One bowler who was the difference

Well yesterday, the match between Trinidad & Tobago and New South Wales ended in a tie which was finally decided by a super over where an extra over is bowled and the team which scores most number of runs in that over is declared as the winner. Not many people would accept that theory with one over being unable to predict or decide who the winner of the match would be. That super-over theory is nothing but a sort of lucky dip. Whatever, a score of 139 should have been chased down by New South Wales. Thank God! The match ended in a tie.

One can go through the scorecard to see that none of the batsmen from both the teams managed to score a half century with the highest individual score of the match being scored by Lendi Simmons from Trinidad & Tobago. A fascinating aspect would be that the very first batsman to take to the batting crease happened to be the top scorer of the game. With both teams being unable to strike the ball at will, it can be concluded that batting was not an easy job on that track and bowlers could have done anything to the batsmen there.

It was Ravi Rampaul towards the end of the innings who started to strike the ball not because the pitch had deteriorated but because it was the fag end of the innings and going for big shots was the need of that time. Or else, none of the batsmen until then had a strike rate of even 150 with the highest one being Kevon Cooper's 133.33 who came in just behind Ravi Rampaul. The second highest individual score was the top score in New South Wales team which was scored by the New South Wales' opener - David Warner who scored 38.

One reason why the match ended in a tie is because the T&T captain didn't go in for a sixth bowler by sticking to a five bowler theory. All was well until Ravi Rampaul's 4^th over went for 16 runs which made him the most expensive bowler. And, much to anybody's amazement, that was the final over of the game when New South Wales needed 17 runs off the last over. Until then Ravi's bowling analysis showed 3-0-26-1 still under just 9.00 an over. Having such a bowler bowl the last over was a mistake. Added to that, Rampaul was the one who bowled the super over.

Alas! Mumbai couldn't lose

One has to wonder is it because of the absence of the star batsman Sachin Tendulkar which is responsible for the Mumbai Indians to perform so badly despite winning the match. There is absolutely no doubt that towards the end of the match all the fans and supporters of Mumbai Indians would go home with a smile on their face but that would not be the case with their heart beats. They heart beats might have simply doubled looking at the way the batsmen of their favorite team played. Mumbai Indians did Warriors (who got their winning runs in the last ball of the game against RCB) yesterday.

One can go through the batting chart of Trinidad & Tobago to see that they couldn't play their complete 20 overs. This is one mistake that teams seldom do. Yesterday, it looked as though Trinidad & Tobago had accepted defeat even before half of the match was still awaiting. They played just 16.2 overs with 3.8 overs still left in the play. Anytime, in cricket, more scores on the board makes the opposition to concentrate more and work more in an attempt to achieve victory. At the end of the game, no doubt T&T would be cursing themselves for their debacle.

With a total of 98 giving the Mumbai Indians a run for their money, one can imagine what would have happened in case the T&T had played their full quota of 20 overs. The T&T team kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and even the batsmen who came in later didn't ever think of undoing the damage that their seniors did. They could have just played their natural game when at that point of time, winning was totally out of question for T&T. There have been many matches where mere totals have been defended and huge ones chased down successfully.

It would be worth mentioning Yuzvendra Chahal's 13 run over in that 98 ball innings of T&T that managed only 98 runs. However, coming to the Mumbai's innings, criticisms would have poured in from all over for such an approach. A win at the end might not be able to stop all tongues from wagging against Mumbai. Two sixes from Mumbai came in from number 8 and 9 batsmen when Harbhajan Singh and Malinga were the ones who were responsible.Another major mistake that T&T made was opting for only 5 bowlers like a programmed device. In the end T&T got everything wrong which doesn't mean Mumbai had everything right.

No one can be a threat to Aussies from WI

Well I wonder as to whether one has to cite so specially that medium pacers from the West Indies can never trouble Australia in the on going 5 match one day series between the two countries? All that the West Indian pace attack at present in the series could boast about was the presence of Darren Sammy and Dwayne Smith, both of whom stand nowhere when it comes to the recent list of all time fast bowling greats. Now, the lone addition to the armory of the West Indian fast bowling line up is Kemar Roach who is thought to be available for the series decider at Gabba.

Even Kemar Roach is yet to make a name for himself in the list of fast bowlers. May be that at present, in this series or even worse, only in the upcoming 4^th one day scheduled at Gabba, Kemar Roach can consider himself to be ahead of all other fast bowlers of his team. However, the lone fast bowler who could have been of a little bit of trouble for the Australian team would have been Dwayne Bravo, who is found battling injuries off late and has been replaced by a batsman in Wavell Hinds. This has been the strength of the West Indies fast bowling line up.

Forget about winning a series match against Australia, the West Indies team at present can't even think of losing after giving a tough fight to the hosts. And all that the West Indian fast bowling line up is found to have medium pace bowlers and no fast bowlers of the caliber of say Ambrose or Bishop. The lone bowler who could and up with a 4 wicket haul until now has been Ravi Rampaul who ended up with figures of 4/61 from his 10 overs giving away runs at the rate of 6.1 an over as compared to the below 5 an over run rate that Australia maintained in that game.

On the otherhand, Australia have more batsmen than the bowlers that the West Indies team can boast. West Indies bowling line up at present also includes the likes of Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds who are rather considered as batsmen than bowlers. Australia have in them batsmen of the caliber of Shane Watson, Mike Hussey, Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke who can rip out any opposition let alone West Indies. By the way, the West Indies bowling line up can, with good fortune rock only non test playing nations with a doubt whether they can do the same regarding even Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

Whom did rain rescue?

Well leading cricket websites suggest that rain spoils West Indies' fortune when the 3rd one day international was called off due to rain at Sydney. Is it that rain played a spoilsport when West Indies were above to lose the third one day match also against Australia? West Indies, in the past two one dayers have not even managed to cross the 200 run mark and suffered humiliating defeats like never before. It is a pity that West Indies are playing Australia, when in case their caliber is taken into consideration have to play some non test playing nation or atleast Bangladesh.

Australia no doubt put up a modest of totals when they were restricted to just 225 on board by the West Indies' bowlers (which may be the case, no guarantee). The story could also be that the Australian batsmen might have taken the West Indian bowlers lightly and as a result paid a partly price by scoring the lowest total in the tournament against the West Indies. It was only Ravi Rampaul who could be the highlight of the day when he returned with figures of 4/61 from his quota of 10 overs. The other side of the coin also suggesting that Ravi went in for over 6.0 runs an over compared to the overall run rate of just above 4.0 an over.

On the other hand, it would be worth highlighting the bowling performance of Dwayne Smith who returned with figures of 3/45 from 10 overs at a run rate of 4.5 an over. May be that his experience also counted to his performance to some extent. As batsmen kept on collapsing on one side the incoming batsmen were more cautious and were found playing their innings more seriously compared to their batting counterparts. It was the tail end batsman in Ryan Harris who hit the lone six of the Australian innings and returned with a strike rate of 233 which was more than 2 runs a ball.

And when it comes to the West Indies batting, it was fascinating to see the entire 6 runs that was on the board towards the West Indies side was scored by extras alone. West Indies, moreover were set a target of 151 runs from 24 overs which was more than 6 runs an over as compared to the run rate of just above 4 an over had the match not been interrupted. West Indies had faced Australia some three years back in the then VB series which was a tri series involving Pakistan as the third team. West Indies had reduced Australia to 41/5 in the league match which was abandoned due to rain. But, this time rain ruined Australia's chances of whitewashing the West Indies.