IND-SL Test Series 2010

The 3 test series between India and Sri Lanka finished with equal honors to both the teams. Sri Lanka won the first test quite convincingly. India salvaged a draw in the second test and then managed to squeeze a win in the third test with a solid fourth innings chase.
If a saturation of constant India-Sri Lanka encounters was not enough, the lifeless Sri-Lankan pitches ensure a dull and boring series. Matches here are more or less finalized at the toss itself. The best time to bat here is on the first & second day. For the Team loosing the toss only two results are possible. Either loose the match or manage a draw. Yes, India being an exception in the last test thanks to VVSs’ extra special innings.
Both the country boards have ensured that test cricket dies a slow death. Playing in such pitches is harming the quality of Sri Lankan cricket.
Talking of Indian performances – Sehwag, Sachin, Raina, Laxman were all outstanding with Bat. Sadly nothing to note for the bowlers. It would be foolish anyways on ourselves to expect any miracles from them on these lifeless pitches. Not a great debut series for Abhimanyu Mithun. Though he bowled well with his limitations cannot see him go much further in test matches . Harbhajan was a big disappointment. 2 Wickets in 120 odd overs. I think too much of T20 is harming his bowling. India’s bowling attack was weak the entire series. Wondered why Praveen Kumar or Ashish Nehra was not selected if Zaheer was injured. Ishant bowled well as the series progressed. That is a sign of encouragement for us. Not much to write about Ojha and Mishra though. Ojha though managed 7 wickets in the Third test on a turning track. He was ordinary in the other two tests
Sachin was the leading run scorer for India in this series with 378 Runs and an average of 78 with a double hundred to his credit. Sehwag was not far behind with 348runs with two hundreds and a 99. Ojha was the leading wicket taker for India with 9 Wickets (7 of them in the last test.
How can i not mention about Laxman's match winning innings at the third Test. It has to be one of his greatest innings. All of us know how difficult it is to bat on a fifth day pitch all the more so if its on a Sri Lankan soil. Also VVS ensured he stayed till the end to see India thru. What makes me worry is India's dependence on their old war horses even now. It was refreshing to see Raina shape up. Hopefully we have found one of the replacements to the Fab Four. Got a long way to go though. Hatsoff to him to grab the little oppurtunity he got.Sehwag was deservingly awarded the Man of the Series for his performances both with the bat and ball
Over to the ODIs now. Not overtly excited about its prospects. More than a battle between the teams it’s more of a struggle for the team chasing under the lights.

Another T20 Debacle

It was a repeat of last’s years performance for Indian in the T20 World cup, It was an action replay in fact. It was indeed a shameful performance. I believe following are the key reasons for the debacle
1.Most important, Dhoni’s captaincy
2.IPL Fatigue , lack of Commitment and complacency
3.Bad team selection
4.Poor Performances from Zaheer, Yuvraj and Jadeja
5.Inability to face bouncers
Let me start with talking about Dhoni’s captaincy. I felt the decision he took was exactly opposite to what was required to win a match. He was stubborn in his decisions. A sense of arrogance could be felt as well. Dhoni’s mistakes can be listed as below
A. Team Selection – On a Fast Bouncy pitch you play with two seamers and innumerable part spinners. Just three Specialist bowlers in Zaheer, Nehra and Bhajji. This was big mistake. If this was not enough, a crime was committed by picking the same team for the next game on the same pitch. On a fast track such a Barbados, Vinay kumar was left out
B. Decision to Bowl for the second consecutive time. Until the Match against West indies, 4 out of 5 matches in super eight were won by team batting first.
C.The reason given to bowl first on a Barbados pitch was to take advantage of the moisture in the pitch. Whom do you bring in to bowl the first over? Its Harbajan singh. No doubt he did a wonderful job at that. But on a Slow St Lucia pitch Bhajji is not opening the bowling , but its Nehra. Baffling ….
D. Raveendra Jadeja does need a special mention. No doubt Jadeja was and is an integral part of ODI and T20 National team. After conceding 36 Runs in two overs, was selected to play the second match as well. Nothing but ridiculous.
Pity Jadeja had a bad day on office, but he should not have played the second game at all
IPL Fatigue : In my Last year’s article I had quoted Vishwanathan Anand who had said, To win a tournament you first need to be eagerly looking forward to play it. After 45 Days of rigorous cricket i can bet, all the players would have preferred to give the tournament a miss if given a chance. After 45 days of intense non stop cricket, this was a tournament where they are not accountable to anyone and hence that intensity dropped.
Bad team selection : How else would you attribute the selection of Piyush chawla above Pragyan Ojha or an Amit Mishra? What did M Vijay do that Robin Uttappa did not? Honestly I believe guys like Yusuf Pathan, Rohit sharma are quite contend with their IPL performances.
Bad performance from some of key players Zaheer in particular, especially if you are only one of the three specialist bowlers. Zaheer was horrible and I think he should stop playing T20 cricket to keep his good works in ODIs and Tests. Else he is going to go the Ishant way. He keeps bowling just good length deliveries and occasional Yorkers at the death. Where are the Bouncers gone? Pity a guy like Pollard and Bravo can bowl unplayable bouncers, but zaheer’s and Nehra’s deliveries are not rising above knee length. Yuvraj, Is just concentrating on building in belly. Whats surprising is that Fielding has been below par

Inability to play bouncers was only one of the reasons for the T20 debacle. Still we could have won that game against West indies. It was a big shame to see Gambhir struggle against short pitched stuff. Our catching and Fielding lacked intensity

Having poured all my grievances out, I still believe nothings lost yet. We still are the Number 1 team in test and No2 team in ODI. Both of these achieved under Dhoni's captaincy. So, its only fair to give them some rest and see them bounce back like they did is last few seasons

Top performance for India in this tournament were Raina and Harbajan. Nehra to some extend and sadly no one else. IT was a collective failure. Suresh Raina is soon becoming one of the most reliable players for india. He has surely matured as a complete cricketer. His hardwork is clearly visible in his performace on the field

Hoping to see some Test Matches live though. Just tired of Watching T20s.

Happy Cricketing