now, Time to concentrate on the T20 World cup

India Vs England, 2nd ODI, 24th August 07

Brief Scores : India won the Toss and elected to Bat.

India : 329/7 , Sachin 99, Dravid 92*, Yuvaraj 49. Flintoff took 5 Wkts

England : 320/8, Bell 64, Mascarenhas 52. Munaf and Chawla took 3 Wkts each

India Win the Match by 9 Runs. Leveling the series 1-1.



India Won a very exiting match. Dravid won a very important match and with India playing five bowlers , it was important to have good start. This exactly is what happened with Sachin and Sourav. But the sparkle was provided by Dravid, who produced a magical innings of 92 Runs from just 62 Balls. It was heartening to see dravid find the gaps with so much ease.

As for Sachin, it was disappointing to see him out on 99. He seems to be getting bogged down once he reaches the 90s. He starts playing for his 100 as a results becomes defensive. The way he played that Flintoff delivery speaks for itself. I believe Dhoni should practise on playing the rising deliveries a lot more.



As for our bowling, It was a great feeling to see our two spinners bowl in tandem. This was spin bowling at its best for a long long time. The way KP and Collingwood were bowled made me jump from my seat in excitement.

In no One Day match do see a side drop as many as five catches and still win a match. This is a cause of concern for us.

What more to say about Agarkar. Just pathetic bowling. RP bowled his heart out and so did Munaf. With Zaheer fit in the next match, Agarkar will now have to wonder if he will ever get his next chance.

Followon not on - Oval Test,

This would be the first time i am publishing my views and thoughts on recent developments and happenings on Indian Cricket. To start off with, I have taken the subject of follow on, as this is presently the most debated topic in india, more than the 123 Nuclear issue which is rocking the UPA Government.

According to me, this is a not the correct decision. this speaks of Dravid's defensive attitude and fear of loosing looming large in his mind. A lead of 319 is huge and even thinking of loosing from such a position is negative attitude. Every game has to be played for winning.
When England were bowled out early on 4th day morning the conditions were overcast with the threat of rain looming large. Such conditions was ideal for fast bowling. It would made our bowler's job all the more easy. Even if England batted well in their Second Innings, It would taken maximum two sessions for our batsman to either win or draw the game. and if our captain himself is not confident about our batsmen, then god save the team.

This decision justifies my belief that Dravid is a defensive and Risk Free Captain. Am sure Ganguly would have played it otherwise