Hmm..this is for the second time in the tournament that India have lost with Sachin Tendulkar scoring a century. But, as most of the tongues wag, I don't blame it on the maestro keeping in mind various superstitions. When cricket is a team game, leaving something completely upon one player is just stupid and a shameful act as well as cowardly. One can go through the scorecard of yesterday's game between India and South Africa at Nagpur to see what actually happened. If not for the opening duo, no other batsmen really stood to the occasion. Of course, Gambhir did.
But, with the likes of Yousuf Pathan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh being there in the team and that too in full form, things should have been a lot better. India were at one stage charging in at 267/1 at the end of the 40th over at over six an over and with ten more overs still to go. The total seemed to be somewhere close to 400 with all the aforementioned batsmen and tail-end batsmen like Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan who can do their bit with the bat at the fag end of the innings. Oh! I forgot to mention Kohli.
With such a strong batting line up and with such a great initial start, something much was expected and unfortunately, the total ended 4 runs less than 300. But still, all was not lost with the Indian bowlers being capable of doing things as expected with Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Ashish Nehra being among top wicket takers for the team. They did well initially when South Africa were at one stage 247/6 after at one stage being at 223/3. 13 runs were needed from the last over and my goodness! I wonder how that was possible under that much pressure!
Failures with both the bat as well as the ball should and must draw all sorts of criticism no matter who scored a hundred or who held their nerves to restrict the opposition when there were 6 other batsmen who got out scoring single digit runs or just above the ten run mark and someone like Ashish Nehra who gave away 65 runs from 8.5 overs at 7 and a half an average that included the last over. I don't discourage Dhoni for giving the last over to Nehra instead I criticize him for under-using his bowlers when Sehwag & Sachin Tendulkar could have bowled.
Showing posts with label Hashim Amla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hashim Amla. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Friday, 4 March 2011
Who gives a damn about Holland?
Well as expected and as usual, yesterday South Africa beat Holland by 231 runs at Mohali to become the fourth nation in this world cup to have registered a 200+ run margin of victory after Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies did it against Canada, Kenya and Holland respectively. Likewise, Holland was the victim of such a batting display for the second time after West Indies did the same to them four days back. It would just be a waste of time to talk about the South African batsmen who notched centuries and a quickfire 40 off 15 balls who was Duminy.
South Africa were facing Holland for the third time in a world cup and all three world cup games have been memorable ones for the against Holland. In 1996 world cup no matter that South Africa under Hansie Cronje did well to beat all five teams in the round-robin stage but their highest team total came against Holland when they ended their 50 overs piling up 328 runs which was one of the highest team total at that time. South Africa won that game by 160 runs needless to be said. Then in their next encounter in 2007, Herschelle Gibbs smashed 36 runs off an over.
This time, the record for the highest victory margins is seen getting better and better as matches go by. First, it was Sri Lanka who inflicted a 210 run defeat on Canada which was followed by but not bettered by Pakistan who did the same to Kenya when they washed them by 205 runs and then there was the West Indies who crushed Holland by 215 runs to better Sri Lanka's record by another 5 runs. Now, that record as well is broken with South Africa bettering that record by 16 more runs when the margin was 231 runs but of little use.
It is not a match that anyone on earth would cherish no matter what the record books have to say. In 2007, South Africa fell just short of making it to the history books for yet another reason when they ended their innings at 353 at the end of the stipulated 40 overs with still 7 wickets in hand. Had there been further play possible, may be the target of 414 runs set forth by India against Bermuda might have been surpassed. In addition to Gibbs' 36 runs over, Kallis had a 30 run over in the 40th. At the end, with games against England & India yet to come, who cares what happens against Holland?
South Africa were facing Holland for the third time in a world cup and all three world cup games have been memorable ones for the against Holland. In 1996 world cup no matter that South Africa under Hansie Cronje did well to beat all five teams in the round-robin stage but their highest team total came against Holland when they ended their 50 overs piling up 328 runs which was one of the highest team total at that time. South Africa won that game by 160 runs needless to be said. Then in their next encounter in 2007, Herschelle Gibbs smashed 36 runs off an over.
This time, the record for the highest victory margins is seen getting better and better as matches go by. First, it was Sri Lanka who inflicted a 210 run defeat on Canada which was followed by but not bettered by Pakistan who did the same to Kenya when they washed them by 205 runs and then there was the West Indies who crushed Holland by 215 runs to better Sri Lanka's record by another 5 runs. Now, that record as well is broken with South Africa bettering that record by 16 more runs when the margin was 231 runs but of little use.
It is not a match that anyone on earth would cherish no matter what the record books have to say. In 2007, South Africa fell just short of making it to the history books for yet another reason when they ended their innings at 353 at the end of the stipulated 40 overs with still 7 wickets in hand. Had there been further play possible, may be the target of 414 runs set forth by India against Bermuda might have been surpassed. In addition to Gibbs' 36 runs over, Kallis had a 30 run over in the 40th. At the end, with games against England & India yet to come, who cares what happens against Holland?
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Selection only partly responsible for India's loss
Well the moment India lost their first test match to South Africa, the first person to whom all the fingers pointed towards happens to be the selection committee, followed by the captain and in some cases the coach. I don't think that anyone reading this post needs to be reminded specially that cricket is a team sport unlike badminton and table tennis. It was of course not a good selection when someone like Saha, Badrinath and Abhimanyu the included in the squad. If the scorecard of the match is given a close look at, Badrinath and Saha did play upto expectations and Abhimanyu was not included in the playing XI.
Not much was expected from Saha and Badrinath but, they did live upto expectations when Badrinath scored 56 in the first innings that included a 40 run partnership along with Sehwag in the first innings. Later on in the second innings, Saha had his say when he scored 36 runs and stood for 150 balls or 30 overs and almost 2 hours at the crease. All these despite not guaranteed a place in the coming test. Even Murali Vijay was pretty decent with the bat when he scored 32 runs in the second innings. Most of the damage was first done by the bowlers when they let the South African bowlers cut loose.
It is justified the way the Indian bowlers despite playing in the home conditions could allow the South African batsmen not only to pile up 556 runs on the board but also allow a 300+ run partnership between Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis. If there were no Laxman & Dravid in the squad, there were Sachin, Sehwag, Dhoni and Gambhir who could have solved the issue related to batting. Of course, Sehwag and Tendulkar came up with hundreds in the 1st and the 2nd innings respectively. But, Dhoni and Gambhir were absolute failures with the bat in the Nagpur test.
In the bowling department, if not for Zaheer Khan's first spell in the first innings, even he was not upto the mark and so were the other bowlers viz Harbhajan, Ishanth Sharma and Amit Mishra. The bowling department indeed requires some or a lot of refinement. For, someone like Sehwag had to bowl as a full time bowler and that too in a test match under the conditions where the South African batsmen were in full bloom. Luckily Sehwag got a wicket which is a different issue altogether. No matter what the first test squad had to say but, the inclusion of someone like Raina and Sreesanth would be just another blunder for, the former is a new comer to tests and the latter battles injuries most of the time.
Not much was expected from Saha and Badrinath but, they did live upto expectations when Badrinath scored 56 in the first innings that included a 40 run partnership along with Sehwag in the first innings. Later on in the second innings, Saha had his say when he scored 36 runs and stood for 150 balls or 30 overs and almost 2 hours at the crease. All these despite not guaranteed a place in the coming test. Even Murali Vijay was pretty decent with the bat when he scored 32 runs in the second innings. Most of the damage was first done by the bowlers when they let the South African bowlers cut loose.
It is justified the way the Indian bowlers despite playing in the home conditions could allow the South African batsmen not only to pile up 556 runs on the board but also allow a 300+ run partnership between Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis. If there were no Laxman & Dravid in the squad, there were Sachin, Sehwag, Dhoni and Gambhir who could have solved the issue related to batting. Of course, Sehwag and Tendulkar came up with hundreds in the 1st and the 2nd innings respectively. But, Dhoni and Gambhir were absolute failures with the bat in the Nagpur test.
In the bowling department, if not for Zaheer Khan's first spell in the first innings, even he was not upto the mark and so were the other bowlers viz Harbhajan, Ishanth Sharma and Amit Mishra. The bowling department indeed requires some or a lot of refinement. For, someone like Sehwag had to bowl as a full time bowler and that too in a test match under the conditions where the South African batsmen were in full bloom. Luckily Sehwag got a wicket which is a different issue altogether. No matter what the first test squad had to say but, the inclusion of someone like Raina and Sreesanth would be just another blunder for, the former is a new comer to tests and the latter battles injuries most of the time.
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