With a depleted team, India managed to whitewash the West Indies 2-0 on the previous tour to the Caribbean. But, if the same mentality is applied towards touring England as well, one needs to judge the stupidity of the Indian team who have lost yet another match against England yesterday at Manchester by 6 wickets. Needless to be said, India saw contributions only from Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Dravid and Suresh Raina who did the scoring while the rest of them that includes Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli failed miserably. However, a target of 166 was still a tough one to reach.I really give hats-off to Dravid for hitting three sixes and en route becoming one of the two batsmen who could manage to clear the ropes. Despite his style not suiting to T20 cricket, Dravid managed to keep up the momentum which speaks of his hard work in the nets. Dravid's style of play is more suited to test cricket and comes in handy regarding one day cricket. Not only did Dravid score 31 runs but was instrumental in putting up a partnership of 65 runs for the third wicket along with Rahane. Coming to the game, one need not cite the absence of Yuvraj and Sehwag.With the likes of Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Kohli etc, much more could have been made possible which actually didn't happen. Giving undue credit to some Jade Dernbach would be a waste of time when Dhoni and co felt that everything was over once they lifted the world cup in April this year.England were comfortable with contributions coming in from every batsman who took it to the crease. If not for Hales who scored a naught, there were contributions from Kieswetter, Pietersen, Morgan, Bopara and Samit Patel who came in handy with the bat. More than big scores, there was continuous flow of runs for England.With so much depth and form in the batting England, nothing much could have been done by the Indian bowlers who got belted one after the other starting from Praveen Kumar. All the option that Dhoni had in hand was to give the ball to Rohit Sharma thinking that a change in bowling might stop runs from being scored at ease. With Rohit Sharma going in for 16 runs off his over, Dhoni didn't couldn't take the risk of trying Raina and Kohli. Dhoni has to be satisfied for crossing 150 and then bringing it till the 20th over and not finishing somewhere in between.
Well at last, the Royal Challengers Bangalore have to end their IPL journey only with a runners-up tag which would be the case for the second time. Previously, two years back in South Africa, they had the same fate with the Deccan Chargers grabbing the trophy from them. The game was one of its kind with the Chennai Superkings having their second title and the Royal Challengers Bangalore having their second runners-up tag as mentioned above. Whatsoever, one thing that the RCB needs to be satisfied with is that they will play the Champions League T20 for the third time.No other team from the IPL has been able to make it though the Chennai Superkings were the contestants in the inaugural edition in 2008 along with Rajasthan Royals, the Champions League tournament was not carried on with Pakistan hosting the tournament and owing to security concerns there. Since 2009 the RCB have been making it there which stands apart from any other team in the IPL. Coming to the game, it was well understood that the Royal Challengers are without a right hand in case Gayle fails with the bat needless to be said. This was the fourth match between the two teams in this IPL.Out of the four games, three have been won by Chennai Superkings and one by Royal Challengers Bangalore. Thanks to Chris Gayle's unbeaten 75 from 50 balls that ensured a 6 wicket win at Bangalore. In those four games, Chris Gayle has featured in three of them where his scores are 75* fro 50 balls at Bangalore, 8 from 9 balls at Mumbai and 0 from 3 balls yesterday at Chennai. The match turned all critics wrong with the home team winning the match which has been otherwise in games involving Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knightriders to a large extent. A total of 205 on the board desperately needed a lot of fireworks from Chris Gayle which unfortunately didn't happen. I can just correlate this to Sachin Tendulkat getting out in the very first over in the finals of the 2003 world cup at South Africa against Australia when the target to be achieved was a whooping 360. Sachin Tendulkar scored just 4 off 4 balls giving a catch to Glenn McGrath. The CSKs required just Hussey and Murali Vijay to tame the RCB who scored 63 and 95 respectively. Or else, Raina, Dhoni and Morkel were failures. The man of the series has no disputes whatsoever.
Well in the last 24 hours or so, I had written about the fate of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in case Chris Gayle fails to dominate with the bat. And, to one's fortune the result has been evident right in front of our eyes within 24 hours when the Royal Challengers could not defend a mammoth total of 175 against the Chennai Superkings at Mumbai. A total of 175 should have seen the Royal Challengers Bangalore end up victorious but, scorecard suggests otherwise. The Chennai Superkings cruised to an easy win with 6 wickets still in hand but took till the last over.Though Chris Gayle did not score much with the bat, the Royal Challengers felt the presence of Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli and Luke Pomersbach whose contribution promised something good on the cards for the Royal Challengers. Looking at the batting charts of both the teams, it can well be said that the pitch was a batsman friendly one. However, as a matter of fact the Chennai Superkings captain used only 6 bowlers, four of whom bowled their full quota of 4 overs and may be termed as successful looking at the nature of the pitch. Four out of the six returned with a wicket.All that the match expected was some fireworks from Chris Gayle, failing which the Royal Challengers can hardly boast of anything. Though all gates are not completely closed for the Royal Challengers, fingers would definitely point towards them for relying on only one player. When someone like Mayank Agarwal and Pomersbach could contribute, there can be no reason for Chris Gayle not to do so. The match will no doubt go down as one of the biggest disappointment in the tournament with such a big total chased down effortlessly. For the Chennai Superkings, Suresh Raina was exceptional who was assisted by Dhoni and Morkel.There were three Indian batsmen playing for one team giving it a deserved success. Of course, even Mayank Agarwal and Virat Kohli happen to be Indians whose contribution can never be thought less about. This confirms the name given to the tournament i.e the INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE.Initial breakthroughs for RCB could not be cashed in when CSK had the scoreboard reading 7/2. By the way, Chris Gayle did contribute to the RCB when he was the bowler with the best economy rate of 4.75 runs an over but when it came to batting, his score was 8 from 9 balls with one six.
If the match between the Chennai Superkings and Royal Challengers Bangalore played yesterday at Bangalore is considered, then one has to first go through the batting display of the Chennai Superkings which was dominated completely by Dhoni and to some extent by Saha. If the scores of Dhoni and Saha are removed, then the Chennai Superkings would have scored just 36 runs 50 balls at a rate of 4.32 runs an over which would have fetched a mere 87 runs on the scoreboard with extras included. The way Dhoni played was just superb and a little bit of support from Mike Hussey, Suresh Raina and Badrinath would have helped a lot.All the aforementioned names were big hitters of the ball and a lot were expected from them. All the above mentioned names have known to bail their teams out from trouble many times and it is just unfortunate to all these players not to contribute for the Chennai Superkings yesterday. Had the above mentioned batsmen made their contribution, then may be Chris Gayle would have had more responsibility on his shoulders. One can never take his eyes off Chris Gayle in this tournament whatsoever.His unbeaten knock of 75 runs off just 50 balls was just another instance of power and commitment.I have all kudos to Dhoni for maintaining his patience and seeing to it that his team didn't lose all ten wickets which assured that his team played all the 20 overs. The entire Chennai Superkings' innings saw only two scores above 10 20 out of which only Dhoni's 70 was a highlight. Adding to the excitement, Dhoni did it in style with 6 sixes and 4 boundaries at a strike rate of 175 which was more than Gayle's 150. Dhoni scored five runs less than what Gayle could manage. It would not have been a bad choice had Dhoni been awarded the man of the match.But, it was just the difference between a win and a loss that made Dhoni miss the award. I just run out of words when it comes to describing the batting of the RCB which was dominated by Gayle. Had Gayle failed, then there would have been a far closer competition between the two teams. There can never be anybody in the RCB who can hit the ball hard and in case Gayle fails, so would be the entire Bangalore team. Names that make up the RCB squad include Saurabh Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Kaif and Pomersbach who can score balls as much as Gayle.
Well we have seen in the past in this edition of the IPL that whenever the Delhi Daredevils perform, it is mainly because of their captain Virender Sehwag. However, yesterday in the match between the Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Superkings, it was the Chennai captain - Mahendra Singh Dhoni who stood for his team when he ended the innings at 176 with his personal contribution being an unbeaten 63 runs off just 31 deliveries. Had it not been for Dhoni's feat, may be the Chennai Superkings might have just ended on the losing side whatsoever. Dhoni has just done a Sehwag.This time for a change, the home team returned victorious which most of the time doesn't happen to be the case. The scorecard suggests that Dhoni was previousy aided by Suresh Raina, Badrinath and Murali Vijay, both of them being Indians by laying a solid foundation to their mammoth total that was four runs behind the ideal total of 180. Unfortunately, Bravo and Morkel lost out entertaining the facs with their tail end hitting. Though the target of 176 was far more than enough to register a win, the game could have been a little more entertaining. Had there been Sehwag, things would have been different.It was yet another example of team work by the Chennai Superkings where as mentioned Raina, Dhoni, Murali Vijay and Badrinath contributed for their team's batting success. Similarly, the bowling of the Delhi Daredevils also aided the Chennai batting who didn't experiment with their bowlers. One can sense the late run giving technique of Pathan who went at 10.0 runs an over. It is mysterious that Pathan and Agarkar were allowed to bowl their complete quota of 4 overs despite going in for so many runs while James Hopes was stopped after bowling just two overs. Coming to the Delhi's run chase, they left no stone unturned.The Delhi Daredevils did everything right to chase down the total of 176 with Naman Ojha, Venugopal Rao, David Warner and Irfan Pathan showing good confidence with the bat but lacked the temperament that Virender Sehwag would have had. The Delhi Daredevils didn't have a Sehwag for a Dhoni. A score of 158 though was not enough to win the game, was more than enough to show that the Delhi Daredevils are still in the race at least for the play offs. At the end there could have been only one winner and that happened to be the Chennai Superkings.
Well if anyone still needs a clear definition of a team work in cricket, I wish they have to go through the game between the Chennai Superkings and Rajasthan Royals played yesterday at Jaipur. As it has happened in most of the occasions, yesterday was no different when the home team got humiliated by the visiting team. Recently it happened to the Kings XI Punjab when they fell short by 85 runs against RCB led by Chris Gayle (in terms of batting). Yesterday was a similar fate for Rajasthan when they had the same fate as that of Punjab against the RCB.Starting from the Chennai Superkings' innings, the scorecard suggests that four out of the five batsmen who took to the crease made their presence felt when Mike Hussey, Murlai Vijay, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina contributed towards their team by scoring in almost equal amounts. One can sense equal contribution from the blades of the aforementioned batsmen with Murali Vijay topping the chart with 53 to his credit. There should have been four men of the match whose contribution as a whole was instrumental in Chennai Superking's victory. But, as an injustice, only Murali Vijay was awarded the man of the match.If Murali Vijay was the top scorer of the game, then in terms of strike rate he falls to the fourth position. Murali Vijay's strike rate of 132.5 is exceeded by Mike Hussey (strike rate of 153.33), Raina (SR of 159.25) and Dhoni (215.28). However, one thing that needs to be appreciated is the way the Chennai Superkings played as a team. One cannot understand the reason behind the Rajasthan captain Shane Warne opting for Shane Watson who gave away runs at 11.75 runs an over when Ashok Menaria got to bowl just 2 overs which was equal to the run rate conceded by Warne. Coming back to the man of the match debate, Suresh Raina was instrumental first in playing a handy 43 runs from the bat and on the other hand got two wickets off the only two deliveries he bowled. Similarly, Doug Bollinger returned with figures of 3/22 from his allotted 4 overs who stood a chance better than Murali Vijay to receive the man of the match award. However, in the Rajasthan side the problem happened to be lack of even small partnerships with them losing wickets at regular intervals. If not for Ajinkya Rahane, no other batsmen stood to the Chennai's challenge whatsoever.
Well what can be said about the shortest version of the game being truncated to half of its size and that too when one innings happens to be over? One has to forget the saying that all is well that ends well when the Chennai Superkings who would have lost otherwise as well happened to gain sympathy for ending up on the losing side due to the D-L method. A score of 115 on the board can hardly be defended and has been proved to be chased down on majority of the occasions. And, Kolkata is an upcoming team in this year's IPL.There was an approach as though it was a one day game if the scorecard of the Chennai Superkings is considered. Neither did they lose wickets at regular intervals nor did they put up a huge score on the board to compensate for their ducking. There was one player in the Chennai side who scored a half century when Subramanium Badrinath scored a 41 ball 54 aided with three hits to the fence and two outside the ground. Had there been losses of wickets, that would have seen Dhoni getting into the rescue act followed by Wriddhiman Saha and Morkel.Very rarely does a match total happens to be reduced to exactly half both in terms of the runs needed to be chased as well as the number of balls needed to secure a win. Yesterday, at Kolkata, the revised target for the Knight Riders happened to be 52 runs from 10 overs which initially was 115 runs from 20 overs. A funny aspect of the D-L method is that the team batting second wins by so many runs which is not possible in regular games or uninterrupted ones. The result might have been Kolkata won the game by 10 wickets instead of 10 runs.Iqbal Abdulla was awarded the man of the match for his outstanding efforts of 1/15 from 4 overs by blind people who could not see or realize Brett Lee's efforts of 0/8 off his four overs at just 2 runs an over. Even in that partly total of 114, there was a bowler in Jaidev Unadkat who gave away runs at the rate of 11 runs an over from the only over which he bowled. The Kolkata Knight Riders innings saw no sixes being scored unlike the Chennai innings which saw two of them. Had Badrinath been adjudged the man of the match, that would not have been a bad choice.
Well the rules of the game of cricket suggests that every team is supposed to have 11 players and may be that is the reason why ten out of the eleven players from the Pune Warriors side are seen making it to the squad with only Yuvraj Singh doing the talking with the bat. One can just have a look at the scorecard of yesterday's match between Pune Warriors and Chennai Superkings which obviously was won by the defending champions. There are the likes of Monish Mishra, Manish Pandey, Robin Uttappa etc who could have done a lot with the bat but didn't.
If not for Yuvraj Singh's 62, the next best performance was Robin Uttappa's 31 which was exactly half of what Yuvraj Singh could manage. Then comes Jesse Ryder's 19 and beyond that, the scores can only take the space on the page and nothing else. If the 62 runs scored by Yuvraj Singh is stripped from the scorecard of Pune Warriors, then the total of the same turn out to be 69 which is the total put up by the remaining 7 batsmen who made it to the crease and not to forget the 5 extra runs. That makes the total 69-5=64.
Had the remaining batsmen mentioned contributed up to their mark, then the scorecard would have read something different than what is the case. One can see Raina returning with one of the best bowling figures with the ball when he gave away runs at a rate of just 5 runs an over. Unfortunately, Raina was given one over short, when he deserved to bowl an extra over thus completing his quota of four overs. One can see three overs bowled maiden in the game with two of them being from the Pune Warriors and making it worse, the bowler who gave away the winning runs bowled one of them.
It would not be wrong to say that the overs bowled maiden by the Pune Warriors team was awarded by the Chennai Superkings for, the batsmen from the Chennai team showed no signs of feat which usually results in overs going without a run being scored. Needless to be said, the Chennai Superkings reached the target with 8 wickets to spare and just three balls remaining. Does this speak of the pressure the Chennai Superkings were facing during their run chase becomes a different question altogether. Eventually, 7 bowlers from the Pune Warriors side could not contain two batsmen from the Chenai superkings side.
Well in this edition of the tournament, the Chennai Super Kings are showing a down to earth performance with them losing the plot in the matches they played. They had a lucky run against the Kolkata Knight Riders where they secured a 2 run victory over the trouble torn team lacking in confidence but are seem to be coming up in this edition. That was followed by a win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore and a loss to Kings XI Punjab. The Chennai Super Kings could not defend a total of 188 against the Punjab team. This time it was Kochi who tamed Chennai.Though the match was trimmed to just 17 overs, a total of 131 by the Chennai Super Kings was below par compared to what was expected off them. The run-rate of the Chennai Super Kings happened to be just over 7.0 runs an over when something less than 9 runs an over is just unacceptable. But, this should have been a winning total keeping in mind the winning record of the Chennai Super Kings in the three editions they have played so far. At the end of the day, the Chennai Super Kings had another loss to their kitty which was a mess.On the other hand, the Kochi Tuskers Kerala maintained a run-rate of exactly 9.0 runs an over aided by a series of double figure scores starting from 47 by Brendon McCullum and ending with Ravindra Jadeja remaining unbeaten on 16 from six balls with two sixes. As a rarity, the team work of both Chennai and Kochi stands undisputed for, regarding both the teams out there, it was not a one man show like it happens in most games. There was only one lucky player in Suresh Raina who scored a half century. But, as a suggestion, it would have been wise for Chennai to go for big ones.As it goes in a T20 game, if the match is viewed from the number of sixes scored perspective, then still the Chennai Super Kings lose it all with their batsmen being able to make it only on three occasions. Instead, the Kochi Tuskers had more than twice of what the Chennai team could manage when they had 7 hits out of the ground. But, needless to be said, it is the target which needs to be defended or chased that would a decide who the winner of the match is. Towards the end of the post, one thing that needs to be asked after Chennai's 2nd loss is whether Chennai have taken over from Kolkata?
Well, when all of us were cursing regarding the tournament being as dull as it can get with the very first encounter being a close encounter with Chennai Super Kings drawing it towards them by just two runs, here was a treat for all those action crazy fans who could see a score of 188 being chased. The run rate was well above the landmark of 9.0 an over. I just can't remember when last was a mammoth score chased down in a T20 game-be it in the IPL or international cricket. But, speaking latest, the Kings XI Punjab have done it.And, with a team like the Kings XI Punjab doing it against a defending champions-Chennai Super Kings should add another boost to the Kings XI cap who are now without their flop captain-Yuvraj Singh. The team is now headed by the player who took his team to victory in the 2009 edition at South Africa. The player is none other than Adam Gilchrist who was also awarded the man of the match and was instrumental in bringing his team from number 7 position to position 1 in that year's IPL. Yesterday, it was no Gilchrist who did the show with his bat.Instead, the batsman could manage only 19 runs which should not matter when there was some Paul Valthaty who scored the tournament's maiden century when he ended his individual score at 120 off 63 balls. If I have to use the word "fastest" of a "quickfire" innings, that would suit only for the one day format and not regarding the T20 format. There have been repeated scores of 100 runs off 40 and 50 balls in one edition itself. If at all some bad performances are to be spoken about, then we have Anirudh from the Chennai Super Kings and Abhishek Nayar from Punjab both who got out without scoring.Both teams lost just four wickets and, if team work needs to be spoken about, then one has to give full marks to the Chennai Super Kings with three of the four batsmen scoring decent scores compared to only one from the Kings XI Punjab. If not for Paul Valthaty, no other batsman really stood upto the challenge.The remaining scores read 20, 21, 12 and 19 from Sunny Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh respectively. Vaklthaty's score accounted upto 60% of the total of Punjab's score of 193. The highlight of the match was that a six was scored off the winning ball from Dinesh Karthik.
Well I just cannot recall a finals between two teams captained by played who also keep wickets for their side. This time I saw it when Kumara Sangakkara for Sri Lanka and Mahendra Singh Dhoni did it for India in the finals. On one side, being an Indian I was rejoicing the Indian victory which came home after 28 years surpassing a silver jubilee in between and on the other hand, I had complete pity for Mahela Jayawardane to have ended on the losing side despite scoring a century. No one scored a century for India despite them being victorious.This was a rare finals not only because it was India who won the trophy but for the fact that both teams fought it out hard to win the trophy which was eventually awarded to one team that played a slight better cricket. Sri Lanka did well to pileup 274 runs on the board which should have been a winning total for sure. But, needless to be said, Dhoni and team had different plans. I just cannot forget the presence of Sachin Tendulkar in the team for the sixth world cup. Someone like Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Inzamam Ul Haq never enjoyed this.Despite being extraordinary players of their era, they never got to lift the world cup. One can look into the last three world cup finals which were all won by Australia and were one sided games. It would not have been a prized prediction for anyone who would have bet on Australia after Pakistan were bowled out for 132 in 1999. And then in 2003, a total of 359 would have never be chased even with ten Sachin Tendulkars in the side against a team with McGrath and co bowling. If McGrath stuck to his line and length, Lee did the damage.Exactly four years later in the Caribbean, India was replaced by Sri Lanka and Ricky Ponting was replaced by Adam Gilchrist. Every world cup final set up a new record for Australia. In 1999, Pakistan were bowled out for the lowest total in a world cup final. Then in 2003, Indian bowlers were belted for the highest total, the largest margin of victory and the fastest hundred in a world cup final. Four years later, Adam Gilchrist blasted the fastest hundred in a world cup finals bettering Ponting's record by 2 balls and the highest individual score in a world cup final.
Well if one could go through the highlights of yesterday's match between India and New Zealand, had there been no Virender Sehwag, there would not have been India in the finals no matter the devastating spells by the Indian speedsters Ishanth Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra. It was a single handed game played by Sehwag when he belted the Kiwi bowlers the way he wanted by dictating each and everyone of them. With the wickets falling at will one the other end, Sehwag's contribution is indeed noteworthy. The next second digit figure came from the blades of the captain Dhoni.Dhoni scored 38 runs at a strike rate of just above 50 in the 75 ball innings which he played. at the end of the day, only two others, leaving Sehwag were able to cross double digit with extras contributing 22 of them to be the third highest scorer in the Indian innings. It was a good toss to win the the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni which avoided his team from another 200 run defeat. Had New Zealand batted first, the match would have been a replica of the opening encounter where India lost by 200 runs and yes to Sehwag as well.
For the third consecutive time, India have got into the super eights stage of a world T20 tournament without losing a single game in its league stage. In 2007, India had beaten Scotland (taken for granted) and Pakistan while in 2009 India beat Bangladesh and Ireland to reach the super eights of the tournament. Now, as expected by all, India beat Afghanistan a couple of days back and yesterday they beat South Africa to keep the tempo moving. It was interesting too India battle Afghanistan today and face South Africa tomorrow. The games involving India were held back to back.However, no one complains with India winning both the matches effectively and with it being a T20 game, even if two games involving one team is held on the same day doesn't matter. Indian batsmen never had problems of any sort when Suresh Raina did most of the scoring becoming the first Indian to score a century in a T20 international. Of course, there is no Sachin Tendulkar playing T20 cricket to score a century there. Anyways, with that apart, the match had only notable contributions from Yuvraj Singh and Raina who with the rest only filling the vacancies that were relevant.It is not anybody's fault with Dhoni hardly getting anything to play and his score was an unbeaten 16 runs off 6 balls with one six and a boundary. Raina and Yuvraj together played 90 balls which was 75% of the match. It shouldn't matter who played with every batsman having his day. Whatever, it was foolish for Smith to stick to the six bowler formula when four bowlers bowled their quota. Whatever, chasing 187 is a tough job though Kallis on the top had the Indian bowlers running for cover when he struck 73 from 54 balls. May be that was too slow for T20 cricket especially when chasing.Kallis stood for nine overs scoring at less than 9 runs an over which is quintessential in T20 cricket. Guys who came in later namely AB deVilliers, Morkel and Boucher scored quick runs but not enough ones to secure a victory. It was because of those batsmen that South Africa crossed the 170 run mark with the margin of victory limited to 14 runs. Towards, as there would be a man of the match who is responsible for his team's victory, there would also be a man who would be solely responsible for his team's defeat and it was Kallis in yesterday's match.
Well though the result of yesterday's match between Afghanistan and India didn't have any takers, the match was fun to see the opening batsman of Afghanistan scoring a half century. However, batsmen who followed didn't have anything to say with their bat going completely dumb. That was Noor Ali Zadran for you who scored 50 runs from 48 balls to see Afghanistan score a total in excess of hundred.There was nothing to feel surprised about Afghanistan ending their batting with 115 on the board and one has to applaud them for playing their complete quota of 20 overs which most of the lesser known teams don't. If not for the 50 scored by Noor Ali Zadran, the next major score came from the number 5 batsman in Asghar Stanikzai who scored 30 runs together which constituted about 70% of the total of Afghanistan. Going through the scorecard of the match would reveal nothing but only a series of single digit scores if not for those two mentioned above.It is really tough to write something about such games whose results are well known to one and all even before the match has been started announced. But, once in a while there would be surprises and a little bit of decent performances from batsmen from these teams as well. It was evident from this match regarding the wonderful pair Dhoni and Ashish Nehra make when Dhoni had three consecutive catches off the bowling off Nehra. This was the game where a captain can try experimenting with his players and Dhoni executed this very well by handing the ball to Yuvraj Singh and Yousuf Pathan.Murali Vijay's knock at the top of the order speaks about Dhoni's use of such games as a platform to bring in new faces on the international arena. With the total being only 115, Dhoni experimenting new talent should be praiseworthy. I wish Ravindra Jadeja should have come in at number 3 instead of Yuvraj, when Yuvraj has a lot to prove in the matches to come. India would be facing South Africa shortly in the next few days by which time players like Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay and Praveen Kumar should be ready to take some evasive actions with the bat in case their team needs it.
At the end, and much to Dhoni's fortunes India came back very harsh upon the Bangladeshi bowlers first on day 1 and then on Bangladeshi batsmen when they piled up 459 runs for the loss of 5 wickets at the end of day 2 with the Indian captain yet to declare the innings. One has to just wait and see if India are fortunate enough to secure an innings victory here against Bangladesh and see to that they don't make it to the record books for the wrong reasons. Very few teams in the world have been that unfortunate not to have had an innings win against Bangladesh throughout the series.However, that doesn't seem so if their approach to the second test is given a close look at. If at all some sort of misfortune has to happen, it has to be in the form of whether playing spoilsport which though not take the game away from the Indians but can reduce the margin of victory. This time also, it was the decade old batsmen in Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar who made heavens for India against Bangladesh with both of them scoring centuries. The Indians scored their runs at the rate of above 4 an over which showed that they never took Bangladesh lightly.It was really fascinating to see Rahul Dravid scoring a hundred no matter that it came against a weak opposition in Bangladesh. This feat of Dravid once again reminded his fans not to give up hopes of him being known as "the wall" of Indian cricket, which was on the verge of history with Dravid being unable to continue the good work that he was seen doing some couple of years back. A more precise way to express this would be to call Dravid as a silent assassin who doesn't panic the bowlers with his shots but irritates them by holding onto the crease for long.Added to this were half centuries from the blades of openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. It is not possible to cite which batsman didn't do his job to the perfection and so was the case with the bowlers as well. Putting it simple, there were contributions from Dravid, Tendulkar, Dhoni, Gambhir and Sehwag. All the questions that now needs to be answered is whether India can take the game forward by holding an upperhand for the remaining atleast two days of the test match. And, incase they don't end up winning by an innings, it would be as good as a draw for India.
Well the latest news is that Indian middle order batsman VVS Laxman and Sreesanth would be out with injuries for the second test against Bangladesh that would be starting on January 24th. This is something fishy one can say. For, when someone like VVS Laxman has to sit out of a test match due to injuries is a great loss not only for the team or himself but also for the reason that he sustained injuries while dropping a catch rather than holding onto one. How funny isn't it? On the otherhand, Sreesanth's selection should be thought about twice by the selectors from now onwards.Statistics suggest that Sreesanth is available only for one tenth of the total number of matches that are played by India. And out of that Sreesanth is found giving a so-called splendid performance in only one out of the ten games he playes. The last time a considerably better performance by Sreesanth was in the second test against Sri Lanka where he picked up 5 wickets to earn the man of the match. Including someone like Sreesanth would be just a waste of money and efforts for, he is given a practice only to be termed unfit for most of the games played.Though the fact is that injuries are not welcomed by any player nor anyone is happy with being injured and hence forced to warm the benches, one has to take care not to be injured. Though sounds funny, this is not exactly the case whatsoever. The only place where VVS Laxman plays is the test match and all he does is to bat and of course field that is inevitable. One would have hardly seen VVS Laxman bending his body to dive in an attempt to pull off a stunning catch. Most of them remember Laxman for dropping catches in the slips and the fact that DineshMongia was chosen over Laxman for the 2003 WC for Laxman's lack of fielding abilities is still fresh in our minds.Neither does Laxman play the other formats of the game nor does he involve himself in other roles be it bowling or serious fielding. But, Laxman can make news for sustaining an injury. There are lot other players who would be waiting for a chance to make it big at the international stage but have to settle for something less due to lack of opportunities. Injuries to someone like Dhoni can well be understood for his multiple roles of a wicketkeeper and a batsman. So is the case with Harbhajan Singh who is to a little extent quite handy with the bat as well and can field in any position. But, when Laxman & Sreesanth are forced to miss out due to injuries, it is not a risk worth taking.
Well this was rather anticipated in the earlier game between India and Sri Lanka when Sri Lanka had a struggling but a satisfactory win against India in the first encounter at Dhaka. It took Sri Lanka nerves to go past the total of 280 that was required by Sri Lanka to win that game. But, despite losing that encounter, the body language of the Indian players were as though they were least bothered and were sure to give it back to the Sri Lankans with compound interest in the next game which they actually did. Indians were as though they had not lost anything and their best was still awaiting.Sri Lanka were nowhere in the scene when Indian batsmen were repeatedly sending the ball rolling over the ropes which saw them go past the total of 213 runs in just 32.4 overs. Any batsmen who made it to the crease took to the Sri Lankan bowling with utmost confidence. It was no Virender Sehwag or Yuvraj Singh who have made news previously for their big hitting capabilities but rather it was Dinesh Karthik and Gautam Gambhir who took the Sri Lankan bowlers for a ride at Dhaka. For the 3rd time in the recent past, Virat Kohli was found belting the opposition with confidence.Three of the four batsmen who made it to the crease returned with strike rates of 100+ and the same number of batsmen returned with scores averaging more than 50 that included Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik and Virat Kohli. There was only one bowler from the Sri Lankan side who was found bowling his full quota of 10 overs namely Suranga Lakmal. This was the 1st time that Lakmal's name was heard in international cricket (atleast as far as I am concerned) and statistics suggest that the man under discussion is just 6 ODIs old. One has to wonder as to what on earth made Sangakkara go in for Lakmal with the likes of Welegedra and co being there around.Moreover, Lakmal was the costliest of all bowlers who returned with figures of 0/75 from his 10 overs. Added to this was the fact that the pitch was a batsman's paradise which saw all the Indian batsmen who made it to the crease face the Sri Lankan bowlers with confidence (as mentioned earlier) . However, on that pitch as well the Sri Lankan batsmen were found flattering as though it was another Kotla. The next costliest on the list happened to be Welegedra who returned with figures of 0/51 from 5.4 overs and still was shown confidence from Sangakkara. A number 8 batsman in Randhiv is seen scoring 56 which doesn't happen with the top order. Nothing fishy?
If the entire history of Indian cricket is given a close look at, the present captain in Mahendra Singh Dhoni enjoys a fairly good fortune with the most percentage of wins in all three formats of the game. Dhoni was the captain who bought the T20 world cup home in 2007 beating Pakistan. Until now, Dhoni is the only regular captain in present day's cricket to have not lost even a single test match leaving aside the ones that ended in draws. He was the captain of the team that won a tri series last year involving New Zealand and Sri Lanka, with the earlier captains being able to just reach the finals.This is the problem for a captain who gets used to wins, which makes him look out for a reason whenever his team is defeated. The same captain may also seem to try new ideas to win a game. Like, the Australian captain Ricky Ponting was found raising his fingers when the ball was caught after a slight bounce in Sydney in 2008 which forced Ganguly to leave the field for no reason. That is one test match that no one on earth can ever tend to forget. That was the match that gave Australia their 16th consecutive test victory for the 2nd time.However, that cannot be everyone's cup of tea. But, Dhoni has found a new route which can guarantee his team success if everything goes well. Dhoni, after losing the 2nd game of the tri series to Sri Lanka took no time in blaming the dew factor to be responsible for his team's defeat against Sri Lanka. Moreover, Dhoni insists that the forthcoming matches in the ongoing tri series be scheduled at a later time so that the dew factor doesn't play a role. Dhoni's words can best be understood by no one but Dhoni himself. One has to find out the timing when the dew comes in if Dhoni's words are to be believed.One has to wonder as to whether Dhoni would have said these words had India won the match batting first or by batting second? If it was Dhoni's problem with the dew this time, it would have been Sangakkara's problem had Sri Lanka batted first and lost the match like the way it happened to India. And just to ensure that India wins matches, is it worth scheduling matches as per Dhoni's requirement. There was dew factor in the 3rd ODI of the recently concluded bilateral series which India won effortlessly despite being set a target in excess of 300. It was solely because of dew that made things easy for India. And moreover, it was Sangakkara who had won the toss and elected to bat 1st that day.
Well Virender Sehwag asks for more consistency from his team mates which for a fraction of a second makes one think whether it is Sehwag who is the captain or Dhoni. Anyways, with the freedom expression well in front, anyone can spill out their opinions. However, unlike in most of the times in cricket, consistency is not or will not be the key to success in the days to come for team India. All that India needs to make sure is that they don't take the teams Bangladesh and Sri Lanka lightly. Failing this, India might have to pay a heavy price.One need not be told in detail regarding the cliber of the Bangladeshi team. Though it is not an undisputed fact that Bangladesh are one of the few teams in international cricket to be showing signs of improvement at a more steady pace compared to other 9 teams of the cricketing world, they are yet to zero in on winning matches especially in tests. Bangladesh had to wait for a depleted West Indies team in mid last year to ensure their maiden series win and that too abroad when they won the series 2-0 against the same. Things would have hardly mattered despite West Indies going in for full fledged attack.Had the West Indies gone in for a full strength team to face the Bangladesh, the result would have more the less been a draw for both the teams. However, the improvement that the Bangladesh team showed in a couple of years down the lane can reduce the loss to just a few runs or a few wickets as against the innings defeat that Bangladesh had to bear some four years ago. And, the other side of the coin also suggests that a small contribution is made from the team that faces when the same is found to rest few of their key players and in turn include some younger or new talent.Also, the team facing Bangladesh might go in for a nightwatchman who can by himself settle issues for his team against Bangladesh, like it happened in 2006 when Australia's Jason Gillispie scored the one and the only double hundred being a nightwatchman in the 2nd test at Chittagong. This is the result if the team takes Bangladesh seriously. However, India need to ensure that they don't take such a stand on Bangladesh for which they might have to pay a heavy price like on its last tour where India were found reeling at 100/6 in the 1st test in 2007.
This news would make every Indian proud. The news was that India have made it to the number one spot in the latest ICC test rankings, which is not a breaking or flash news and is aware of every cricket fan. This is the second such news that team India have made in the past four months or so. If our memories are still fresh, India had made it to the number one spot in the latest ICC's one day rankings after the tri nation-three match tournament involving SriLanka, New Zealand and of course India, after beating New Zealand in the first one day international of the series. This was followed by a loss to Sri Lanka in the very next league stage match which saw India return back to the number three spot behind Australia (who had a good run against and in England) and South Africa. Even the win in the finals of the tri nation tournament against SriLanka couldn't revert the position of team India in the latest ICC ODI rankings then. Before that, a year ago or so, India were the number one T20 team, only to lost all the matches that they played in the second T20 world cup held in England.From the time team India have lost their number one status be it either in ODI or T20, the Indians have never been able to look back to reclaim their lost glory in either of the formats. The time when team India had been the number 1 team in ODI as well as T20 cricket, there were other teams competing to climb up in the rankings. There was the ICC Champions Trophy that involved all the major teams from the world, which was preceded by the latter part of the Natwest trophy which contributed to the margin in points between the teams' ODI points.However, when India was the number one team in T20 cricket, that was still the initial stages of the T20 format of cricket and all that added to team India's ranking was their win in the inaugural T20 world cup held at South Africa, in which India won all games but one against New Zealand by 5 runs. This was also followed by a win in the only T20 game against Australia at Mumbai that followed the 7 match ODI series that India lost 4-2. May be, to a greater extent, this contributed a lot to the success of team India in T20 cricket. There was hardly any chance for any other teams to prove their myth in T20 cricket which saw India enjoying.
