Trippin' on Nish

IPL posts are on Tumblr

2010-04-02T23:41:00.000-07:00

Current Post: http://tumblr.com/xcf85ekjd

Tumbl on over here: http://trippinonnish.tumblr.com

The Kolkata Test

2010-02-18T11:20:00.000-08:00

The last day of the Kolkata Test was tense and gripping.

Hashim Amla batted as if in a trance. Not one bowler troubled him.
Amit Mishra bowled with a big heart, but got only one wicket on the last day.
Ishant Sharma hurled the ball down in furious anger, though not always on the right line.
Harbhajan Singh was on a mission to win the game for his team.

When AB de Villiers, Duminy and Steyn fell within 10 overs just before tea, India looked liked they would win comfortably. However, the South African tail was defiant and India dropped some crucial catches. Wayne Parnell batted for nearly 20 overs, Harris resisted for a while, and Morne Morkel proved to be one of the toughest number 11's to dislodge.

With only half an hour for the end of play, Dhoni tried Sachin and Sehwag. Yet, Morne didn't budge. Amla went on the back foot and defended calmly. Didn't Amla feel the pressure? What is this man? How is he so serene?

The Indian players were watching the number one rank slip from them with every passing minute. There were only 10 minutes remaining, when Dhoni brought Harbhajan back. He had gone past Morkel's outside edge a couple of times before, and this time he went around the wicket and bowled the straighter one that sped off the pitch, evaded the bat and crashed into Morkel pad below the knee roll. Bhajji knew he had his man and jumped into a full-throated appeal that the umpire agreed with. The finger went up and Bhajji bolted. He ran to lap up the roar of his favorite Garden and reminded the press box in no uncertain terms that he is the 'Man in the Arena.'

This is Test cricket!

The series was drawn 1-1, and India were still the number 1 Test team. One yearned for another match just to watch these gladiators battle again. Maybe, just maybe, if there was one more game then the Indian bowlers could figure out how to dismiss Hashim Amla - the invincible monk.

Who knew VVS could do that?

2010-02-14T12:23:00.000-08:00

When, VVS Laxman dropped a straightforward chance at first slip when Hashim Amla was batting on 60 of Harbhajan Singh, I was thinking how India's misses Rahul Dravid at first slip. The way Amla was batting before and continued to bat after that drop, it was enough to dispirit all Indian supporters. This guy is seriously good, an obtrusively batsman whose strength is totally underestimated.

Things were looking extremely bleak in the drinks break of the second session, when Dhoni had a long chat with his bowlers first and then the entire team, obviously trying to motivate them. Whatever he said worked because Ishant Sharma bowled a hostile spell right after that, bowling his trademark fast in cutters just short of a length along with a generous number of bouncers that had Amla hopping at the crease. That was the moment that inserted some purpose into the Indian bowling. Sharma didn't get a wicket, it was Zaheer Khan who got rid of both century makers, Amla and Alviro Peterson.

However, the moment that captured the fightback for me was VVS Laxman, he of the dodgy knee fame, turn from first slip and hustle after a top edge sweep from Kallis to pouch a fantastic catch dropping over his shoulder. Who knew Laxman could turn and run and like that? Have you seen him turn for a second? it is like watching some heavy earth moving equipment from Caterpillar.

Harbhajan triumphantly raised his arms to the Kolkata crowd. He was back!

Bhajji was unstoppable after the Kallis wicket. It really was like when he was bowling to Australia in the 2001 series. The amount of revolutions he put on the ball generated sharp bounce and made him really dangerous. It was fantastic to watch.

What a day of cricket!

Jacques Kallis

2010-02-07T23:01:00.000-08:00

Just watched Jacques Kallis run in and hurl the ball at 143.5kph in the Nagpur Test.

He also scored 173 runs in the first innings.

How can one person do all that?

Kallis has almost 11,000 runs and 260 wickets in Test cricket.

In my humble opinion he is the most talented all round cricketer since Gary Sobers.

I think his batting average will only drop by 10 points to 45 should he bat left handed.

What a player!

We are lucky to see him play.

India v. South Africa Test series

2010-02-05T17:27:00.000-08:00

I am excited about watching India and South Africa in a Test series. Unfortunately it is only a 2 Test series; still this is infinitely better than the initial plan of playing 7 one day matches.

I enjoyed Dale Steyn's assessment of bowling to Virender Sehwag, particularly this nugget:

“We have been in a situation where we have got him out for nought, we have been in a situation where we have got him out for 300. We have basically got a plan for every run that he has got!"

The Indian batting line up is definitely weakened without the injured Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, and South Africa have a great opportunity to dismiss India for a low score if they get through the openers, Sehwag and Gambhir.

I am pretty happy with the selection of the Test team. Subramaniam Badrinath deserves this chance. I have been waiting for him to be picked to be play Test cricket for a while now. He has already proven his temperament by winning a one day game for India by batting well against Murali and Mendis. I saw him play in the IPL, and he has done well in the 20:20’s too. It is pretty remarkable the way he has adjusted to all forms of the game. I believe that he is as ready as anyone can be for a Test debut. Rohit Sharma is lucky to be going from being dropped from the one day team, to now being selected for the Test team and most likely make his debut because of Laxman’s injury. However, he has scored a lot of runs in the Ranji season, so he has earned his spot. The only newcomer who has proven himself at the Test level is Murali Vijay, who has done very well as the backup opener. Plus he is an excellent fielder close to the stumps, and this will definitely help the Indian spinners, Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra/Pragyan Ojha.

The ones who missed out: I watched Dinesh Karthik keep in the second Test against Bangladesh, and his collection technique is worrisome. He doesn’t seem to watch the ball all the way into his gloves, and I think the only reason his keeping hasn’t been totally horrible is that he is a very good athlete who is quick on his feet. The whole slip cordon looks much safer when Dhoni is keeping. Dhoni may not look fluid while keeping, but he is very effective. I am not surprised that Karthik has been dropped. Wriddhiman Saha I think is a natural keeper and is rated highly by Brendon McCullum. We don’t need bad keepers costing us Test matches, we have already tried the Parthiv Patel experiment.

Manish Pandey is an exciting prospect. I didn’t see him bat in the Ranji final, but I saw his 100 in the 2009 IPL in South Africa, and I thought he played some great shots along with the streaky ones. I don’t know yet if he is ready for international cricket. He might well be, as indicated by his 144 in the second innings of the Ranji final, but he should play the ODI’s first. It was highly unlikely that he was going to be selected for the South Africa Tests.

Abhimanyu Mithun has done very well in the Ranji trophy and I think he was picked because he has the pace. The express bowler always gets an earlier look in than the other bowlers. Which is fair, enough, however, R Vinay Kumar will be wondering whether he will ever get picked.

Alright, let us enjoy some Test cricket!

Shah Rukh is back!

2009-04-15T10:41:00.001-07:00

This is a hilarious piece by Lawrence Booth. The best line; How, asked one journalist, would he get the best out of the Kolkata Knight Riders this year? "This season I'm sleeping with all of them!" he joshed. "Whatever it takes."

Dhoni's rejuvenation of Indian One Day Cricket

2008-03-04T23:39:00.000-08:00

"Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their player and motivate." - Vince Lombardi, NFL Head Coach for the Green Bay Packers.

Vince Lombardi was talking about coaching, but it can be just as easily applied to captaincy, especially of a team that does not even have a head coach. Can one man change the course of a sports team?

Yes, absolutely!

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, captain of the Indian One Day cricket team has just done that.

His young Indian team has won the 2008 Commmonwealth Bank tri-series in Australia, handily outplaying the world champions in two successive games. In less than a year, Dhoni has dramatically altered the course of India's limited over cricket. Those who saw the plodding Indian team that got knocked out after a mere 3 games in the 2007 World Cup will find it hard to recognize the current Indian One Day side and the ebullience with which it plays the game. Dhoni has shown tremendous leadership in building the team ever since he was appointed captain of the Twenty 20 side in September 2007. He was fortuitous that the senior Indian players - Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly - sat out of that tournament. Dhoni was given the freedom to express himself on a young team, but nobody would have expected his young guns to actually win the World Twenty 20. In that campaign he showed that he is not just a natural leader but one who also has a deep understanding of what it takes to win. He is a keen tactician who is acutely aware of his side’s strengths and weaknesses. He was appointed captain of the one day side after that win and was immediately up against a mighty Australian side that was bent upon revenge for their Twenty 20 humiliation. The seniors were brought back in the one day side that went on to lose the home series 4-2 to the superior Australian side but in the following series they managed to hold off the Pakistanis 3-2. All great leaders have the ability to learn from their losses, and Dhoni is a fast learner. He realized that there was no way that India were going to beat Australia when they had so many liabilities in the field, thus for the CB Triangular series he demanded a young and athletic team from the Indian selectors. The selectors had faith in their man and gave him the team he wanted.

Dhoni made missteps along the way, he got his batting lineup wrong in the early matches in Australia but he made changes as the tri-series progressed and he realized that his bowlers had the wood on the Australian team. He didn’t want to give their batsmen a chance to get back into form, so he dropped the notion of the part-time bowler and went in with five bowlers for the latter half of the series. Most importantly he showed the rest of his team, how to bat responsibly. Young firebrands like Robin Uthappa adapted saying that if an attacking batsman like Dhoni can change his game, so can he. Gautam Gambhir transformed from a hit or miss player to become the highest run scorer of the tournament. Before the Finals when scribes asked Dhoni about Sachin Tendulkar’s lack of runs in the tournament, Dhoni replied “Sachin has 16000 runs, and I haven’t even faced 16000 balls.”

Sachin along with Uthappa provided India their two best opening partnerships of the series in the finals against Australia and this went a long way toward India winning the trophy. Tendulkar played two of the finest back to back innings in the finals, bringing back memories of his 1998 Sharjah histrionics against Australia. This has to be Sachin’s finest hour in one day cricket; he laid his heart out there on the field for two successive matches and emerged exhausted but victorious. Dhoni continued his five bowler theory in the finals, he had cleverly hidden the young leggie Piyush Chawla until then and was bold in giving the new ball to the newbie Praveen Kumar. Kumar was a revelation, he has been aptly labeled a “magician” by one of India’s finest swing bowlers, Manoj Prabhakar. Kumar took 6 wickets in the two games, nailing Ponting and Gilchrist in both games. Dhoni’s best bowler in the series Ishant Sharma had to miss the second final with a finger injury but he got the tempest in a tea-cup, Shantakumaran Sreesanth, to step up. At the end of it all, he was calmly smiling and watching his team mates celebrate. It was as if he knew his team was going to win.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has managed to get inside all his players, including Sachin, and has motivated them to a great victory.

India Conquers Perth

2008-01-19T02:35:00.000-08:00

If you had asked any cricket journalist or commentator about the Perth Test, they would have all marked it down as one for Australia. Everybody acknowledged that India had no chance at the WACA. I was one of them as well and we all were shown up to be a little foolish with our predictions.

Yes, the pitch did have both pace and bounce, although not as much as advertised, but the fact is India bowled better on it than Australia. The two left arm bowlers for India, RP Singh and Irfan Pathan swung the ball consistently, with Pathan making a fantastic comeback to the team with both bat and ball. He got the two Australian openers in both innings and got absolutely vital runs with the bat in the second innings. But, the find of the tour has been Ishant Sharma. His bowling to Ricky Ponting in the first session of the fourth day was incredible. He bowled 7 of the most incisive overs to the best batsman in the world and gave him a complete working over. Sharma nipped the ball into Ponting’s hip, his abdomen, and his pads before finally nailing him with the one that shaped in and then held its line off the pitch. That was the wicket India wanted in the morning session and Sharma delivered. It was a champion’s performance, and to think that the kid is only 19 years old. Unbelievable.

Anil Kumble’s has led his team wonderfully well on this tour, and his captaincy was once again spot on. His bowlers responded well, and he himself chipped in with the vital wicket of Andrew Symonds, whose luck with the umpires seems to have finally deserted him. Just when it looked like Australia might get some momentum going with Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist building a mini partnership, Kumble threw the ball to Sehwag who promptly got drift and sharp turn to bowl Gillie around his legs. Dhoni capped off his excellent performance behind the stumps with a stunning stumping of Clarke. Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark threw their bats at everything causing a few flutters, before Pathan came back to restore common sense with the second new ball. It was a terrific team performance from India and to comeback in such a stunning manner after being robbed at the Sydney Test speaks volumes of the spirit that exists in the team.

Australia cannot but think of how India has twice interrupted their record breaking streak of 16 wins right at the finish line. Australia loses and VVS Laxman has top scored for India once again, it is remarkable.

It is a beautiful game, this thing called cricket.

The Perth Comeback

2008-01-17T17:42:00.000-08:00

That this Indian cricket team is no pushover away from home has been evident for quite a few tours, but their performance at Perth has been nothing short of outstanding. Anil Kumble set the tone in his pre-match comments about the hype surrounding the fast and bouncy pitch; “It's more mental than in the middle.” Kumble called Australia’s bluff, and by the second day not only had India’s three young fast bowlers out bowled Australia’s 4 pronged pace attack but Tendulkar and Dravid had put on a determined first day batting partnership that could yet define this Test match.

India’s fast bowling resources have improved tremendously and the bench strength has also picked up so much that even the second string of bowlers are truly competitive at the international level. Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel were all unavailable through injuries, but the young men waiting in line stepped up to the task admirably. RP Singh has led the pace attack with undeniable skill, energy and stamina in both Sydney and Perth, while Ishant Sharma in only his third Test turned the match on its head with an outstanding spell of seam bowling and snared the wickets of Ponting and Clarke with two outstanding deliveries that would have made Glenn McGrath proud. Earlier Irfan Pathan brought his effervescence back to the cricket ground with his now familiar gravity defying leap of joy after getting two wickets with the new ball. Pathan and RP Singh swung the ball beautifully throughout the innings and showed that the commentators who have been bemoaning the scarcity of swing bowlers in the world haven’t been watching this Indian attack. At 5-61, Australia were in unchartered waters, but Symonds and Gilchrist launched a belligerent counter attack scoring at nearly 7 an over while Kumble kept attacking fields. The partnership was becoming threatening before Kumble got the crucial breakthrough with the wicket of Symonds with a trademark “jumbo” ball that bounced and kissed the edge of the bat, popped up of Dhoni’s gloves into the safe hands of Rahul Dravid. RP Singh then got Gilchrist with a brute of a ball that reared up and the batsman could only fend it into Dhoni’s gloves. In the sapping 40 degree heat RP Singh continued to bowl in the low 140 kph and helped clean up the tail in quick time. Australia were bowled out in 50 overs, and India had 118 run lead; it was a brilliant bowling performance with every single bowler pulling his weight.

One could sense the pressure of the lead on Australia’s bowlers as they came back to bowl at the Indian batsmen on the same day. Worry was writ large on Ricky Ponting’s face as Sehwag rattled off boundaries, and he pushed a man to deep point and third man in a bid to contain the dangerous Veeru. If Australia don’t get Sehwag early tomorrow, they are well and truly out of this Test match, but even if they do get him early it will require a tremendous bowling performance to get rid of the confident Indian batting line up cheaply enough for the Australians to have an outside shot at winning this Test match.

Sydney 2008

2008-01-07T01:11:00.000-08:00

A team that is as successful as this Australian cricket team will face envy and indignation just like the New England Patriots or even the heavily bankrolled New York Yankees. There is no doubt that these are all exceptional sports teams, their desire to win is an all encompassing fire that burns within. That is why Michael Clarke is able to come on in the last 10 minutes of the game and bowl 11 deliveries right on the money. While the indomitable Anil Kumble, who has the same spirit coursing through his veins, was able to play out Clarke’s first over with aplomb and even execute a perfect back foot drive to the boundary, the second over proved to be too much for Harbhajan, RP Singh and the nervous Ishant Sharma. Poor Ishant even came out to bat with the wrong glove, and had a bewildered look on his face after he edged the ball to first slip. Any which way you look at it, three wickets in one over to close out a Test match in the last six minutes of the fifth day is just incredible.

Yet, the Test match left a sour taste in the mouth that will linger for a long time. On the first day, Steve Bucknor showed that his hearing is on the wane when he didn’t hear Andrew Symonds edge the ball to the wicketkeeper, and on the fifth day he showed that his eyesight is following suit when he gave Dravid out caught behind off his pad, when the bat was tucked away miles behind the pad. It was an atrocious decision and prompted the Indian team manager, Chetan Chauhan, to term the umpires as “incompetent”; as well he might. WG Grace was right, people don’t come to watch the umpires, they come to watch the players, therefore technology should and must be used to make sure that umpires do not become the centerpiece of a cricket match. But, the sourness in the mouth wasn’t just because of the umpires, in their quest to equal the world record for consecutive Test wins, the Australian team seems to have forgotten why we play this wonderful game of Cricket, how sport has the power to bring nations closer, to bring different cultures together as they watch the game and appreciate it for the athleticism and skill on display. With their boorish appealing and righteous claiming of bump balls they have chosen to alienate a generation of cricket watchers and to cause people to not just envy them, but to even hate them. They have some mighty fine cricketers amongst them who don’t deserve that.

But, let us not lose perspective, in his infinite wisdom; Anil Kumble did say “It is only a game.” There is definitely no need to create a diplomatic row over a game of cricket.

Yet, what could do just that, is the Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds incident, which has become an issue of national honor for India. Symonds accused Harbhajan of calling him a “monkey”, which if he did is unforgivable considering the controversy that occurred while Australia were in India. It appears to be one man’s word against another, but the match referee Mike Proctor heard the witnesses and decided that there is sufficient evidence to ban Harbhajan for 3 Test matches. It is a staggering outcome, and one is immediately reminded of the Oval Test match between Pakistan and England; a ball tampering fiasco which led to the first ever forfeiture of a Test match. If Bhajji didn’t say those words he should fight the charge and clear his name. The Indian team appears to have rallied around their man and in a tit for tat have accused Brad Hogg of calling an Indian player a “bastard.” That hearing will probably be on Monday. The situation is fraught and is at a tipping point, India may pull out of the tour.

The Sydney Test of 2008 will live on in infamy.

Australia 1, BCCI 0

2007-12-30T13:11:00.000-08:00

India didn't lose the first Test match, BCCI did. Since the BCCI thinks that Team India is a separate entity from the board, I would like to apportion the wins and losses accordingly. India didn't lose the game because Dravid batted slow in the first innings, India lost the game because their own cricket board did everything in its power to ensure that this Indian team was the least prepared team in the history of Australian cricket to start a Test match. India had one tour game before the first Test and rain ensured that only 48 overs were possible. When Bangladesh toured Australia in the winter of 2003, they played three practice games before their first Test. Woefully under prepared would be an understatement. All this implies that the BCCI doesn’t care about the team’s preparation. Don’t they realize that when the team loses, they lose too? Don’t they realize that they are a part of Team India?

When asked about the lack of practice matches, the BCCI secretary, Niranjan Shah, had this to say; “These are professional cricketers and must learn to adapt quickly.” Maybe the BCCI also should become professional! Shah is making a last minute trip down under so that the cricketers can avoid taxation by the Australian Tax Office under a new a tax law implemented since July 2004 on all professional sportspersons and entertainers performing in Australia. The BCCI didn’t even know about the changes in tax laws of Australia because they probably didn’t read the Memorandum of Understanding for the tour. Apparently the BCCI hasn’t signed the MoU yet, and the first Test match is already over. Such is the incompetence by a board that ideally should take care of everything so that the players can concentrate on cricket. It is no wonder that Rahul Dravid quit from captaincy and that captaincy reduced Sourav Ganguly to a mere shell of a batsman toward the end of his tenure.

As for the cricket, one could see that the Indian batsmen were totally under prepared especially the players on their first tour, Jaffer, Yuvraj and Dhoni. They didn’t stand a chance. Even among the old timers on their third tour apart from Tendulkar; whose genius shone through and Ganguly, who timed the ball beautifully; the other two stalwarts, Laxman and Dravid, had to work hard for their runs, and did appear more fluent in the second innings. Let us not forget the bowlers, Kumble is a champion, but perhaps if the fast bowlers had more time to adjust their lengths to the Australian pitches then maybe Australia would have been bundled out for much less in their first innings.

It is all too late now; the BCCI has lost the first Test to Australia, let us see what the Indian team can do in the next three.

Captain Kumble

2007-12-26T01:19:00.000-08:00

Anil Kumble is a giant among cricketers. His performance on the first day of the Boxing Day Test match at the MCG against Australia has set the performance standard for the Indian team on this tour. Today he had figures of 5-84 in 25 overs of a masterclass in spin bowling on a first day track.

In his last 4 Tests in Australia Anil Kumble has taken 29 wickets! Just to put that in perspective, Shane Warne took 23 wickets in the five Ashes Tests against England in the 2006 Australian season. In this Test, Kumble will have one more innings to add to those figures. It is not too shabby for a guy who doesn't turn the ball.

On a flat first day pitch at the MCG, Kumble used the googly, the top spinner, the leg break and the width of the bowling crease to conjure up 5 of the most magical wickets. And he did this after the Australian openers had piled on 135 runs without losing a wicket. It was a performance of gigantic impact.

It is pretty strange listening to commentators who while showering praise on Kumble's bowling, still describe him as leg spinner who unlike Warne doesn't turn the ball much. One would think that after nearly 600 Test wickets the time has come to stop pre-facing all analysis of Kumble's bowling with phrases such as "Unlike other spinners, Kumble is not a big turner ..." Enough already, we know that!! Kumble is Kumble, a giant among cricketers who with his inspiring leadership is proving that he is a Giant Among Men.

How not to tackle a problem

2007-10-17T22:57:00.001-07:00

Ignore it, and think it will go away.
Deny there is a problem.
Blame the victim and say “It is all a misunderstanding.”

The Baroda crowd at the fifth one day international started the racist monkey chant; Andrew Symonds reported the issue and the BCCI response revealed a dinosaur who hasn’t yet realized that he is on a path to extinction. Even more appalling was the response from the Baroda Police Commissioner C.P. Thakur “Symonds mistook their chanting for racial abuse because he couldn't understand what they're saying. Obviously he can't understand Gujarati and Hindi languages." The BCCI secretary, Niranjan Shah, said that Symonds shouldn’t feel bad because it is all a misunderstanding and that the “Truth is the Truth”.

Not only does the best player of the series have to tolerate racial abuse, does he also have to be labeled a liar by the BCCI secretary? This is no way to treat a visiting team. In the last one day game at Mumbai, Symonds had to listen to the racist jeers as he walked in to bat and also had to listen to it when he walked back to the pavilion. Instead of feeling happy that India got another wicket, it was revulsion that I felt, a revulsion at who we are. An Australian photographer took pictures of the crowd's appalling behavior and only then did the BCCI acknowledge the problem. The police booked four people from the Wankhede Stadium for "misbehavior!" I think we need new hate crime laws in the Indian Penal Code.

Look at yourselves, you are disgusting.

These bastards should be banned from all International cricket matches across all stadiums in India for at least 5 years. The BCCI should maintain a database of these cricket hooligans and make sure that they are never allowed to enter another cricket stadium in India.

Racial abuse was showered on the West Indies players during their 2002 tour at multiple venues, so let us not pretend that this is just an isolated incident with Andrew Symonds. Indian cricket has a spectator problem.

Acknowledging that there is a problem is the first step toward solving it.

The Way Forward

2007-04-28T00:54:00.000-07:00

The manner in which cricket is being played is at a significant inflection point. On one hand you have the absolute aggression from the Australian team and on the other you have the artistic flair of the Sri Lankans.

Among the four semifinalists, Sri Lanka is the only team that is unique. South Africa tried to imitate Australia so much so that they fell flat on their faces still not sure about who they are nor who they want to be. New Zealand made a genuine attempt at being like Australia but lacked the required match winners in the mould of a Martin Crowe or a Chris Cairns. Only Sri Lanka hasn’t tried to be like Australia, their captain Mahela Jayawardene is the epitome of the Zen like quality and quite self belief with which they play their cricket. He played the finest innings yet in this World Cup in the semifinals against New Zealand, gradually playing himself in before caressing and finessing the ball to all parts of the ground in a beautiful crescendo of the finest strokes touched by surreal timing.

Australia play a brand of power cricket that is domineering and many other countries have fallen into the trap of trying to play like the Aussies without realizing that Australia have chosen this method only after being the number one cricketing power for a long time. Australia didn’t always play like this, in the 1999 World Cup they had to battle hard after early losses and were lucky to get past South Africa. It was Steve Waugh who pioneered this approach in Test cricket and Ricky Ponting carried it onto the one day games. Ponting is now the primary enforcer of this approach in both forms of the game and the team appears to have absorbed his personality. But, even they have tripped up with this 'all guns blazing' approach, remember the Adelaide Test match against India when they had the first innings lead till the fourth day and yet lost the Test match. In their unbeaten run in the 2003 World Cup if not Andrew Symonds’ spectacular innings against Pakistan it could have been a very different tournament. In this World Cup they haven’t even been challenged in any of their games, and Sri Lanka may be the only team who can. I actually think it was a pretty good strategy to hide Murali and Malinga from the Australian batters and it looks like it might pay dividends because the Aussies seem pretty worked up about it. I find it pretty hypocritical of the Aussies to quibble about Sri Lanka resting its players and to comment about how 'that is not they way we play our cricket.' In the 1996 World Cup they didn’t even bother showing up for their games in Sri Lanka. Lest I forget, let me quickly add that the boycott was out of concerns about safety!

Sanath Jayasuriya is probably the only Sri Lankan player who approaches the game in the Aussie way but he is a man all unto himself. The one area in which there are similarities between the two sides is the fielding. Sri Lanka is one of the superior fielding sides in the world, and this side is a far cry from the round belly days of Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva. Tillekeratne Dilshan is breathtaking in the field and will match the intensity of the Aussies. The Australian bowling attack led by the peerless Glenn McGrath has taken the most wickets in the tournament, but Sri Lanka does possess two of the most exotic and talented bowlers in the history of cricket in Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga. If at all you are thinking twice about watching the final, then watch it just for these two, they are a sight to behold.

The style in which three of the semifinalists play their cricket seems to be an indication of which brand of cricket will prevail, but for this one last game, the 2007 World Cup Final, we have the artistry of the Lankans versus the aggression of the Aussies and the sheer genius of the artist may yet delay the inevitable.

The BCCI

2007-04-09T18:42:00.000-07:00

One tends to forget that the BCCI has a lot of power over the players mainly because most of the administrators are merely concerned about remaining in power and use it only to further that agenda. Sharad Pawar seems to be made of a different mould, not afraid to wield the stick in a judicious manner. Pawar, of course is a skilled politician who appears to understand timing better than all the current Indian batsmen. While the players were busy fighting their battle through the media with an entirely inappropriate smear campaign against the coach Greg Chappell, Pawar called in former India captains to lend respectability and approval to a range of decision that firmly puts the errant senior players in their place while at the same time implementing far reaching changes to reform the BCCI.

Some of the striking pronouncements of change from Pawar’s working committee include deciding to scrap the zonal selection panel in both the senior and junior selection committee and appointing full-time paid selectors for a 2 year period, directing the selectors to pick a young team led by Rahul Dravid for the Bangladesh tour, appointing a permanent manager for the Indian team on a 2 year term, limiting sponsor endorsement to no more than 2 players, dictating that the players submit a copy of their endorsement agreement and issuing a remarkable notice to Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh to explain their remarks to the media. Last but not the least the BCCI has thrown out the current single coach system and adopted an NFL style Manager in Ravi Shastri to oversee a team of specialist coaches for bowling, Venkatesh Prasad, and fielding, Robin Singh. The latter have had success with the Under-19 and India-A teams. These two appointees along with the decision to retain Dravid as captain and the offer to Chappell to remain a BCCI employee as a Consultant at the National Cricket Academy is clear signal that Pawar has placed faith with the BCCI appointed men and sends a strong message to the players that mutinies are not allowed.

These significant changes and exercising of authority have been camouflaged by the red herring that is the restriction on number of endorsements. While everybody discusses the legality of the 3 endorsement restriction on cricketers and their loss of income, Pawar can quietly reform the anachronistic workings of the BCCI.

Sometimes one need a significant shock to the system to reform it and Sharad Pawar has correctly recognized the public mood and chosen the appropriate time to implement drastic changes. Pawar is certainly wielding a big stick, and even the past master of the BCCI, Jagmohan Dalmiya will nod in agreement when I say “Well done, Mr. Pawar your timing is exceptional.”

Sachin Tendulkar

2007-04-01T03:19:00.000-07:00

19 Tests, 914 Runs, Highest score 109, Average 31.51 with 1 century and 6 fifties.

The above figures are Sachin’s Test match numbers after his elbow injury in 2004; I have excluded the double hundred against Bangladesh. For somebody who used to average in the high 50’s these are damning statistics and indicate that something has gone wrong with his batting. Yet, we are prepared to give great players extra leeway because they can produce decisive innings that can change the course of a match and therefore his selection hasn’t borne much questioning. But, in the last couple of years, we haven’t seen this happening and in fact on all occasions when Tendulkar had the opportunity to impose himself on the game, he has frozen into a zombie like batting mode. It began with the torturous 98 ball 16 in the third Test against Pakistan in Bangalore in 2005, but that can be glossed over because we were trying to save a Test match, but more damaging was the 62 ball 14 against South Africa in the second innings of the third Test earlier this year when India were in a great position to win an away Test series. This strange mode of batting that he adopts can be classified at best as poor judgment and at worst timid and defeatist. The only decisive innings after the elbow injury has been the sparkling second innings 55 against Australia in Mumbai in November 2004, where he along with VVS Laxman set up a consolation victory for India. It has been a long time since that knock.

You must be wondering why am I talking about his Test match statistics right after a India exited the one day World Cup? Well, some people have suggested that Sachin should be dropped from the one day team and should only play in Test matches. The truth is that his Test match batting doesn’t even earn him a spot in the playing eleven, and in fact his one day batting has been far superior. He has played some wonderful one day innings in the recent past including dominating centuries against Sri Lanka, West Indies and Pakistan. I still believe that if Sachin had been opening in the World Cup, India would have probably made it past the group stage and to the Super 8’s but would have struggled and embarrassed themselves against far more professional sides. Tendulkar still can bat and probably knows more about batting technique than most people in this world. Yet, something seems to be wrong with his mind, instead of getting stronger with experience like Rahul Dravid, he seems to be getting more fragile. Maybe the constant pressure and adulation of the Indian cricket fan for the last 17 years has worn him down.

He is still young, turning 34 in April, and I don’t think anybody has the right to tell Sachin Tendulkar when he should retire, only he knows that. At the same time, Ian Chappell was well within his rights in asking Sachin to look in the mirror and consider quitting. Introspection is needed Sachin. Why are you batting like this? Is it because of the waning of your physical powers, which should make quitting an easier decision or is it a mental thing? If it is the latter, are you prepared to accept it and do you have the motivation to conquer it? You know that you have nothing left to achieve.

The Man in the Arena

2007-03-28T02:50:00.000-07:00

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Teddy Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910

Rahul Dravid is the man in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. He was the last batsman standing against Sri Lanka, and failed while daring greatly. He should not be sacked just because the people are angry after the World Cup fiasco. Let us not sacrifice India’s greatest batsman in a moment of anger, don’t forget that his resilience is the sole reason that we have won Test matches in England, Australia, Pakistan and West Indies. Don’t say that this man doesn’t bleed for Indian cricket and that he is more concerned about making money than playing cricket. Not only is that wrong, but it is merely the envious back biting of bitter critics who neither know victory nor defeat. Yet, there was a failure in strategy at the World Cup and he along with Greg Chappell must be partly blamed for that. The rest of the blame must fall on the selectors and the BCCI because they are as much a part of the Indian team as are the 15 playing members. The World Cup failure is as much their failure as it is Dravid and company’s. A year ago, Chappell had these prophetic words, “Ignore youth at your peril” ,“Only one of the best fielding sides will win the World Cup”, yet the Indian team that went to the World Cup was none of these and exited after the first round, shown up by hungrier and sharper teams. Chappell couldn’t follow through on his vision and I don’t see him succeeding in implementing it, maybe it was because he had too many detractors in India, but if that is the case I don’t see the system changing quickly enough for him to succeed. In the end I was glad to see him beat down the inflammatory questions thrown at him by the intemperate members of the Indian media at his last press conference at the World Cup.

I am more concerned about who will be Captain than who will be the Coach. At present, I don’t see anybody else who is more suited to Indian captaincy than Rahul Dravid. Bringing back Ganguly as captain would probably be the most myopic thing Indian cricket can do. Among the younger players, Sehwag remains an enigma in the one day games and Yuvraj Singh, probably our best one day player, hasn’t yet proven himself in the Test matches. Even if we appoint someone as the captain of the one day team only, we are in effect grooming him to take over the Test team within a couple of years. This factor alone is the reason why I wouldn’t name Yuvraj as the one day captain, yet.

If we take a look at our itinerary for the rest of the year; apart from Bangladesh, we have three arduous away tours against England, Pakistan and Australia. I would retain Rahul Dravid as captain till the end of the year, study the performance of the younger players on the three tours and pick the best young player to be the Captain of the one day team; it could be Sehwag, Yuvraj, Irfan Pathan, Dinesh Kaarthik or Mohd. Kaif. In fact we will be pretty sure who the candidate is mid way through the Australian tour and can even appoint this person to lead the one day team for the Tri-series in Australia in January 2008. Let us give the new captain plenty of leeway to slowly build his one day team and by the time the next World Cup rolls around in 2011, he would not only have refreshed the one day outfit, he would also have graduated to being the Test match Captain.

The rank smell of defeat

2007-03-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933

The Indian batsmen were gripped by fear; they bathed in it and ended with the malodorous smell of defeat. The exception was Sehwag who doesn’t recognize it and Dravid, the only one with the strength of mind to absorb FDR’s words. The rest of them couldn’t handle it.

Ganguly started out in a reverie and never got out of it, Uthappa tried to awaken him but perished quickly and even Sehwag’s clean hitting couldn’t nudge Sourav out his slow death mode. He finally succumbed to Chaminda-left-arm on the spot-Vaas. Sachin came and departed crushed under the pressure that even Atlas couldn’t bear. There was hope while Sehwag was clattering boundaries at will, but Murali produced some magic to snuff him out and India’s hopes. Yuvraj promptly ran himself out of the cauldron, and even the die-hard India fan would have given up after Murali quickly disposed off a clueless Dhoni. Watching his colleagues crumble seemed to light a fire under Dravid who chose to go down fighting the flames and flailed four boundaries before holing out to long off. It was over.

It wasn’t that desperate on a sunny morning when the bowlers made a good fist of it to restrict Sri Lanka to 254. In fact they did a fantastic job in reigning in the top order and it would have been a much lower total if not for a brave innings by the fearless Chamara Silva, in the Aravinda de Silva mould, and some enterprising hitting by Vaas and Arnold at the end. Yes, India didn’t field too well, but nobody expects them to be great in the field and the plan was that the experienced batters will make up for it. An unsound strategy if there ever was one. The Indian batting has crumbled so many times under pressure that counting on it to offset any deficit was just a terrible blunder. Heads will roll and more effigies will be burnt but life goes on, after all it is only a game.

But, the stench remains.

Group drama

2007-03-22T02:03:00.000-07:00

The upcoming Group B game between India-Sri Lanka on Friday has been setup very nicely with Bangladesh defeating India and then getting hammered by Sri Lanka. Their battering has made it easier for India to qualify and Sri Lanka have virtually guaranteed themselves a spot in the Super 8’s. If India beats Sri Lanka on Friday, then statistically it becomes almost impossible for Bangladesh to qualify and India will go through. Of course, India has to win to progress, but if they do, then they will actually go into the Super8’s carrying forward 2 points for defeating Sri Lanka. Yesterday, the Sri Lankans were absolutely ruthless in dismantling Bangladesh, and defeating this classy team will not be easy. They have a great bowling attack with high quality spin, fearsome pace, wily swing and impressive seam bowlers in Murali, Malinga, Vaas and Maharoof. Their batting is solid too especially with Jayasuriya firing at the top. One has to wonder at the athletic marvel the 37 year old is. How does he still do it? His fitness and enthusiasm is just incredible.

A lot of people's World Cup travel plans including mine, have been put in suspended animation after India’s opening game loss to Bangladesh. The phone was ringing off the hook and cancellation plans were being discussed. At the same time in Jamaica, Pakistan was in the process of losing to Ireland, and a friend and I were laughing in bemusement that we might be in Barbados on April 15th watching Bangladesh vs. Ireland! Yet, it was wonderful watching the young kids from Bangladesh play cricket with no inhibitions. The 18 years old Tamim Iqbal was a joy to watch. Zaheer Khan pinged him on the neck with a quick bouncer, but the young man didn’t back down and in the same over he charged down the track and whacked Zaheer into the stands. It was just fantastic. Bangladesh has one world class bowler in Mashrafe Mortaza and by the time the next world cup comes around they would have had 4 more years to develop and they will be a real dangerous team.

Bermuda was not a real challenge for India, but the Indians were very impressive in their comprehensive victory. What I enjoyed most about that match was the over the top celebration by the Bermuda players after they got the first wicket of Robin Uthappa. Dwayne Leverock, one of the wonders of the cricket world, launched all 270lbs of his immense body into the air to his right and plucked a wonderful one handed catch and set off on a pirouetting celebratory run blowing kisses left and right. Watch the video on YouTube and you’ll understand why I was in tears listening to the accompanying commentary by David Lloyd, who has got to be one of the funniest cricket commentators. Some of his soon to be copyrighted lines were

"The big man, the fridge is opened"
"He has flown like a gazelle"
"The Earth shook"
"Oh, what a catch"
"Don't want any kisses from him"

Also tearing up was the bowler Malachi Jones, only 17 years old, playing his first World Cup game, but he was experiencing rather different emotions than me.

ICC actually has done the right thing by including the Associate Nations in the World Cup. Only a few of them will succeed and most of them will fail to even make an impact, but in order to spread the game that is a chance I am willing to take.

If Woolmer was murdered…

2007-03-20T23:32:00.000-07:00

Cricket has fallen to a new low. Who would have thought that there would be lower point for cricket than the match fixing scandal? Here we are at the premier event in the cricket world, the 2007 ICC World Cup, and the coach of a cricket team may have been murdered in his hotel room because of a game of cricket! What a nightmare.

The air is thick with rumors. Betting Mafia, strychnine poisoning, deranged fan, signs of strangulation!! Sarfraz Nawaz, who seems to have lost it, is mouthing off like a loose cannon, accusing everybody he can think of. The man has no credibility, so it is better to ignore most of what he has to say. For now the death is being termed as ‘suspicious’ and when asked if he was saying that it was murder, Mark Shields, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jamaica, clarified “I am not saying that” and that “it was too early to speculate.” So let us hold back on the accusations and let the Jamaican Police conclude their investigation. This time, I hope nobody will question the competence of another third world country’s police force. We all know how that turned out the last time.

If it was murder, I don’t even know whether we should carry on. I mean this is ridiculous, how can one enjoy this World Cup anymore?

Bob Woolmer

2007-03-20T00:58:00.000-07:00

My final image of Bob Woolmer was of him packing up his laptop at the end of the Pakistan – Ireland game and heading off into the dressing room. There was frustration and despair on his face and it seemed like the final chapter of his coaching career. It was a poignant moment. I remember saying that he had better go straight to South Africa and not even bother returning to Pakistan because he was going to be fired. The next morning he was dead. I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it, I was thinking “This is only a game, nobody is supposed to die.” This is not the way it should end, but it did.

We will no longer hear Woolmer’s positive spin on the wheelers and dealers that masqueraded as the Pakistan Cricket Board. While Bob does have to take some of the responsibility for the abysmal performance of the Pakistan team, the team has been on a downward spiral since the forfeiture of the Oval Test match. The controversy and scandals have come one after the other. The rot starts at the top and the PCB has to be blamed. It reminds me of how Jagmohan Dalmiya ruined what should have been his swansong by clinging onto power by any means possible, in the process forgetting that there was a cricket team to develop.

I will remember Bob as the pioneering laptop wielding coach of South Africa who made the machine synonymous with modern day coaching and a must have tool for all international cricket teams. I will also remember Bob for his stout and naïve denial that match fixing occurred while he was in charge of the South African team and was similarly reminded of his naiveté during the Oval test match fiasco while listening to his pronouncements on the greater good of Anglo-Muslim sporting competition. Even then he never quit the Pakistan team; in fact he has stood by all his players including the most volatile of them all Shoaib Akthar.

Thank you Bob, you have left the game better than you found it.

The Non Cricket Issues

2007-03-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of cricket to be played in this World Cup, yet the stories from outside the field are in play.

Lost in Translation
The Pakistan Cricket Board instructs their cricket team to speak in Urdu only, with the manager tasked with the translation. Apparently speaking in Urdu will promote tourism in Pakistan and also prevent players from being misquoted. The tourism plug is as hare brained as it sounds. Obviously this is not going to increase tourism, but it most probably will result in fewer quotes from the Pakistani players being published so it really is a roundabout way of silencing their players. But, it doesn’t end there, the ICC frets that there will be a lot of time spent translating the interviews during the pre and post match ceremonies and brings out the stick that is the World Cup participating nations agreement where teams are contracted to conduct on-field interviews in English. They get into a conference room with the PCB chairman Naseem Ashraf to thrash out the matter. A compromise is reached whereby the players will speak in English for all media interviews on the field, and they will switch back to Urdu at the press conference. Hey, wait a minute, has anybody asked the players what they want? Ideally the players should speak in what ever language they are comfortable with.

Sunny vs the Aussies
Sunny Gavaskar doesn’t like the Australian cricket team, this is a known fact. He has been railing against their on-field behavior every opportunity he gets. In his World Cup preview column he attacked them once again for their ‘awful’ on-field behavior and evoked a response from Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting that Gavaskar is being ‘high and mighty’. Ponting is quite right in saying that, but that is what columnists are supposed to be, i.e. armchair critics. Sunny is also correct in saying that the Aussies are the worst behaved team in the World, but it was in responding to Ponting that Sunny lost it and behaved in the same rude manner that he accuses the Australians of. It was in bad taste to bring up the death of David Hookes in a scuffle outside the bar as an example of poor Aussie behavior. Australia doesn’t hold the copyright on bar room brawls, it happens all over the world. Hookes is dead and however mealy mouthed he may have been, let him rest in peace.

The new Idi Amin
Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, is fast becoming a dictator in the Idi Amin mould, and it is time to stop ignoring this fact. Andy Flower, former captain of Zimbabwe, is right in calling for sanctions against Zimbabwe, but I think it should not be mere sporting sanction it should be a series of United Nations sanctions. Mugabe doesn’t care about the cricket team; he cares about money for him and his supporters. He has been silencing his opposition with arrests, threats and violence. In his latest attack on the opposition Morgan Tsvangirai, President of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was badly beaten in police custody and sent to the hospital with a suspected fractured skull. We should no longer tolerate the thuggery of Mugabe and keep waiting till he becomes another Amin. The ICC money is not going to the cricketers it is going to the ZanuPF thugs running Zimbabwe Cricket. India with its financial clout in ICC should take on the leadership role in acting against Zimbabwe in both the cricketing and political spectrum. The time has come to stop worrying about their cricketers and start worrying about the people of Zimbabwe.

World Cup 2007

2007-03-13T01:18:00.000-07:00

It is here.

It is hard to believe that there are 16 teams in the world that play this beautiful game called cricket; the caveat being that in 7 of these countries a majority of the people don’t even know that they have a national cricket team and will probably be bewildered to find out that their team is playing in a World Cup. Yet the average cricket fan will be rooting for an upset from one of these teams. Anybody who has seen the joyous celebration of the Bangladesh team after their victories over India and Australia will understand why they should play this game.

In the warm-up matches these teams showed glimpses of their potential. I was rooting for Ireland when they bowled South Africa out for under 200, I took great pleasure when Bermuda’s 270lb leviathan Dwayne Leverock took 2 wickets for 32 runs in 10 probing overs against England, I enjoyed Kenya’s robust chase of the host West Indies’ big total and was positively over the moon when Bangladesh embarrassed New Zealand, one of the strong contenders for the title.

For those of you who are not die-hard romantics and don’t enjoy the thrashing of the smaller teams, the Super 8’s provide exciting match-ups of the top 8 teams, assuming that they all make it to the second round.

This time around, Australia’s dominance has waned and they are without their premier one day fast bowler, Brett Lee, another key player, Andrew Symonds, the best cricket athlete in world, is recovering from a torn bicep which will definitely curtail his fielding ability. I don't think that this makes them vulnerable, but there is a perception of vulnerability and that maybe enough for the other teams to get their noses ahead. Having said all that, and even though South Africa are currently ranked number one the overwhelming favorite still is Australia and they will take some beating.

Bravely putting my foot in the mouth for the entire world to see; here are my picks for the semifinals: Australia, South Africa, India and the West Indies.

Let the cricket begin.

The Australian Impasse

2006-09-27T18:16:00.000-07:00

In one day cricket over the last 3 years, Australia has inflicted deep scars on this Indian team. The scars were pried open again in Kuala Lumpur on September 22^nd, and new gashes were added as India crumbled and folded while chasing a paltry 213 in the last league match of the DLF Cup. The fresh recipients of the scars were Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. They will remember this match for a long time. At the presentation ceremony after the match,

India

’s captain Rahul Dravid had a haunted look in his eyes, as he struggled to articulate the words to explain the defeat.

The Indian bowlers did a fantastic job restricting the Australian batsmen. Harbhajan Singh was outstanding and made superbat Mike Hussey look like a mere mortal. RP Singh and Munaf Patel continued to impress while Ajit Agarkar seems to be relishing his role as the senior partner in the seam attack. The Australian score would have been far worse, if Brad Haddin had been given run out, but he received the benefit of the non-existent doubt from the third umpire who thought Harbhajan didn’t have control of the ball as he broke the stumps. Haddin proceeded to hit 4 beautiful sixes of Dinesh Mongia who until then had bowled a tidy spell and even claimed the wicket of Andrew Symonds. India finished well and would have been mighty pleased with their efforts at the innings break.

The Indian chase began in earnest with Tendulkar square driving Brett Lee for a boundary in the first over, but it all fell to pieces soon after. Tendulkar was wrongly given out, and then courageously recalled by an umpire who realized his mistake. But, Sachin didn’t look the same after that and spooned a simple catch to point. Lee further exposed Sehwag’s weakness to the full incoming delivery by sneaking one through, but the most important blow was Stuart Clark nailing Dravid leg before with a perfect delivery. On a wicket with some assistance for the bowlers, Dravid was the only Indian batsman who inspired confidence and could have guided the team home without too much fuss.

Suresh Raina showed some pluck and good skill in hitting Brett Lee over the top, but he again failed to pick a quality spinner in Brad Hogg who deceived him with a beautiful wrong ‘un. Dhoni who was playing in a controlled fashion till then was nicely setup by the Aussies into lashing out at a Lee bouncer which he flayed straight to Martyn on the point boundary. Hogg pretty much sealed the game with a quick top spinner to get rid of a palpably nervous Agarkar. The tail collapsed quickly after, with Dinesh Mongia watching from the other end. It is hard to be critical of the highest scorer of the game, but in spite of all his one day experience in the County game, Mongia chose the safer option of remaining not out in an Indian defeat by offering up the tail enders as fodder to Lee, rather than get out striving for an improbable win. Granted it was his comeback into the Indian team, but it was disheartening to see his lack of purpose at the business end of the game.

Dravid will have to take a leaf out of Ganguly’s book to combat these Aussies. He will have to lead by example against India’s nemesis to overcome this impasse. Luckily for him his next opportunity will be coming up soon in the Champions trophy game on October 29^th in Mohali. Will that be enough time to recover from this mind numbing defeat? Maybe not, but the only way to get the monkey off their back is for India to beat the Aussies.

Quarter of the way

2006-07-19T00:22:00.000-07:00

I have used the Marathon as an analogy to describe India’s attempt to climb to the top of the ICC Test rankings in the post titled Milestones on a Marathon . The West Indies tour has come to an end and while the one day series was definitely a misstep, the Test series victory was a significant milestone. Yes, India squandered two opportunities, and had to come from behind to draw the third Test, before finally converting their winning position in the fourth Test match after some eighth wicket anxiety courtesy Dinesh Ramdin. Yet, the importance of this victory was not lost on Rahul Dravid, who as a keen student of the game knew exactly how many years it has been since India last won in the Caribbean (1971) and the number of years since their last major series win outside the sub continent, which was in England 1986. Those two statistics in itself shows how bare the BCCI cupboard has been on away tours, and really puts in perspective as to how good the Indian cricket team was and is.

This is exactly why I have no hesitation in labeling Rahul Dravid as India’s best batsman ever! Tracking back to Headingley 2002, Adelaide 2003, Rawalpindi 2004 and now Jamaica 2006, his singular batting performances have setup these famous Indian victories. Not since Leander Paes has any one person consistently won so many matches for India, and to think people had the temerity to debate his elevation to Indian captaincy. In my mind, there is no debate. Nobody in Indian cricket history has deserved it more, and it will be a while before any another cricketer will deserve it as much. Dravid has said on a few occasions “In the end, we must realize that we are only playing a sport.” This facet of him, an ability to detach himself and not be consumed with the game allows him to grow as a person and makes him a better player and a brave Captain.

The coming season is going to be a glut of one day matches leading up to the 2007 World Cup, and the only Test series India will play before the World Cup is in South Africa. The 3 Tests against South Africa will be another significant milestone and it will provide a final opportunity for Yuvraj Singh to cross the line from Michael Bevan-dom into a Test batsman. In his first full series, Mohammad Kaif was able to score his maiden hundred, and that was a major step for him. Kumble was outstanding in the series and has been since the Australian tour of 2003/04. Like fine wine, he seems to be getting better with age. Harbhajan proved that he can be a major force abroad as well, but most heartening was the performance of the young fast bowlers Munaf Patel(14 wickets) and Sreesanth(10 wickets) on their maiden international tour. India need fast bowlers to win abroad and these two are both wicket takers who can do just that.

The World Cup, is the halfway point of the Marathon and even if India wins it, far from a sure thing, the real test will be after the Cup, when they play England (away), Pakistan (away) and Australia (away). Australia will be the finish line and it has to be seen if India are staggering or striding as they breast the tape.

Sehwag’s impact

2006-06-12T02:22:00.000-07:00

Virender Sehwag has been the anabolic steroid the Indian team has been using to propel itself forward with incredible momentum in Test matches. India has looked much less potent as a Test team, during Sehwag's lean period in the last six Tests since Lahore in January. When Sehwag scores, the opposition is in no doubt about his intent. He is out there to dominate the bowling and he scores so quickly that he sets up the opportunity to win. That intent to win, which he brings with his batting, pushes opposing captains on the back foot and they forget that they are also trying to win a Test match.

Brian Lara was the victim of Sehwag’s amazing onslaught at St. Lucia, spreading the field far and wide half an hour into the Test, trying to contain India. Lara was happy when Sehwag was not on strike and revealed as much in the post match press conference when he said that his bowlers did a good a job containing Wasim Jaffer. Sehwag’s innings had such an impact, that Lara forgot about winning the game and by the end of the day he was already reflecting on the flatness of the pitch and how his team can also bat well on this pitch. He had apparently given up the thought of bowling India out and was waiting for the declaration so that his team could also bat on this surface.

The opening session was the perfect Sehwag storm as he threatened to break all sorts of records. If not for a slow outfield, he would have definitely had a century before lunch, but had to settle for a mere 99. It was a spectacular assault on the West Indian bowling, and Dwayne Bravo in particular faced the brunt of his wrath. Bravo had been the best bowler for the West Indies through the one day series and in the first innings of the Antigua Test match. But, here in Bravo’s second over and the twelfth of the match, Sehwag pummeled him for 20 runs of five balls including two brutal sixes. Bravo’s confidence was destroyed and he bowled only 8 more overs in the innings. Pedro Collins was the only bowler who held his own, and kept the Windies in the match claiming all 4 wickets that fell on the first day, one of which was a beautiful indipper that cleaned up Yuvraj Singh. Oddly enough, Yuvraj hasn’t been able to reproduce his one day international form in the Test matches. Maybe he should have a chat with the sports psychologist, Dr. Rudi Webster, who Sehwag opened up to and that appears to have refreshed his mind.

On the second day, Lara showed his intent or lack thereof, when he opened the attack not with Collins, but Ian Bradshaw and then he gave the new ball to Taylor and Collymore. Dravid and the usually nervy Kaif began in aggressive fashion. Kaif overcame his first day nerves and drove the bowlers repeatedly to the cover boundary. The boundaries flowed in the first session as the scoring rate of the previous day maintained. Both batsmen made big hundreds with Kaif making his maiden Test ton. With three batsmen making 140 plus scores, India was well and truly in control of the Test. Even though, the run rate dropped in the post lunch session, the Sehwag impetus allowed Dravid to make his declaration early in the post tea session to test the weary Caribbean batsmen. Dravid's bowlers responded magnificently. On pitch developing some variation due to wear, Munaf Patel kept the ball within the stumps and bowled with good pace to claim back to back leg before victims. Anil Kumble capped of a near perfect day for India, when he trapped a tentative Lara, leg before with the bat tucked behind the pad.

It has been a complete momentum shift in the series, and unless the West Indian batsmen attack the Indian bowlers and transfer some of the pressure onto India, they will continue to lose wickets and will most likely lose the Test match. The pitch is still in favor of the batters, and there is no reason for them to think that they cannot bat out the whole day without the loss of too many wickets.

Winning ain't easy

2006-06-08T01:08:00.000-07:00

Test victories abroad have been elusive for the Indian team and Monday was another example of how difficult it is to win a Test match. It was a brilliant finish with fielders crowding the bat, loud appeals by the Indians and deafening applause for every ball that was kept out by the West Indians. The last over will be something Sreesanth will be replaying in his mind for a very long time. India got six wickets in the last session, but they needed one more. Focusing on the end will be doing a disservice to a great Test match. A Test match with outstanding contributions from actors on both sides, Dwayne Bravo with an inspired spell of swing and cut on the first day, Gayle with a breathtaking assault on the second day, an incredible back to the wall double century by Jaffer spread over the third and fourth days topped off by an astonishing whirling dervish of an innings from Dhoni. They set the stage for the climactic fifth day.

Jaffer who fluffed a crucial chance off Chanderpaul on the final day, must be wondering why fate was conspiring against him after he had probably played the innings of his life. It is a funny game, this cricket, and he has to look no further than his captain Rahul Dravid to learn to treat both triumph and disasters as the twin imposters they truly are. Sreesanth would be another to agree, after getting hammered in the first innings he came back to pick up two wickets on the final day including Lara for a duck. Bravo who picked up 4 wickets in the first innings, went wicketless as the pitch eased up in the second innings. Dave Mohammad who got clobbered by Dhoni, scored a vital half century on the final day to thwart the Indians.

One of the most compelling sights was Ian Bradshaw lying flat on the pitch in a mixture of relief and gratitude after he snuck one through Jaffer’s defenses to get his only wicket of the match. In the absence of the injured Edwards and a below par Colleymore, Bradshaw bowled a marathon 25 overs on the trot. Incredibly enough, he bowled more overs than Anil Kumble in the match!

Kumble showed why he is a champion bowler with 7 wickets in the match, but the surprise package was Sehwag with 4 wickets. Sehwag’s bowling seems to have improved tremendously, he has added a drifter to his repertoire which he probably picked up from Ramesh Powar, it shapes away like a gentle outswinger and goes straight on after pitching. He picked up two wickets with this ball. He also claimed one with a flighted off break that bounced and turned for Dhoni to complete a great stumping to dismiss Bravo.

As the match progressed the Antigua pitch lost all its juice, and the faster bowlers struggled, and in the end Dravid would have been wishing that he had had the services of Harbhajan Singh on the final day. The umpires Simon Taufel and Azad Rauf had a tough match, with Taufel probably having his poorest Test match in quite a while. There was a complete breakdown in authority during Dhoni’s controversial dismissal in the second innings. The poor cameraman got too excited with Dhoni’s pyrotechnics, that he forgot to focus on the ball and got carried away with his theoretical path of the Dhoni projectile. The third umpire said he couldn’t see if the catch was clean, and the on field umpires proved to be a dithering duo without the evidence. Lara certainly wouldn’t like to see a replay of his churlish reaction to the whole saga. But, it definitely added to the drama of what was a fantastic Test match.

This was Test match that India almost wrested away from the West Indies, and they will go into the second Test match in a much better frame of mind.

Jaffer’s resilience

2006-06-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

In recent times, India have faltered so often in the second innings of a Test match that most international teams probably calculate that they need only two wickets before the Indian batting lineup folds, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag. Sehwag has a pretty spotty record in the second innings, so it really is only a matter of one wicket. Pakistan has proven it twice in Bangalore and Karachi. England had humiliated India in Mumbai, by wrapping up all 10 wickets for a meager 100 runs. The only time India did not crumble, and even attempted an audacious chase was in Nagpur this March when a classy not so young opener on his fourth comeback to the Indian team played out the first two sessions on the final day for his first Test hundred. Today at the Antigua Recreation Ground, he made his second hundred, and even though India isn’t out of the woods yet, Wasim Jaffer has shown that he has the gumption to play significant innings at the top of the order to pull his team out of the fire. He is an opener with steel, something India has been lacking for a long time. It wasn’t as fluent as his maiden century, in fact he had his moments of luck here, but this innings could prove to be the more significant one, it might yet setup a remarkable Indian victory.

On a track with some Caribbean rum rolled into it by the groundsman the Indian batting line up flattered to deceive with 6 batsmen getting starts before throwing it away. Chris Gayle with some enterprising batting launched into the three young Indian fast bowlers and hit both Sreesanth and debutant VRV Singh out of the attack. If not for the calmer heads of Kumble and a freshly tonsured Sehwag with two wickets apiece, India would have been completely out of the game. Still after two days where India was outplayed in all departments of the game, most people were polishing up their fire Chappell-recall Sourav stories. On the third day, India clawed its way back into the Test, beginning with the unflappable Munaf Patel prising out an early wicket, before the strapping VRV hustled and bustled and finally hit the right line to bounce out 2 West Indian tailenders. Kumble quickly claimed the last wicket to limit the Windies lead to 130.

Sehwag began India's second innings in typical fashion with a sliced six over thirdman off Fidel Edwards. Edwards changed his line and aimed fast short balls into Sehwag’s ribs. Sehwag poked and prodded and would probably have perished if Edwards hadn’t pulled up lame clutching his hamstring. With Edwards out of the attack, Sehwag survived and thrived for a while before the nagging Corey Colleymore snapped him up for the second time in the match. VVS Laxman caressed his way to a cameo 31 before he slogged a googly from Dave Mohammed to mid on. All this while, Jaffer played a patient knock having nothing to do with a majority of the deliveries outside his offstump, but he did work a few pleasing shots off his legs, and once stood up tall to square drive a short ball to the point boundary. As his confidence grew, he even pulled out the straight drive and cover drives to Mohammad and Bravo. He didn’t lose his patience as he approached the landmark, and brought up his hundred with an elegant square drive off the strangely unthreatening Ian Bradshaw. Even before he could raise his bat to acknowledge the dressing room, he got a warm embrace from his grateful captain, Rahul Dravid, who was stoically keeping one end up. India finished the day with 8 wickets remaining and will be looking to push their lead from 85 to about 300.

It is not going to be easy, but the momentum has shifted India’s way and it will be Brian Lara’s turn to inspire his team to fight back, after all they have successfully chased more than 400 against Australia at the very same ground.

Lara’s Triumph

2006-05-28T18:02:00.000-07:00

Brian Lara couldn’t have scripted it better himself, a twinkle toed match winning knock in the fourth game at his home town, Port of Spain, Trinidad, to seal the series and a comprehensive victory in the fifth game to bookmark his final one day international at his home ground. Taking on the captaincy till the World Cup seemed to be a fitting swansong for Lara but after a dispiriting performance under Shivnarine Chanderpaul nobody would have expected such a quick turnaround in the West Indian team. Lara showed that nobody knows the Caribbean side’s strengths better than him. He masterfully maneuvered his bowlers to contain India’s free flowing batsmen, who were unable to adapt to the conditions. Lara’s captaincy was a revelation as he turned to his spinners to put a strangle hold on India. In the end, he even brought on the young left arm chinaman bowler, Dave Mohammed, to bamboozle the perplexed Indians. While Dravid’s team looked stale and lacking in strategy, Lara’s team looked fresh and innovative. A 4-1 triumph over an Indian team that had just thrashed Sri Lanka, Pakistan and England is a tremendous performance and is a tribute to the cricketing brain of this great batsman.

After the patchy first game, the West Indies have been outstanding in the field, improving with every match whereas the Indian fielding has progressively deteriorated. In the must win fourth ODI, India got off to a poor start when Gayle plucked a good catch to send back a dangerous looking Sehwag. Suresh Raina fluffed his chance up the order once more, and also played an atrocious shot in the final game after being sent back down the order, to conclude a horrible tour. Yuvraj Singh, who was back in the side after making a recovery from back spasms, quickly highlighted that he is the rock around which the Indian middle order is built by initiating a recovery with Mohammad Kaif in the fourth ODI. But, neither of them kicked on past their fifties and Dwayne Bravo was the outstanding bowler at the death once again. India finished about 20 runs short in spite of Dhoni’s efforts. Chris Gayle got the Windies off to a rollicking start again, and set the stage for the Brian Lara masterpiece that inspired and kickstarted Bravo’s batting in the last two games. Lara used his feet beautifully to both Powar and Harbhajan and treated everyone to a masterclass on how to play spin bowling.

Dravid’s decision not to open the bowling with Ajit Agarkar when the Windies were chaising in the fourth ODI was one of the mysteries of the series. Agarkar was India’s best bowler in the one day series and when he was belatedly brought in to the attack he immediately picked up the wicket of Sarwan. In the final game, Agarkar got the early break through with a beautiful delivery to the left handed Chattergoon, who left a ball pitched outside his off stump only to see it swing back and clip the top of the off stump. Agarkar was duly rewarded for his consistent performance in the series by not being included in the Test side. Apparently the selectors have categorized him as a one day player only, and categorization is an erroneous way to pick a team.

Sehwag looked like he would salvage some pride for the Indians with a powerful knock in the final game, but he found that nobody was willing to partner him. The alarming collapse was that of team with a morbid air of defeat suffocating them as the West Indies did to India what the Indians had previously done to its opponents.

India came in to the series as the favorites, but with only one practice match the undercooked Indian side got thrashed. The momentum is now with the West Indies and they are definitely favorites to win the Test series. Perhaps, the Indians are more comfortable with the underdog tag but with only a 2-day match as preparation before the Test series starting on June 2nd, it will take some doing to purge the stench of defeat and recover from the Turmoil in Trini.

Misfiring in the Caribbean

2006-05-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

Trailing 2-1 after the first three games is something Rahul Dravid would not have been expecting. In all three games, India’s batting was below par, with the lower middle order failing to live up to expectations. India won the first game only because of an exceptional century from Dravid, and after he got out the lower order almost botched it up. The second match was a heart stopper and one was left at the end with the image of a crushed Yuvraj Singh squatting on his haunches and wincing with the pain of the loss. It was a wonderful piece of deception by Dwayne Bravo to outfox a batsman in the 90’s with a slower ball.

Even though one Indian batsman has played a big knock in each of three matches, Dravid, Yuvraj and Sehwag, the others have failed to carry on. The most alarming loss for the Indians was the third match, where there was a rash of run outs that bordered on the ridiculous which ruined a great platform setup by a Sehwag special. Once more it was a Bravo beauty that arrested the Indian charge by removing Sehwag. The batting following that dismissal seemed to indicate a lack of hunger for the win. But, this Indian team has fought back before and Dravid highlighted the team’s self belief by saying that they just have to win the next two games.

Irfan Pathan’s lack of form in both batting and bowling has been a contributing factor in the losses. He hasn’t been picking up early wickets and has been tonked about with disdain whereas his counterpart, the much less fancied left armer from the Caribbean, Ian Bradshaw, has been outperforming him with some intelligent bowling. Harbhajan Singh and Ajit Agarkar have been the outstanding bowlers for India, and are the main reason why the West Indian batting has been kept in check. Harbhajan has been bowling a tight line to Lara, with some wonderful flight and spin that troubled Lara in all three matches. Agarkar has stepped into the senior pro role, using his previous tour experience to put on a display of some wonderfully controlled swing bowling.

Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul have been thwarting India’s bowling, and even with Chanderpaul out with a hamstring injury for the last two matches, India needs a plan to stop the in form Sarwan who is living up to his words of the need to be consistent. With two matches in three days in Trinidad, Dravid has to rejuvenate his misfiring batting lineup and inspire his team to yet another comeback.

Milestones on a Marathon

2006-05-18T00:45:00.000-07:00

When you watch sport, and witness a young team developing with every game, you get excited wondering what heights the team can scale. There is a sense of anticipation and spine tingling sensation as you wonder what they can achieve. You feel that they have the talent to make it to the finish line, but will they be able to? So many things can go wrong, incorrect decisions will be made and the wrong turn can be taken, where will that lead the team? When they are at the threshold, the threshold to greatness, will they misstep to be cast away into history and classified as merely good?

You never know, and that is exactly why you watch. That is the beauty of sport. Can Dhoni become all that he can, will Raina reach the levels of immortal left handers like Lara? Watching them bat, you wonder how they can be so good when they are so young?
And what about the veterans like Yuvraj and Kaif, will they ever achieve the consistency to maintain a 50+ average over 100 Test matches? Will Harbhajan be able to climb the Everest that is Kumble and perhaps scale 700 wickets? Will Irfan Pathan become the best swing bowler in the world? Will Sreesanth and Munaf blitz away the opposition?

The 2007 World Cup is merely the half way point of the marathon, the top of the ICC Test ranking is where the finish line lies. Right now, the Indian team is in the first quarter of the race, and is approaching the sixth mile. Dravid and Chappell will know that winning the one day series against the West Indies is a requirement and the main prize will be the Test series; which will be a significant step toward proving that the team has the stamina for the marathon.

Thus, we wait and watch each step and the few missteps along the way. Keep counting the milestones, Acropolis awaits.

Analysis of a defeat

2006-03-23T00:46:00.000-08:00

Most Indian cricket supporters will react with horror and disgust at India’s batting collapse on the last day, but the insipid events on the final day was merely the last act of a team crumbling under pressure. But, why was the pressure on India in the final Test when they were leading 1-0 in the series?

The phrase “psychological edge” is thrown around far too often to explain victory and defeat that it has become a well worn cliché so I shall refrain from using that. But momentum is easily deciphered, and it can be a powerful force. India won the second Test in Mohali chasing a tricky target on the final day. Coming into the Third Test in Mumbai, the momentum was with India, and when England lost Steve Harmison before the match it was well and truly India’s to lose. But, instead of batting first and taking on a depleted English bowling attack Rahul Dravid chose to field. He thrust great responsibility on his three young fast bowlers, two of whom were playing only their second Test match. Their collective first day failure resulted in England finishing the day on 272 for the loss of only 3 wickets, courtesy a gritty century by the out of form opener Andrew Strauss and a brash half century from the unknown Owais Shah. All the momentum had disappeared in one day, and India were left trying to catch up for the rest of the match.

They were up against a very good England side with some of the finest bowlers of the current era in Andrew Flintoff and an incredible Matthew Hoggard, who just didn’t allow the Indian batting to get away. Although the Indian bowlers pulled it back a little on the second day, the English bowlers were even better. And on the final day, they made a mockery of the Indian batting on its home soil. 100 all out! That is going to rankle for quite a while.

Rahul Dravid’s goal is for the Indian cricket team to be the best in the world, and that can happen only if India wins Test matches abroad. Winning Test matches abroad is one of the most difficult tasks for India, and to achieve that India needs fast bowlers. In Munaf Patel and Sreesanth he has unearthed two young bowlers with ability and fire. His only failure in strategy was in not allowing for the inexperience of his young fast bowlers. It completely backfired and Dravid will be ruing his decision to insert England after winning the toss. The end result was a humiliating Test loss and a series win thrown away. That is much more difficult to swallow, than a failed one day game strategy. But, even in this dark hour of defeat one must grant that Dravid is a brave captain with an admirable courage of conviction.

India's greatest bowler

2006-03-17T16:00:00.000-08:00

It is now obvious to most Indian cricket fans that whenever India wins a Test match, Rahul Dravid has contributed with a big score. What is often overlooked is Anil Kumble’s role in the rise of the Indian Test team. He is by far India’s greatest bowler and it will be a long time before somebody can even come close to what Anil Kumble has done for India. The match looked like it was headed for a rain curtailed draw before Anil Kumble stepped up with another tour de force.

His strength of purpose was what brought India back into the match when he cleaned up the England lower order in the first innings with the last three wickets falling at the score of 300. India’s first innings saw Harmison and Flintoff let slip the dogs of war as they pounded into the Indian batting line up with fearsome display of hostile fast bowling. Only Rahul Dravid was able to resist the attack, with Harmison in particular bowling throat balls at an incredible pace. Kumble hung in there taking body blows and building valuable partnerships with Pathan and Harbahajan that sneaked India past England’s total and to a priceless 38 run lead.

A draw? Kumble was having none of that, the champion could smell a win. He wasn’t done yet; with the ball in his hand he was a man on mission as he snaffled three top order wickets in the last session of the fourth day. England were staring down the barrel with only Flintoff and Jones remaining as last of the recognized batsmen on the fifth day. As they prepared to withstand the Kumble assault on the final morning, they forgot about the ambitious young Indian fast bowler Munaf Patel. Munaf produced a scorcher of a short ball in his first over that surprised Jones and clattered onto the stumps off his bat. He then bowled sharp reverse swinging yorkers at will to claim two more wickets. Kumble only had to get one on the fifth day, as Dhoni pulled off a lightning quick stumping down the leg side to cap off a great match behind the stumps. Rahul Dravid ensured that India had no trouble chasing 144 and he even outscored Sehwag who was extremely watchful. It was quite a sight to watch Sehwag, obviously inspired by the way Dravid values his wicket, tread cautiously against Harmison, Flintoff and Hoggard until the match was in the bag. After which, of course, he exploded against Plunkett and Collingwood to quickly go past Dravid. Sehwag’s feat can only be appreciated when it is put in the context that it was only his third second innings fifty in 44 matches. Could he be changing? Remarkable.

The score card says India beat England by 9 wickets in about 3 days of cricket. It looks like an easy win, but without the burning desire of a champion it would have never happened. This is the man who once bowled with a broken jaw, as he believed he had a job to do for his team. He is nicknamed Jumbo for his ability to get bounce, but it could well have been for his spirit. Steve Waugh once remarked that Kumble is always at you, never allowing a moment to relax; this tenacity coupled with the new variations in his bowling has made him an even better bowler in his thirties. Let us salute Anil Kumble, India’s greatest bowler.

Even Stevens

2006-03-07T00:30:00.000-08:00

An unexpected and improbable run chase made for a thrilling finish to the first Test match between India and England in Nagpur. The spectacular assault on England’s bowling in the final session of the match, masked the fact that India were outplayed for the better part of four days by a green England side. This was a Test match where Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh claimed only 4 wickets in 136 overs; a Test match where the fast bowlers did most of the damage; a Test match where three, nearly four, maiden centuries, were scored; a Test match where India’s batting was rescued by the new generation.

Yes, it may mask a lot of things, but what an assault it was! The intent and the imagination was a revelation. The captain started the charge, the tyros continued the aggression and the batsman formerly known as the best batsman in the world made us whoop with delight with a cameo that reminded us of the destroyer that he once was. This was a stark contrast to India’s meek capitulation to Pakistan on a similar fifth day situation less than a year ago. That collapse left such a bad taste that even though the Test series was tied 1-1, it felt like a humiliating defeat for India. The captain and coach have changed, and with all due respect to Sourav Ganguly and John Wright, they were running on empty by then.

The mighty Indian batting line up continues to deceive. For the last two years the Indian batting line up has been merely Virendar Sehwag and Rahul Dravid, if either of these two fail, India struggle and if both of them fail; India lose. Not a happy picture there; that is why it was heartening to see Wasim Jaffer step into the opener’s role and bat like he belonged there. Sehwag has proved that there is no such thing as a classical opener and that it is all about scoring runs, but Sehwag is one of a kind. Jaffer has been India’s best opener in domestic cricket for the last few seasons and in Nagpur he showed that it is a deserving tag. He scored in both innings against the best pace attack in world cricket at present. He is definitely a man for the future. I was very impressed with Wasim Jaffer when I saw him play in the West Indies and have been rooting for him since then. In the Caribbean in 2002 he was extremely strong square off the wicket, but this time he was more watchful and left the majority of the balls outside the offstump. He patiently waited for the bowler to err and scored predominantly on the legside. He played the cover drive and the square drive perhaps only a couple of times in the entire Test match, he even worked Monty Panesar against the spin through mid on.

VVS Laxman’s returns have been pretty bleak over the last two years and he was unlucky to be given out LBW in the first innings when the umpire failed to spot an inside edge on the ball. If he fails in the next two Tests, there is no doubt that he will be dropped from the team. Kiran More, the Chairman of selectors, has been in a punchy mood of late, and there will be no kid gloves for Laxman. Yuvraj will be back for the Mohali Test and Laxman’s rival for the middle order slot, Mohammad Kaif, was tremendous in this Test. In the first innings when India were on the ropes, Kaif found an unlikely ally in the batting revival of Anil Kumble. Way back in the past Kumble used to get some runs for India in the lower order and even has a highest score of 86 against South Africa but his batting has fallen off and this indeed was a timely revival. Maybe Pathan’s all round skills have inspired him, whatever it was, the Kaif and Kumble partnership went a long way in saving the Test match for India.

England’s bowling and batting showed dogged determination and their fielding was outstanding. Andrew Flintoff was simply superb while fielding off his own bowling and plucked slip catches like he was picking up daisies. In contrast the Indian fielding completely unraveled on the fourth day after the most atrocious decision by a television umpire in the history of the game. Umpire Shivram declared Kevin Petersen not out after he hit a return catch to Kumble. It was just unbelievable. But, that is no excuse for the complete fielding implosion that followed. Shreesanth and Harbhajan dropped sitters and Mohd. Kaif capped a horrible display at forward short leg by running all around a skier from Pietersen before making a hash of it. It is to Jaffer and Dravid’s credit that they didn’t let the poor fourth day affect their batting on the fifth day.

It is proving to be an extremely competitive series and one waits with trepidation for the Mohali pitch. The last Test match played there was a draw with the pitch easing out and Pakistan batting comfortably on the fifth day.

The Demolition Act

2006-02-16T16:18:00.000-08:00

India’s ground fielding in the series has consistently been praiseworthy, and the catching was the only sore point, but today even that aspect was excellent. The first three Pakistani wickets were all obtained via great catches that backed up intelligent bowling. With Dhoni also having a good day with three catches behind the stumps Pakistan were bowled out in the 42 over for only 161 runs. India didn’t even have to break a sweat as they coasted to a five wicket win in the 33 over on the back of a sold half century from their skipper Rahul Dravid.

Dravid won the toss and had no hesitation in inserting the opposition. The Pakistani openers were extremely cautious against the new ball, adopting a safety first approach. The first boundary came only in the 6th over. In the 7th over Pathan bowled three full pitched incoming deliveries to Kamran Akmal with the cover fielders helping to make them all dot balls. Dravid then moved the second slip to a short point, and when Pathan bowled one a touch short and slanting away, Akmal couldn’t resist going for the big booming square cut only to find the safe hands of Suresh Raina at short point. The ball was hit fiercely and Raina with superb anticipation moved his hands to his left to take the catch nonchalantly with both hands. It was an incredible reflex catch, and he ran and hugged his delighted captain who had just moved him there. As if that wasn’t enough, Dravid grabbed a sensational one handed catch diving to his left at first slip, to give the impressive Sreesanth only his second wicket of the series. Dravid went at it with both hands and ended up with the ball ensconced in his left hand in front of the vacant second slip. It was an outstanding slip catch. Both the openers were gone, and this time Shoaib Malik couldn’t bail them out of trouble. RP Singh surprised him with a well directed bouncer that Malik topedged in a lame attempt at a pull and Pathan screamed in from square leg to take a diving catch at forward short leg. Three great catches and Pakistan were in strife, but more was to follow as Younis Khan reprised his first ball duck from the Third Test, only this time the bowler was RP Singh who pitched it in line and straightened the ball to catch him plumb in front. Mohammad Yousuf probably couldn’t believe that he had to try and save another hattrick, but luckily this time he succeeded.

RP Singh was in the middle of a dream spell and almost had Yousuf’s wicket too, but the umpire gave him the benefit of the doubt, and it probably was the right decision as there might have been a slight inside edge that the stump microphone picked up and fed to the umpire’s ear phones. The ear phones probably are the best thing the ICC have done for the on field umpires. Inzamam and Yousuf set about rebuilding the Pakistani innings with Inzamam in particular playing some glorious shots of Sreesanth and a below par Ajit Agarkar. The pair added 68 runs in quick time, before Agarkar got one right, it pitched on a perfect length and moved away taking Yousuf’s edge for Dhoni to take a diving catch at second attempt in front of slip. Pakistan were in dire straits and a bowler was subbed out for a batsman, Imran Farhat, who stuck around for some time, without scoring too many before he played an awful looking pull shot to RP Singh and Suresh Raina at mid on had no problems with the catch. RP Singh struck again in the same over with one slanting across Razzaq that bounced more than he expected and got the edge through to Dhoni. Soon Tendulkar claimed Inzamam leg before for 49 well made runs, and the Pakistan tail folded quickly with Pathan claiming the last two wickets and he is the leading wicket taker with three wickets apiece in the last three games.
The Indian chase began poorly with Tendulkar chasing a wide one from Mohammad Sami, but Gautam Gambhir played some rousing shots in the company of the dependable Rahul Dravid. Dravid played wonderfully off his pads, but Gambhir gave it away with an ambitious hook shot to a ball outside the off stump. The comeback man, Sami, had taken 2 wickets, to give Pakistan an outside chance. But, Yuvraj and Dravid took the game away from Pakistan with an 85 run partnership. There were a few stutters when Yuvraj and Kaif fell in quick succession and Sami came back to claim Dravid as his third wicket with a swinging full toss; but Suresh Raina, who was sent ahead of Dhoni, played a sparkling cameo with powerful shots through the offside interspersed with sound defense. India cantered to a five wicket win, and this man Suresh Raina continues to impress. I think he is going to be a vital member of this Indian team soon, and maybe even play a starring role in the 2007 World Cup.

The Indian team has been a revelation in how they have turned things around after the demoralizing loss in the Karachi Test, and Rahul Dravid has tenaciously passed yet another test of his character.

Chase? Hell Yeah!

2006-02-13T09:55:00.000-08:00

"We were chasing well so we decided to field." - Rahul Dravid

The team that used to rival the South Africans in choking under pressure has just won it's eleventh successive game while chasing! What a turnaround it has been under Dravid and Chappell. The old warriors in Sachin and Dravid are still around to negotiate the tricky seam movement and Dhoni and Yuvraj are there to provide the ballast to the chase. Yuvraj has seen the Indian team lose from winning positions on several occasions but Dhoni probably doesn't have first hand experience of that sinking feeling, which is reflected in the fearlessness of his batting. Sehwag is another one who bats in this fashion. But the confidence with which Yuvraj and Dhoni completed the chase it seemed like the thought of losing never entered their minds. The prevalent feeling in the team seems to be "Chase? Absolutely, bring it on!"

After a poor start, Pakistan must thank Shoaib Malik for holding the innings together with his brilliantly paced innnings of 108. He was in top form with 2 scores of 90plus in the previous two games and India missed a big one when Gambhir dropped him at slip. The poor bowler to suffer was Sreesanth, who had to endure three dropped catches in his opening spell and one catch that wasn't even attempted in his second spell. But Sreesanth bounded in enthusiastically till the end and was India's best bowler even though he finished with a cruel 0-74. India's slip fielding was pathetic and with Sehwag sent back to rest his injured shoulder they have only one proven slipper in Rahul Dravid. Gambhir has dropped more than he has caught at slip and even the reliable Mohammad Kaif dropped a catch in the unfamiliar position. India really have to develop some more slip catchers in the one dayers, maybe Tendulkar should go back to the slips or maybe Irfan Pathan could do it as he has proved himself to be adept at all other tasks.

For the second game running India went in with 4 fast bowlers and no specialist spinner. The spinners have been mercilessly tonked in this series, and even Tendulkar has resorted to seam up. Irfan Pathan provided the initial breakthroughs as Salman Butt departed for another second ball duck and Afridi skied to cover in another momentary lapse of reason that occurs when he faces Pathan. Several Pakistani's got starts and Kamran Akmal even played his typical cameo innings, but when Inzamam fell to Sachin, half the side were gone by the 28th over. It is only due to Malik's doggedness and the late innings impetus provided by a belligerant Abdul Razzaq that Pakistan managed to reach a lofty 288. It definitely was a match winning score, especially with the new master of seam bowling, Mohammad Asif in Pakistan's bowling attack.

The Indian chase started badly with Gambhir struggling at the top of the order. He was plumb in front to the second ball from Mohammad Asif, but the umpire Asad Rauf gave the batsman the benefit of whatever little doubt he had. Gambhir has shown a tendency to play around his front pad against Sri Lanka where Chaminda Vaas exploited this weakness to the hilt and he continued to do the same here. Although in the end he was a bit unlucky to be bowled behind his legs as the inswinger from Asif was going down the legside and it clipped his pad and rolled onto the leg stump. Gambhir opening doesn’t appear to be a reassuring move. Asif claimed another one quickly as he surprised Pathan with a perfect bouncer that flicked the batsman’s left thumb on the way to the keeper.

Sachin Tendulkar meanwhile was in good touch and opened out with two delightful boundaries to the square boundary. He was very watchful against Asif, judging and leaving several balls and even letting one go on the bounce, over the stumps. But, when he got a loose one he pounced on it and even pulled a short one from outside the off stump for a four. Asif was threatening in every single over, but Umar Gul released some pressure by not sticking to a consistent line. Even though Gul produced some sharp movement off the seam, he strayed on both sides of the wicket. Dravid was lucky to survive a scorcher from Asif that hit the bat and bounced over the stumps. But, the pair managed to survive Asif’s opening spell, with some luck and grit. Tendulkar was lucky that Asif at thirdman didn’t pick up his top edged square cut quickly enough and it sailed over his head for a six. To rub it in, he smashed a wide one from the aggrieved Rana Naved through cover point for a four. Naved then came back to bowl a 140kph leg break to Dravid that pitched on middle and missed the off stump. It was a battle out there with the new ball.

The earlier than normal start to the day nighter, i.e. at 11am, probably is a reason why the Pakistani seamers got so much assistance from the pitch even in the second innings. The early start ostensibly, is to prevent the dew from adversely affecting the side bowling second, but it definitely evens out the odds for the new ball bowlers on both sides. Gul almost struck first ball after the drinks break, but Kamran Akmal dropped Sachin down the leg side. Sachin rubbed it in by pulling and driving for two boundaries in the same over.

Dravid perhaps was encouraged by Umar Gul’s poor collection at midon once before, and he decided to run another quick single but Gul got his second direct hit in two matches and the Indian skipper was well short of the crease. The next man, Yuvraj Singh, was in fine nick and pulled the first short ball he received from Yasir Arafat wide of mid on to get off the mark. His second scoring shot was a stunning stand up and drive shot, wide of mid off. He followed it up with another incredible back foot off drive that raced to the boundary. It was a slightly slower pitch and several batsmen got leading edges, including Yuvraj, but he adjusted quickly to play a beautiful on drive for his fourth boundary. He eased off all the pressure from Sachin, who was suddenly finding it difficult to time the ball. A clearly unfit Shahid Afridi came into bowl, and clutched his ribs after each delivery. Even as Sachin cheekily dabbed him through the vacant slip region for a four, one wondered why Afridi even played this game. Wasn’t he better off resting his freak shower injury?

Sachin is not getting any younger and coupled with the fact that he had bowled ten overs in the Pakistani innings led to the leg cramps affecting him much earlier than was expected. But he hung on gamely and even scrambled for the quick two, as always refusing the services of a runner. Strangely enough the injured Afridi continued bowling while Abdul Razzaq patrolled the outfield and even the hobbling Sachin pulled him away for a four. Razzaq was finally brought into the attack in the 30th over. Sachin’s injury was limiting his front foot movement and he stayed on the backfoot and still found the boundary, whipping Razzaq to square leg. When Asif was brought back to break the bourgeoning fourth wicket partnership, the little master stepped up his game and produced a powerful backfoot off drive that sneaked past a stiff Inzamam. Yuvraj pulled Asif straight back over the bowlers hands to reach a remarkable half century. Sachin was looking for the short ball and had no problem pulling Razzaq for a four and then followed it up with a picture perfect on drive for another four. His eyes must have lit up when he saw a short ball outside off and in his eagerness to smash it, he sliced it straight to point after a superbly compiled 95. The very next over Umar Gul brought one back to trap Mohammad Kaif plumb in front. India had lost 2 quick wickets and Pakistan was back in the game.

Dhoni came in and immediately hit the ball from the meat of the bat. The first few hits found the fielders, but after that he began to find the gaps and he spread the field after 2 smashing hits off Razzaq over mid off for four. Dhoni ran quickly and eased the pressure with 12 runs off the Razzaq over. Pakistan’s ground fielding was pretty shoddy once again, with fielders letting the ball slip through their legs. Immediately after a bowling good over, Yasir Arafat made hash of it at deep square let and let the ball go between his legs for a four. Yuvraj made it a big over off the struggling Rana Naved by hammering a wide one to the point boundary for another four. Dhoni continued the momentum by swivel paddling another ball for an easy four with the fine leg up. Rana Naved capped an awful fielding display by taking his eyes off the ball for a second time as he attacked the ball and conceded an easy two. Dhoni bounded to his fifty in 35 balls in the 44th over which included three consecutive boundaries off the hapless Rana Naved. Asif was brought back for his third spell, and ruined his bowling figures which uptil then were 2-28 of 8 overs and gave away 19 runs in his last 2 overs. He still managed to induce an edge from Yuvraj, but it raced away to the thirdman boundary. Dhoni finished it off with another adventurous pull shot in the 48th over, and he finished on 72 of 46 balls while Yuvraj looked positively sedate with 79 from 87 balls. Dhoni made sure that India won in a canter, but, the match was setup up by an innings of the highest class from Sachin Tendulkar who along with Dravid played out the seaming new ball spells from both Asif and Gul, while still scoring runs at healthy strike rate. Sachin's knock was complemented by a brilliant knock from Yuvraj who scored quickly when Sachin cramped up, and later throttled down when the Dhoni fireworks began. Yuvraj is becoming a rock in the Indian middle order and it is no wonder that he was named the Vice Captain in Sehwag's absence.

Inzamam admitted that Pakistan lost the match because of their fielding, in fact it was woeful. The Indian's dropped three catches but their ground fielding was excellent. Raina, Kaif and Yuvraj in the covers ensure that the Indian's can play with only four full time bowlers. Pakistan cannot hope to improve their fielding overnight, so it looks like it is going to be tough for them in the remaining two matches.

India bounce back emphatically

2006-02-12T00:56:00.000-08:00

Irfan Pathan provided the early breakthrough that was missing in the recent past, as Salman Butt attempted an ambitious drive to the second ball of the match which swung and seamed away after pitching. Sreesanth once again bowled with good pace and swing, but remained unlucky. He surprised Yousuf with a well directed bouncer and made good use of the bowling crease, coming wide off the crease to bowl his incoming delivery. Shoaib Malik seems to revel against the Indian bowlers and once again played an attacking innings even as wickets fell at the other end. Kamran Akmal was looking good with some stunning cover drives against the swinging delivery, but he tried to cut a ball that was too close to him and chopped Pathan onto his stumps. When Yousuf had run himself out with his manic running between the wickets Pakistan were in trouble. It became big trouble as Inzamam somehow played too early at a short ball from Zaheer and popped up a simple catch to mid on. Zaheer Khan and Agarkar bowled very well after replacing the opening bowlers. India went in with only 4 frontline bowlers and all were the faster men with Romesh Powar as the super sub. Agarkar bowled a few excellent outswingers that somehow missed the outside edge of both Malik and Younis Khan.

After the controversy over Inzi’s obstruction of field dismissal in the first match, one would think that it couldn’t happen again in the series. But, it almost happened in this match too. Shoaib Malik at the non strikers end scampered down the pitch for a single accompanied by the bowler Zaheer Khan. He was sent back by Younis, and just as Zaheer reached down to pick up the ball, Malik kicked it away. The Indian’s muted their appeal probably because it wasn’t clear whether it was intentional, but after watching the replays it looked as if he plonked his foot on the ball quite unnecessarily. It would have been quite interesting had the Indians appealed.

India didn’t have a fifth bowler, thus when Sehwag and Sachin bowled in tandem the pressure was off Pakistan. Malik & Younis Khan managed to get a boundary almost every over. The only over where Sachin managed to bowl 5 dot balls, off the sixth ball Malik slashed it deep point and ran back for a dangerous second run, but Sreesanth’s throw from the deep was perfectly on top of the stumps and Dhoni had no trouble in whipping the bails off. It was a great piece of fielding and in this department India was much better than Pakistan, who were pretty woeful in the field. Afridi came in and clouted a six as is his wont but threw it away before he could do further damage as he came down the wicket and flung his bat at a short and wide delivery from Pathan. Kaif judged the skier to a nicety. Younis Khan continued his outstanding form in the Test matches as he methodically collected runs interspersed with powerful shots to the square boundary.

India did well to dismiss the big hitters in the Pakistan lower order. Both Agarkar and Zaheer Khan bowled well at the end and coupled with some excellent fielding from the Indians, Suresh Raina in particular who added a run out and a catch to his fielding kitty, made sure that the Pakistanis were all out before the end of 50 overs. In the end 265 was a good score considering that Pakistan were in some strife at 68-4.

Sachin and Sehwag started cautiously giving the utmost respect to Mohammad Asif, until Sehwag exploded in the fifth over. Rana Naved whet his appetite with a short and wide one outside the off stump and Sehwag launched himself off his feet and into the ball, smashing it over the thirdman boundary with such power that he injured his left shoulder. After getting treatment from John Gloster, Sehwag hit three consecutive boundaries and after each shot he grimaced as if to tell the bowler that he could have hit it better if he had two fully functional hands. The first four was ping ponged over the bowlers head, the second was whipped wide of mid on and the third was rocketed through covers. After that he became the hunter and the bowlers were on the defensive. Even as Sachin played Asif cautiously, the Sehwag effect caused an error in Asif’s line and he was flicked to the mid wicket boundary and a wide one was dispatched to the point boundary. Umar Gul started well, beating both Sachin and Sehwag. But, Sehwag immediately sent the very next ball scorching through the covers. It is incredible just how he is able to compartmentalize each delivery. Sourav Ganguly, writing in the Cricinfo magazine provided an interesting insight into Sehwag’s thinking. Ganguly recalled how both of them were watching another batsman at the crease in Australia, and after every slightly loose ball Sehwag would say “Chauka gaya” or “Chakka gaya”, i.e. he missed a four or he missed a six!! It is a pretty simple approach to batting. But, it is not all bang, bang like Afridi, because he started taking singles and Sachin got into the act, lofting Mohammed Asif over mid off and collecting three fours off one Umar Gul over. The opening pair reached their 9th hundred run partnership making 105 from 15 overs when Sachin opened the face off his bat and guided Razzaq into Akmal’s hands.

The flexibility with the batting order in the one dayers has been a consistent feature of the Dravid-Chappell combine, and this time there was no need for the big hitters so Dravid came into bat at number three and eased his way to his 66th half century at strike rate over 90 with only five boundaries. Even when Sehwag was run out by an incredible direct hit from the boundary by Gul, India had no worries as Yuvraj Singh came in and calmly put the match beyond Pakistan. This is where Inzi’s tactics were a bit bizarre as he never brought back his main strike bowler, Mohammad Asif to the attack. All the other bowlers were given a go, and it seemed as if Inzi had already given and up and didn’t want the Indians to score brownie points against Asif. Dravid and Yuvraj added 118 runs before David fell just before the win was achieved, and Mohammad Kaif had to come in to finish off the game. Dhoni, Pathan and the extra bat Suresh Raina weren’t even required as India completed a thumping win.

Dravid will be happy with the win, because his bowlers got him the early break through and his batsmen countered the main threat of Mohammad Asif quite admirably. Suresh Raina in the field pretty much covered the lack of the fifth bowler. Inzamam will be pondering the Sehwag effect and throwing up his hands in frustration at the Pakistan ground fielding which made his bowling attack look even more mediocre than it actually is.

Asif and the Zone

2006-02-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

How does one bowler get consistently more seam movement with the new ball than any body else? Ask Mohammad Asif, because nobody else knows the answer. When Asif bowls, the ball invariable lands on the seam, the others are lucky if they get even two out of six deliveries to land on the seam. We have heard about batsmen being in the zone, and this guy has just hit the bowler’s equivalent. He bowled another brilliant spell in the first one dayer at Peshawar, and his match figures of 3-30 on a batting paradise is nothing short of incredible. Gentle loosener; what is that? The first ball he bowled in the match was a ripper and Sehwag had no chance of surviving. It swung in and seamed away. The only way Sehwag could have avoided the edge was if he had dropped the bat. The next man in was Irfan Pathan and he just couldn’t touch the ball as Asif repeatedly beat his bat. In Asif’s second over 5 balls went past the outside edge. Phew, what a bowler!

Mohammad Asif definitely has the wood over the Indian batsmen and if India are to win this one day series they have to either attack him and shred his confidence or take the more sensible option and cautiously play him out like Sachin Tendulkar did. Sehwag will definitely try to attack him, because that is the only way he plays, and it is going to be a great battle between the two for the rest of the series. The left handed Pathan survived, and even shimmied down the pitch and smote Asif over cover. Thus, attack is possible. Asif bowls a more dangerous line to the right hander, so maybe the left handed Suresh Raina, a SuperSub for this game, should be sent up the order?

Irfan Pathan is an allrounder, there is not even a doubt about that any more. His batting was once again feisty and defiant. When the team is in trouble he seems to thrive with the bat and he was certainly pumped up for the occasion. After Pathan's departure Dhoni was sent in to utilize the power plays, and he certainly did. Dhoni's batting has to be watched just for the swagger with which he orchestrates his innings. He started off with a streaky edged four off Razzaq, but by the end of the over he had added three more boundaries. Dhoni continued the assault that Pathan had begun and they both batted around Sachin Tendulkar's methodical accumulation of runs. Sachin’s appetite for the battle hasn’t dimmed a bit as he eased his way to his 39th century and went past 14000 career runs. Staggering numbers! The dichotomy with his performance and India’s performance are mere indications of the fact that the Indian team success has thankfully moved well beyond one man’s role. Sachin was unfortunately declared LBW while reverse sweeping when he had gloved the ball, but the dismissal that really set India back was the LBW dismissal of Rahul Dravid. It was an inswinging yorker from Rana Naved and it looked to have done too much and would have missed leg stump. The batting collapsed after that in the frenetic chase for runs, and India stuttered to 328 all out in the final over.

Sreesanth impressed early on with his pace and late movement but was expensive as he steamed in with the eagerness of a young man making his India-Pak debut. Salman Butt and the in form Kamran Akmal provided Pakistan a rousing start. India pulled things back after Akmal was dismissed, but Shoaib Malik loves the Indian bowling and he waited patiently, accumulating runs with some swift running between the wickets before exploding after reaching his fifty. He destroyed Mural Karthik with 3 huge hits for six and the under pressure left armer began bowling wides outside leg stump when coming around the wicket. Agarkar lost his head trying to bounce Malik and was smashed for three fours in one over. Malik ensured that Pakistan was well ahead of the Indian rate and above the Duckworth/Lewis requirements. India got an unexpected opening with the dismissal of Butt as his tired lofted drive didn’t clear Dravid at cover. Shahid Afridi was sent in to continue the mayhem in his hometown and Malik and he were doing just that before Malik threw it away by clipping Zahir Khan to Dravid at midwicket. Mohammad Kaif’s brilliant fielding got rid of Afridi, and bizzarely enough people began leaving the stadium after Afridi’s run out. They didn’t come to see Pakistan, they came to see their local bomber Shahid Afridi.

Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam were taking the game away from India when he took Dravid’s bait of men in the circle and pulled one to mid on. Dravid knew the game was running away and his smart captaincy brought India back in to the game. He shuffled his bowlers and brought in his fielders to tempt the Pakistani’s. Dravid is a proactive captain if there ever was one, and he pretty much brought India back into the game. Suresh Raina, who was simply outstanding in the field, saving at least 15 runs, at mid off spotted Inzamam trotting out of his crease, and quickly lobbed the ball back to stumps and Inzamam in his moment of clarity knocked the ball back with a classical backfoot off drive. The Indians appealed and of course Inzi was out obstructing the field, because he was way outside the crease. Inzi immediately protested to the umpires because in the last series against England he had been wrongly adjudged run out when he had tried to avoid the ball, so this time he felt he did the right thing by knocking the ball away. What was even more bizarre was at the post match interview he huffed and puffed and said that he doesn’t understand the laws. The Pakistan captain doesn’t understand the laws, even after going back to the dressing room and coming out after the match was over!! Probably everybody stayed clear of the fuming gentle giant of Pakistan cricket.

The light was fading fast and Dravid resorted to spinners so that umpires would let the play go on. Only Younis Khan and the tail was left, when the umpires finally offered the light to the batsmen and they gladly accepted knowing that they were ahead of India on the D/L scale. It was an unfortunate end to the match, but it probably was the correct result as Pakistan deserved to win the match.

Dravid will be left pondering his toothless bowling attack and how to counter Mohammad Asif, while Inzi will be studying MCC’s Laws of Cricket, the Spirit part he has already got down pat. It promises to be an enthralling series.

Dravid's Test

2006-02-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

A Test Match is a game played over five days because it is a comprehensive test of your abilities and your character. This loss will surely test Rahul Dravid. The Indian captain has just seen his side lose a Test match after having the opposition on the mat at 39-6 on the first day of the match. How did it happen? That is what he will be asking himself.

I believe we lost the game because of a lack of planning and failure in vision. The previous two flat tracks had convinced the Indian team that there was no need for specialist openers when the stand in openers, Sehwag and Dravid were doing such a wonderful job. The most incredible part of it all was that in India's first innings it was VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid who opened the innings. Sehwag had an upset tummy and was off the field at the end of Pakistan's first innings. It really was bad timing on Sehwag’s part, but if the man had to go, then he had to go. Anyway, it wasn't Laxman who went first, it was Dravid. He got a 'jaffa' from Mohammad Asif that seamed away and took his outside edge. One can't really blame Dravid for that because most batsmen would have nicked it. But, it seemed like India was sacrificing its best batsmen in order to accommodate Ganguly in the team. This impression was reinforced when in the second innings Dravid pushed his bat at a delivery from Akhtar that he should have left well alone. It is only then that you realize that Rahul Dravid opening the batting is not a solution. It is a brave move by the captain, but it still doesn’t make it the right one. He batted for only 4 overs in the whole game!

Sehwag didn’t look like he had completely recovered from the food poisoning episode in the first innings and he showed that he had no stomach for the fight. He lasted only 4 balls. Sehwag’s batting average in the second innings is a meager 22.91 with no centuries, and he failed again, getting embarrassingly cleaned up by Asif. His first innings contributions have set up so many wins for India that one can excuse his second innings frailties, but this definitely is something he can rectify if he puts his mind to it. Laxman still hasn’t rectified his propensity to get bowled through the gate and he did that twice in this match. Quite a few people are getting worked up over Tendulkar failures, but one shouldn’t be writing his epitaph yet. He looked good in the second innings and even nonchalantly slapped away a fast bouncer from Shoaib. He was undone by one that kept low and went right underneath his bat; he had covered the line but not the height. Yuvraj Singh was the only one who emerged with his reputation enhanced in both innings and he proved why he deserves to be picked in the Test XI with another century on a seaming wicket in Pakistan.

The bowler of the series was Mohammad Asif. He bowled an incredible line and always at a sharp pace. He scuttled India just as Umar Gul had done in the previous tour. But, the more one watched the right arm bowler bring the ball back into the batsmen, the more one felt that India should never go into a Test match with three left arm fast bowlers. Another lesson learned is that Dravid shouldn’t open and neither should Sourav Ganguly. India should have a regular opener, Wasim Jaffer in this case, to partner Sehwag. That doesn’t leave a place for Ganguly in the XI, and that is being harsh on the man who tried real hard and played two fighting innings in this Test match. But, after surviving the torrid spells from Shoaib and seeing off the newer ball, he top edged a clumsy hook shot off Abdul Razzaq, just when he was looking good for a big score. We have seen it so many times before, and it still is a terrible shot. He should follow in Steve Waugh’s footsteps and avoid that shot altogether.

Of course, I have the advantage of saying all this in hindsight, but one should learn from the mistakes made. Will Dravid be able to make changes and not only make brave decisions, but also make tough decisions? That will be his Test. We should be able to glean something from the way the Indian team responds to him for the one day series.

Cricket is back!

2006-01-29T20:34:00.000-08:00

It was the last over of the day and Shoaib Akhtar was brought back to hurl his thunderbolts at the former Indian skipper, Sourav Ganguly. On a riveting opening day of the third test between India and Pakistan at Karachi, the most compelling moment for me, was Ganguly scampering back for the second run to face the last ball of the day. In that dash for the second run, he revealed the intent of the visiting Indian team and also his personal relish for a fight. He was saying “I am game, come and get me.”

Well, the caveat is that for the last ball of the day he hung his bat out limply to a full and fast delivery from Akhtar that whizzed by his bat. Such is Sourav! Tomorrow, we may see him slashing one to second slip or top edging one high in the air to fine leg, but there will be drama and you shouldn’t miss it for the world.

Earlier in the morning, in an incredible incisive opening over Irfan Pathan scythed through the Pakistani top order. The ball curled in late like he was bowling, I mean the nine pin game, and not cricket. Pathan has shown in Test matches against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh that he can be unplayable when he curls it in, but this was against top class opposition and he made them look like school kids playing swing bowling for the first time. Salman Butt, by virtue of being a left hander, escaped looking embarrassed as he edged a perfectly pitched outswinger to the slips. Younis Khan stepped right into the path of another perfect curler and Mohammad Yousuf avoided the lbw, only to see the ball curl around his front foot between the bat and pad and crash into the stumps. It was awesome swing bowling aided by seam movement off pitch. You will never see a more stunning opening over in Test cricket in your entire life.

Zaheer and RP Singh also chipped in with wickets as India reduced Pakistan 39-6. But, the Pakistan team is much improved since the last Indian tour, and Kamran Akmal wasn’t willing to fold so easily. He played all the strokes, the drives, the pulls and the rasping square cuts. He along with Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar brought Pakistan to a seemingly improbable total of 245. Akmal raced to his century, in the company of a resolute Akhtar. Pakistan have been blessed with some wonderful keeper batsmen like Wasim Bari, Moin Khan, Rashid Latif but Akmal is definitely going to finish with the highest batting average.

Pakistan’s opening bowlers showed that the pitch will continue to offer assistance to the new ball and India was struggling at 74 for 4 by the end of the day. Mohammad Asif bowled a couple of stunning deliveries to account for Dravid and Laxman. Tendulkar was given a fearful clanger on his helmet first ball from Shoaib Akhtar, but after getting a start contrived to get himself dismissed by Abdul Razzaq again. The ball is only 16 overs old and the Pakistanis will be trying to get wickets before the shine disappears while Ganguly and Yuvraj will try to somehow survive the first half an hour and enter the annals of heroes.

Thank goodness Cricket has resumed.

Dravid's team

2005-12-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

One realizes that Rahul Dravid is a classy man when he thanks the crowds for the support they have extended to the Indian team through the length and breadth of the country at the pre-game mid-pitch TV interview after the toss for the final game against the South Africans at the Wankhede stadium, Mumbai. That this astonishing public relations exercise comes immediately after the barracking he and his team received from the crowd at the Eden Gardens in Kolkatta is a sure sign that this is an Indian Captain who knows what sports is all about. It is about performing in front of your fans. And perform they did today.

The Indian team was outstanding in it’s pursuit for a win in the final game, the hunger was evident in Pathan’s guttural scream as he swung one right into the middle stump of a stunned Andrew Hall. Graeme Smith was tucking into a once again wayward Ajit Agarkar, before he fell over playing a low full toss on leg stump from Pathan, scooping it to Harbhajan Singh at square leg. South Africa prime batting weapon in their last 21 matches was Smith, and once he was gone, the batting lost direction. Kallis and Prince labored painfully, struggling to get the ball away. While Irfan was immaculate from the onset, after Smith’s dismissal even Agarkar tightened up his line in a splendid five over second spell. Harbhajan Singh was immaculate in his control and suffocated the South African’s. Prince finally succumbed to a top edged sweep, but Harbhajan wasn’t done yet. He made up for a misfield early on with a fantastic performance in the outfield. He stopped several boundaries and astonished everyone as he dived forward to take a stunning catch of a powerful Boucher sweep. Later, Harbhajan was brought back into the attack to get rid of the big hitting Justin Kemp, and he did just that when Kemp tried to sweep a sharply turning off break only to get another top edge to Yuvraj at short fine leg. Kallis meanwhile continued in first gear and only when Shaun Pollock clattered a few boundaries in the 47th and 48th overs did he attempt to seize the initiative. Kallis flayed one Pathan full toss to the off side boundary, but failed to clear long on off the very next ball. He had accumulated 91 painstaking runs off 146 balls with five boundaries at a strike rate of 62%. He had played a similar knock against New Zealand on an extremely slow track, a match winning one on that occasion, but this time he had not read the conditions properly and he was the primary reason why South Africa were about 20 runs short finishing only on 221 with 4 wickets remaining.

The Indian chase started poorly with the Super Sub Gambhir departing for a duck but the crowd was soon going hoarse screaming “Sachin, Sachin” as Tendulkar began to play some stunning drives and cuts. At the other end Sehwag raced away to a typically bellicose 27 in 20 balls including an awesome tennis serve like pull shot of a Shaun Pollock short ball. Sehwag’s innings was cut short by a poor lbw decision to Pollock. Dravid was the next man in and determination was writ large on his face. His timing was excellent as he turned Pollock to the mid wicket boundary and drove him to the long on boundary in the same over. Just as the partnership was guiding India to a winning position, South Africa struck back. Both Nel and Langeveldt were bowling superbly and it was the hustling Nel who struck. Sachin cut powerfully only to see Ashwell Prince diving to his left to pull of a blinder. The South Africans really are an outstanding fielding side. Yuvraj Singh, India’s best batsman of the series was in next and he combined with Dravid in a 79 run partnership that eased all flutters in the Indian dressing room. This time young Johan Botha couldn’t trouble Yuvraj, and both Botha and Hall couldn’t contain the Indians. Botha did miss a sharp return catch from Dravid, and that would have been a vital wicket. Andre Nel came back to dismiss Yuvraj on 49 and Langeveldt got rid off a lackluster Mahendra Singh Dhoni but at that point the Indian win was never in doubt. Dravid was unbeaten on 78 as Kaif hit the winning runs in the 48th over.

It was a great team effort from India to come back after the comprehensive defeat at Kolkatta. The bowlers and fielders did a fantastic job in containing South Africa and made it a relatively easy task for the batsmen. Dravid has every right to be proud of his team, and India should be proud of its new Captain.

The Stumble at the Garden

2005-12-01T08:48:00.000-08:00

The Indian team may have felt that they were not playing in home conditions at the Eden Gardens, Kolkatta with a pitch suited for the South African pace bowlers and a rabid crowd baying for their blood. But, they have only their poor performance to blame for the jeers from the fickle crowd. If India had done well the Kolkatta crowd would surely have been singing hosannas for Dravid and Chappell. If South Africa could chase down the Indian score without losing a wicket then the pitch can’t be all that bad, so the conspiracy theories against Dalmiya’s Cricket Association of Bengal need to be tempered down. Maybe the pitch was a little mischievous effort on the part of the groundsman, but India has to learn to win on all kinds of surfaces after all both teams play on the same pitch.

The toss played a crucial role again in these day night games. Irfan Pathan has succeeded at all batting positions and it was another brave move to send him to open the batting with Gautam Gambhir, but it failed and he was dismissed in the very first over by the canny Shaun Pollock. If Pathan had played for 5 overs at least maybe the top order wouldn’t have collapsed. Sachin tried to play out Pollock, but the ever patient Pollock got his man, and Gambhir’s loose shot was not in keeping with him being India’s only genuine Test opener. Pollock had taken 3 wickets to knock India back. Sehwag responded with a blazing counter attack as only he can. The pitch doesn’t seem to matter when he bats, and he was brutal against Hall. Hall finally pitched one wide off the stumps and Sehwag in his belligerent mood just could not resist having a swing only to get an edge to the keeper. Langeveldt prodeuced a beauty to get rid of Dravid and India were in danger of getting bowled out for an embarrassingly low total. Yuvraj has been India’s crisis man in this series and he played another back to the wall innings of great character. But, just as Kaif and Yuvraj were leading India to a decent score, the brave Johan Botha caught him LBW with a straighter ball that may have been a doosra. It was a crucial wicket by the young off spinner and it couldn’t have come at a better time. After that wicket the innings collapsed as Dhoni just wasn’t able to get the ball away and the tail crumbled. All international bowlers would have picked up on how South Africa bowled to Dhoni, short of good length and into his body, and it will be a test for Dhoni to counter it. India were bowled out for 188 and under the lights with the dew, it really wouldn’t have challenged South Africa.

Graeme Smith chose to make an emphatic statement guiding his team to a ten wicket victory. He made an incredible 134 runs out of the 189 total runs they scored in 36 overs. Andrew Hall was unbeaten on a patient 48 of 94 balls. India needed wickets right at the start to put pressure on South Africa, but that never happened. While Hall was watchful against the new ball Smith launched into both Agarkar and Pathan. Harbhajan Singh bowled a tight line but Smith never let him dominate as he jumped down the track to hit him straight down the ground for a six. Murali Karthik couldn’t contain Smith and was ineffective with the wet ball. Soon every South African boundary was being cheered by the angry crowd and in the end it was capped with jeers for Dravid and Chappell during the post match ceremony.

Rahul Dravid would have felt bitter and hurt with the reception, and he would have quickly realized that the Indian captaincy is a prickly crown to wear.

Making the most of the Super Sub rule (ranjit nair)

2005-11-22T14:54:00.000-08:00

(Ranjit Nair raised some interesting points about Super Subs in his comments so I asked him to contribute a posting)

Fleming may moan about the Super Sub rule, Lehman may hate it (quote: "I'd like to make a point about shit rules."), Atapattu may not understand it yet (Trevor Chesterfield says, “Atapattu was also brave enough to admit that the new International Cricket Council limited-overs formula of super sub and Power play has left them scratching their heads”), but the fact remains that while this experiment continues, all international teams will need to learn to adjust to it quickly. When we look at this rule closely, it seems like it should not be too difficult to come up with a good strategy for this new rule.

The following three points (from ICC’s ODI Playing Conditions) serve as a gist of the super sub rule (Note that there a few more subtleties but they are fairly intuitive):

1. The replacement bowler shall only be entitled to bowl the remaining number of overs that the replaced player still had available.

2. A player from the batting side may be replaced either before he has batted or whilst at the crease. The replacement of a player who has already been dismissed will only be permitted if the batting team is still to field.

3. A replaced player shall not be entitled to take any further part in the match save as the substitute fielder in accordance with the Laws.

Atapattu and Tom Moody seemed to think that the Indians took advantage of the super sub rule very well in the recently concluded series. However, a closer look at these decisions reveals a different story. In game 1, India chose Murali Kartik as the super sub. On winning the toss, Dravid chose to bat and replaced Venugopal Rao with Kartik after the 12^th over of the Sri Lankan innings. This worked out very well because now we had an extra bowler to add some teeth to our bowling line-up. While this seemed like a good idea, it could have backfired in the second game where India again went with a specialist bowler (Sree Santh) as the Super Sub. Dravid again won the toss, chose to field first and ended up not using the extra bowler so as not to weaken the batting line-up. This time around Dravid was criticized (and rightly so) because it seemed strange to pick a bowler as the super sub if he intended to bat first. Maybe Dravid expected to lose the toss given that he won the previous toss in which case someone needs to explain to him that tosses are i.i.d. (the geek in me raises his ugly head) and that winning the previous toss has no bearing on whether he would win the next one. Luckily for Dravid and India, the Indian bowlers without Sree Santh, were more than enough for Sri Lanka.

In the next 5 games, Dravid’s choice of the super sub and the timing on when to make the replacement were spot on. But just when I thought that he had a hang of this new rule, he proved me wrong in the first two games against SA by opting for a specialist batsman as the super sub. In the first game, Gautam Gambhir was chosen as the super sub. This immediately told Graeme Smith if he won the toss India would be in an inconvenient position if they were made to bat first because they would either have to choose not to use their super sub or would end up with one bowler less. As it turned out, Smith won the toss and chose to field first. Then South African bowlers got the Indian top order out early (35/5) forcing Dravid to bring in Gambhir in place of Murali Kartik, leaving India a bowler short. It is academic to talk about what would have happened if J P Yadav or another all-rounder was chosen as the super sub, but at the very least it would not have left India in a position where they were playing 12 vs. 11. In game two, Dravid made the same mistake of going with a specialist batsman as the super sub. Luckily for him, this time around he won the toss and the game, and the fallacy of his thinking was not exposed.

What captains should realize is that the Super Sub rule allows them to make ODI cricket a 12 vs. 12 game. That is why I fail to follow the logic of going with a specialist batsman or a specialist bowler as the super sub. It works fine if you win the toss (like in game two against SA and game 1 against SL) but you could suddenly find yourself a bowler or a batsman short. As a rule, the super sub should be an all rounder who fields really well. If we field first, we should use one of the specialist bowlers for ten overs at a trot and then replace him with our super sub. This could be someone like Raina, JP Yadav or Yuvraj Singh. If one of the specialist bowlers is having an off day then again we bring the Super Sub in. That way we have an extra bat when it comes to our turn to bat. If we bat first, we bring in the all rounder only in the case of a batting collapse. If there is no collapse then the super sub is brought in after one of the specialist bowlers finishes his quota or gets tonked around a lot. The thing with this strategy is that you are safe irrespective of whether you bat first or field first. Plus, the opposition doesn't know what you would prefer -- batting or field first – unlike in game one against SA where Smith remarked that he chose to put India in because of our choice of super sub.

Indian bowlers control second ODI

2005-11-19T05:10:00.000-08:00

Irfan Pathan’s aggression knocked over the South African top order and the spinners strangulated the lower order. Pathan had taken a pounding from Graeme Smith in the first match, but this time he snapped up three quick wickets to have South Africa reeling. AB deVilliers flicked one straight to the square leg fielder to continue his strange run in the one day games. Graeme Smith walked across his stumps in an attempt to impose himself on Pathan again but the ball rapped him on his pads, and this time the umpire agreed with the bowler. Pathan then angled one across Jacques Kallis and he tried to force it off his back foot only to be beaten by the extra bounce and got an edge to Dhoni. Ajit Agarkar maintained a wonderful line, mixing up his pace and confounding all his critics as to how he has quickly disciplined himself to become the most reliable new ball bowler for India. He bowled 6 overs for 15 runs in his opening spell.

The Bangalore pitch was an abrasive turner and one could see white spots where the fast bowlers pitched the ball. On such a gripping surface the spinners would have a say and Rahul Dravid broughtHarbhajan Singh on in the 14 ^th over. Bhajji promptly produced a ripper from around the wicket to the left handed Ashwell Prince, it pitched on leg stump and turned sharply to hit his pad in front of middle and off. The umpire gave Prince the benefit of the doubt. But, on this pitch you couldn’t keep Bhajji out of the game. Andrew Hall after edging one to the third man boundary turned an off break straight to forward short leg for Kaif to take very good reflex catch. South Africa were struggling at 57-4. Bhajji found the leading edge of Ashwell Prince almost once every over, and Mark Boucher was bewildered and lucky not to be dismissed by a doosra. Bhajji was enjoying himself and if it was a Test match, he’d probably have taken 10 wickets in the match. Prince decided to employ the sweep and was lucky that two top edges fell short of the man on the boundary.

Boucher tried to improve the scoring rate, but couldn’t get going against Harbhajan and an extremely focused Murali Karthik. Dravid was attacking throughout and after 7 wonderful overs from Harbhajan, he brought in Virendar Sehwag. Sehwag struck in his very first over as Boucher's sweep failed to connect and he was hit on the pad. He was slightly unlucky to be declared LBW as the ball hit him just outside the off stump. Justin Kemp probably has never played on a slow turner like this and began with an edge landing just short of Dravid at slip. Prince danced down the pitch and tried to hit an off spinner over mid on for the second time in the series only to sky a catch once again. This time around, Sehwag was the wicket taker. Prince has shown a lot of patience and grit in the 2 games so far and if he is a quick learner he probably will not try to hit over the top against the spin in the next three games. Meanwhile Murali Karthik was bowling maiden overs on the trot and run scoring became a chore. Murali finished his 10 over for 16 runs and bowled 4 maidens, in fact it would have been 5 maidens if not for a no ball.

Harbhajan was brought back and Kemp finally attempted a big shot only to see RP Singh run forward from the square leg boundary and diving to take a great catch. Pollock finally managed a six in Harbhajan’s last over but failed when he attempted to repeat the shot of Yuvraj Singh to have his off stump knocked back. Botha hit a couple of fine boundaries in the last over to take the score to 169 before Agarkar’s reverse swing uprooted Ntini’s middle stump.

Second innings will be posted later.

South Africa explodes off the blocks

2005-11-16T16:33:00.000-08:00

After the 6-1 drubbing of Sri Lanka the Indians received a hard lesson in tough cricket from South Africa. The South African bowling aggression and peerless fielding completely surprised the Indian batting line up and the top order was blown away for next to nothing. It was only due to the courage of Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh that

India

was not bowled out for an embarrassingly low total. Feeding off Pathan’s forthright batting, Yuvraj settled down to rescue India with a wonderful century and take them to a more than respectable total of 249. But, it wasn’t enough as Graeme Smiths pyrotechnics at the top of the order provided enough cushion for Jacques Kallis to play a measured innings of clinical efficiency and economy of effort to guide South Africa to a win in the opening game of the five match one day series.

The pitch had some juice on it in the morning and Smith had no hesitation in inserting India in to bat. Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini were outstanding in their opening spells, offering no width at all to the Indian batsman. Pollock was getting bounce and movement in his first over and beat Tendulkar a couple of times with away movement. But, it was Ntini who struck in the next over as Sehwag swatted one towards point only to see Ashwell Prince diving to his left to take a brilliant catch. Pollock then suckered Kaif with one that jagged back in and catching him dead on the crease. In his next over Pollock removed Tendulkar with another outswinger and India was being embarrassed by some great bowling by the South Africans. Just when it looked as if Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj had weathered the early morning juice in the pitch, Andre Nel steamed in and cut one back appreciable between Dravid’s bat and pad to take out the off stump. Nel’s right foot moves alarmingly to one side in his delivery stride, and it looks as if he will pick up an injury soon, but he is definitely is fun to watch as he huffs and puffs his way into the batsman’s face. India had to use Gautam Gambhir as the Super Sub, sacrificing Murali Karthik, but it failed as Gambhir played an ambitious cover drive only to edge it through to the keeper. Half the side was gone and it was only the 12^th over. Dhoni was shunted down the order to save him for the end, and Irfan Pathan was sent in.

Pathan played some bold shots from the very first ball and took the fight back to the South Africans; instead of succumbing to the pressure he played his lofted strokes over the infield to the boundary. It was a refreshing batting display by the young man. Meanwhile, Yuvraj was leading a charmed life and all his edges flew past a diving second slip and one top edged hook off Ntini went for a six. Pathan calmly lofted Ntini over mid off, punched Nel over cover and his partnership with Yuvraj steered India away from embarrassment. Johan Botha was given his first spell in International cricket and did pretty well on debut. A former medium pacer who converted to off spin bowling, he had picked Harbhajan Singh’s brain during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa and today he proved that he was a good student. Pathan tried to dominate him, but Botha never caved in. Even though Pathan collected three boundaries off him, he was never able to get on top off Botha. Pathan was beaten in flight as he came down the track, and poked at the ball only to miss it and get bowled. Dhoni came in and started off well with a sweetly timed backfoot punch for four off Botha. Dhoni ran hard collecting a lot of two’s but played pretty cautiously. With less than 15 overs remaining Yuvraj decided to take control of the situation and opened his shoulders. He sent a full pitched delivery from Kallis over long on and followed it up with a cut shot to the third man boundary. Dhoni continued to run hard, but perished while attempting another two. Nel’s pick up and throw came right into Boucher’s gloves and he took the bails off in a flash, it was only a matter of centimeters but Dhoni had to go. The Indian lower order was not going without a fight, and Ajit Agarkar built another useful partnership with Yuvraj by playing straight and running hard. The pair added 39 runs for the eighth wicket before Agarkar holed out to midwicket. Harbhajan was in next and watched Yuvraj reach his century with a six over long on and a four to the point boundary off Nel. Bhajji showed that he was in good touch with a flick down to the fine leg boundary. He followed it up with a stunning straight hit down the ground for a six. Ntini was the bowler to suffer as he couldn’t get it up in the block hole. Yuvraj foolishly ran himself out with 2 overs still remaining and one thought India had lost the opportunity to reach 250. Harbhajan proved everyone wrong as both Nel and Ntini couldn’t get their length right and Harbhajan tucked Nel’s full tosses to the mid wicket boundary and smashed Ntini full pitched balls to and over the long off fence. India finished on 249 and it was a remarkable comeback by a team that had lost half its side for 35.

It didn’t prove to be enough as Graeme Smith blazed away at the top slaughtering a wayward Pathan. Pathan bowled on both sides of the wicket and Smith smashed him all around the park, being especially strong square of the wicket. Agarkar bowled another good opening spell and took the wickets of AB DeVilliers and Justin Ontong to keep India in the game. Smith somehow dragged a wide RP Singh delivery onto the stumps and the game was wide open. But, Kallis and Prince played extremely cautiously knowing that they were well ahead of the required rate. Harbhajan was treated with the utmost respect and the run rate slowed to a crawl. The Kallis-Prince partnership continued and India really missed their fifth bowler today, especially since they were defending a moderate target. Pathan was brought back, but proved expensive in his second spell too. Sachin, Sehwag and Yuvraj filled in the overs for the fifth bowler but they were non threatening. The accurate Bhajji finally got a wicket as Prince stepped down and tried to hit him over the top, but South Africa never panicked even when Boucher slapped a full toss from Sachin to short midwicket.

Jacques Kallis was like a rock at the other end and their new finisher, Justin Kemp, played with a cool head to ease them to a comfortable win. Dravid brought the field up and tried to use the slower bowlers to force a mistake from the batsman, but today all of Sachin’s googly’s were full tosses that were punished and the pressure couldn’t be maintained on the South Africans.

India did well to come back into the game after a horrible start, and they would have quickly realized that the South African new ball attack is far more potent than the Sri Lankan one. But, they shouldn’t fall into the trap of playing them with extra care and focus only on how to prevent top order collapses, because then they will be playing the same way Sri Lanka did, trying to catch up from behind. The answer as Pathan showed lies in meeting aggressive bowling and fielding with aggressive batting. It will be a good test for the Indian team, but Chappell & Dravid have the tactical nous to counter the South Africans and this five match series promises to be a very competitive one.

India vs Sri Lanka, Baroda, Nov 12, 2005

2005-11-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

Sri Lanka

’s planning and strategy has been poor throughout the series and the trend continued with their bizarre decision to bat first after winning the toss. The pitch had a smattering of grass on it and the morning conditions would help the swing bowlers. Irfan Pathan wasn’t going to miss out on this gift on his home ground, and promptly got an early breakthrough. Ajit Agarkar, the best bowler of the series also cashed in with a wicket and Sri Lanka were struggling after the first hour of the game. Marvan Atapattu and Russell Arnold fought back with a valiant partnership, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Indian momentum. Tendulkar and Sehwag gave them a blazing start, Irfan Pathan came in at number three to continue his home ground celebration and Dhoni hammered in all but the last nail on the coffin.

On a pitch that had something in it for the fast bowlers, RP Singh produced another excellent spell and broke the developing partnership Kumara Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Mahela turned the ball straight into Karthik’s hands at midwicket and Sangakkara tried another one of his fool hardy pull shots on a ball outside off stump only to spoon it up for a steepling catch to Yuvraj. RP Singh then slanted one past Dilshan for the batsman to nick it to Dhoni and then got another edge off Atapattu, but umpire Hariharan somehow didn’t hear it; can’t really blame him because even Dhoni didn’t hear it. Harbhajan was his miserly self again, but Murali Karthik proved to be expensive. He chose a negative line with his left arm over the wicket deliveries pitched outside leg stump. Atapattu swept him away repeatedly for boundaries. Arnold played another fine knock, and it was a remarkable recovery as the pair batted together for more than 20 overs, circumspect in the beginning and accelerating towards the end. Pathan claimed them both with a bit of luck as both the lefthander and right hander found Harbhajan Singh on the square boundary. Agarkar bowled some fast swinging yorkers and full tosses to contain Sri Lanka and claimed ‘Loco Loku’ but they managed to reach a total of 244, which they at least had a chance to defend.

But, it proved to be too small as Sachin and Sehwag provided another blistering start to the Indian innings. Dilhara Fernando bowled with some sharp pace around 145 kph and even had Tendulkar jumping with the bounce he obtained, but he went for a lot of runs as Sehwag sent him away faster than it came. Fernando finally got Sehwag with fast and full delivery that swung away from the right hander. The 53 run opening partnership was followed up by another stunning innings from Pathan at number three. He hit 4 fours and 2 sizes and every shot of his was over the 30 yard circle. The lad has remarkable strength and confidence to clear the close in fielders and seems like perfect hitter to utilize the 20 power play overs. Pathan and Tendulkar were dismissed quickly after their half century partnership, and Sri Lanka sensed an opening when Loco Loku sneaked through the defenses of Mohhamd Kaif. But Man of the Series Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the inform Indian captain Rahul Dravid batted without fear for India to canter to a win. As usual Dhoni smote a few sixes but perished while trying to finish the match off with one. Dravid was left to hit the winning stroke.

The Sri Lankans have been completely outplayed in this series. As Atapattu himself admitted they struggled with the PowerPlays. If you remember they did not employ the new rules in the tri-series at home just because the tournament started one day before the ICC rules became mandatory. That was daft decision and they have really paid for it in this series. Instead of playing with the new rules in a familiar environment they have struggled to cope with it in India.

The Indian selectors have done a wonderful job in this series by picking youngsters and giving them an opportunity. They unearthed good bowlers like RP Singh, Shree Santh and even two long term batting prospects in Suresh Raina and Venugopal Rao. RP Singh really looks like a mature bowler and is a cross between Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan. He hits the deck like Zaheer and can swing it like Irfan and can also touch speed upto 143kph, when he bends his back. He is the complete package. Shree Santh impressed with his ability to maintain his line while generating sharp pace. The team is back and it looks like a very good unit in batting, bowling and most importantly fielding.

India will be looking forward to the South Africa series with confidence, whereas Sri Lanka will be mighty pleased that they have a fortuitous break in between the one day games and the Test matches.

India vs Sri Lanka, Rajkot, Nov 9 2005

2005-11-09T11:51:00.000-08:00

A fit Dravid took a break and sat out the sixth ODI in an apparent move to groom Sehwag to be the next captain. Staggering how things have moved on in Indian cricket! This was Sehwag’s opportunity to stamp his authority on the game and he did it well, probably having rubbed off on some of Dravid’s Midas touch. His bowling changes produced wickets that ensured Sri Lanka could never build a significant partnership and were bowled out for 196 on a good batting pitch. His batsmen had no trouble chasing it down and the old hands of Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif guided India to a thumping win.

At the start it looked like vintage Sanath Jayasuriya was back as he pounced on some wide offerings from Shree Santh and Sri Lanka were off to a rollicking start. But, Santh went around the wicket and brought the ball back into Jayasuriya to get an inside edge into Dhoni’s hands. Sangakkara came in at one drop to sweetly time a couple of balls to the leg side before he tried an expansive pull shot at a short ball from Pathan. It was a slower one and the ball looped to Sachin at mid on. It was a terrible shot and not the first time that Sangakara has tried something like it, but this time it jump started the disarray that was to follow. RP Singh was accurate and sharp and got one to lift appreciably surprising the other opener Upul Tharanga for an easy catch to Dhoni.

Dhoni was having a great day behind the stumps and it looks like his batting confidence has improved his keeping. Sehwag introduced Karthik in the first power play and off the very first ball Mahela Jayawardene reached forward to the perfect left arm orthodox delivery that looped and turned to beat the bat. As the batsman over balanced, Dhoni whipped off the bails before you could say Jiminy Crickets. It was a fantastic stumping, and Mahela walked off even before the third umpire’s verdict. In the next over Atapattu tried to hoick a good length ball from RP Singh and it landed safely into a delighted Sehwag’s hands at mid on. It was as if the Lankans had told themselves that since they didn’t have Muralitharan today, they needed to score 350 to win the match. Half the side was gone for 83 and Sri Lanka were in deep trouble. Tilekaratne Dilshan counter attacked as he knows best and got away to a flying start with 2 fours each of Karthik and RP Singh. Harbhajan Singh was brought into the attack and he started off with a maiden and immediately put a break on the scoring rate. Dilshan was cautious against a menacing Bhajji and Russell Arnold was tying himself up in knots against Karthik. The Sri Lankans tried to take quick singles to get a move on, but Mohammad Kaif was prowling the cover region and swooped down on one and flung it back to Dhoni, who picked it up smartly on the half volley to break the stumps and run out Arnold. It was a brilliant collection by Dhoni as Kaif had thrown the ball with all his might. Dilshan fought a lone battle as wickets continued to fall. Chaminda Vaas’ defense couldn’t keep Karthik out as the ball snaked through off his bat and pad and rolled onto the stumps.

India’s fielding has been excellent in this series with all the young blood diving around the field, and today the veterans Kaif and Yuvraj, (can you call them veterans?) stepped up to the party. After Kaif’s brilliant work earlier, it was Yuvraj’s turn to run out Dilshan with a direct hit at the non strikers end from backward point. Dilshan was gone after another attacking half century in his third successive match. Maharoof was subbed in the place of Zoysa for his batting but he didn’t last long. RP Singh came back and Maharoof looped a cover drive on a ball that was held back and it went high to Kaif, who had no problems with it. Singh then cleaned up Chandana with a good yorker to end the Lankan innings at 196 and finished with 4 wickets to claim the Man of the Match award. India’s bounty of left arm fast bowlers is swelling.

India got off to a rollicking start with Gautam Gambhir continuing on from his aggressive century from the previous game. He charged down in Vaas’ first over to smash him over cover. Gambhir was strong square of the wicket with cuts and pulls and punished both new ball bowlers, while Tendulkar played the more cautious role. Fernando has been in pretty good form this series and today he finally got rewards with wickets of both openers with his brilliantly disguised split finger slower ball. It is a new way of bowling the slower ball that bowlers around the world are slowly mastering. Steve Harmison bowls a similar slower ball and it is very difficult to pick as the arm speed is the same, and there is no turning of the wrist, the ball is slower because the index and forefingers fingers are split and not behind the seam propelling the ball down the pitch. Gambhir played too early to chop the ball onto his stumps and Tendulkar drove too early and looped the ball to mid on. Sehwag came in and blasted a few boundaries square of Maharoof, who must be thinking that he perhaps should bowl in the slog overs as only that seems to work for him in India. Mohammad Kaif settled in with a sweetly timed punch through covers of Fernando’s slower ball and the runs continued to flow. Sehwag was looking good and even played a cheeky reverse sweep for four of Jayasuriya but he was foxed into a leading edge by a beautifully flighted leg break from Upul Chandana, who picked up his first wicket of the series.

Sri Lanka had a small window of opportunity here, but Chandana struggled against the left handed Yuvraj Singh as he didn’t have any variation like the googly to trouble him. Both Kaif and Yuvraj played him well and the slow turn did not bother them. While Kaif worked the ball around, Yuvraj was in a belligerent mood with a point to prove in the series. It has been a while since the pair batted together and Yuvraj and Kaif seemed to revel in their partnership and it was evident how much it mattered to them when after completing a single to reach their 50 run partnership, Kaif called out to Yuvraj and said “Yuvi, 50 runs”. They celebrated by converting it into a century stand, with Yuvraj smashing the ball around to quickly bring up the second fifty. He danced down the track with authority to both Chandana and Dilshan to loft them for sixes. He even unleashed a brutal lofted off drive of Fernando for another six. The boundary appeared small as the full power of the strapping Yuvraj Singh was revealed and the match finished in a hurry.

Atapattu looked a beaten man in the presentation ceremony and will struggle to lift his team for the next match and the Test series that follows in December. Sehwag was a proud captain and said that his boys deserved the win and that it had nothing to do with the conditions. Heady days for India; and one can only look forward to the one day series against South Africa with anticipation. Of course there is one more match to be played against Sri Lanka which the Indians won’t be too worried about, but Sourav Ganguly will be dreading the Indian team announcement after that match.

India vs Sri Lanka Ahmedabad, Nov 6, 2005

2005-11-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

Enterprising batting by Tilekeratne Dilshan and calm accumulation by Russell Arnold under the lights guided Sri Lanka to their first win in the 7 match series. The chase under lights became easier as the evening dew made the ball slippery and negated all deviation of the pitch making it near perfect batting conditions. But, the Indians had only themselves to blame as an inexperienced middle order crumbled from 197-3 to 230-7 in about 7 overs. Farveez Maharoof, brought on as a SuperSub for the injured Nuwan Zoysa, picked up 4 wickets in 4 overs to redeem himself in an otherwise bleak series with the ball.

India rested Sachin Tendulkar, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh for the match and replacing them were Gautam Gambhir, RP Singh and Murali Kartik. Marvan Atapattu won the toss and inserted India into bat, and Gambhir grabbed his opportunity with an aggressive innings. He is an extremely busy player even in Test matches and seemed like a perfect fit in ODI’s. He easily outscored Sehwag, with square drives, cover drives, pulls and even charging down the wicket to pick up Zoysa off his legs for a six over square leg. India got off to another blazing start, before Sehwag threw it away again by chopping Zoysa onto his stumps. Mahendra Singh Dhoni departed off the very next ball as Zoysa pitched one on leg stump and straightened it onto Dhoni’s pad. Yuvraj Singh came in next and pottered around for 20 balls for three runs before finally dragging a slower ball from Vaas to mid wicket. India were in trouble at 69-3.

Rahul Dravid came in to essay another rescue operation and he did so with aplomb. Dravid has been in great touch throughout the series, adding invaluable solidity to the Indian middle order and he started off with a picture perfect on drive of Vaas. Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, Zoysa had injured himself and couldn’t bowl any more, Farveez Maharoof was the Super Sub, mainly for his batting but he had to be brought in earlier than expected. Atapattu delayed using him and he attacked with Muralitharan. Dravid played Muralitharan cautiously while Gambhir continued to gallop along at more than a run a ball. Gambhir was particularly severe on the short pitched stuff from Fernando with his short armed pull shots. He also tucked into the offerings from Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya, stepping down the track to them and sweeping them fine. The pair put together a century stand and also played out 7 overs of Muralitharan without taking any risks. Gambhir reached a wonderful hundred and was looking to accelerate when he pulled Maharoof only to see Atapptau at midwicket take fine one handed catch lunging to his left. Maharoof then removed Venugopal Rao, Suresh Raina and Ajit Agarkar in successive overs. The slog overs were becoming a disaster for India before Dravid willed his mind and cramping body into another astonishing performance and he himself scored 31 in the last five overs building useful partnerships with Murali Karthik and the spirited RP Singh. Dravid even stepped out to loft Murali for a six over long on. He reached his century with a four of the penultimate ball and raised his hands in triumph. 285-8 was a score that had seemed beyond India’s grasp, but it certainly was 15-20 runs short, because of Maharoof incisive 4 wicket spell.

Sri Lanka's chase didn’t get off to a great start with Ajit Agarkar and RP Singh starting off right on target. RP Singh swung the ball away from the left handers at a sharp pace around the 140kph mark, and was unlucky to see Gambhir dropping Sangakkara at first slip. Agarkar claimed Jayasuriya once more with a ball pushed across the left hander and the new slip fielder, Venugopal Rao, made no mistake. Upul Tharanga again got off to a start before heaving wildly to pop a catch to long off for Agarkar’s second wicket. Shree Santh bowled with fire and pace and was unlucky not to pick up any wickets. RP Singh came back in his second spell to claim Sangakarra after a well made 39, this time Rao at slip holding onto the catch after about 6 attempts. Atapattu and Jayawardene put together a vital partnership as the pitch eased up and the ball became slippery. They were guiding Sri Lanka to an easy victory but the young Indians led by Sehwag, in the absence of the cramping Dravid, never gave up. When Murali Karthik foxed Atapattu into a leading edge trying to turn the ball against the spin, the Indians sensed an opportunity. JP Yadav’s alacrity at point resulted in a direct hit and a run out of Jayawardene. Half the Lankan side were gone and they still needed 136 more. India were on top now, but Dilshan took it away from them with an innings of courage with brave shots over the infield. Arnold lent into some powerful sweeps and the target was whittled away easily. In the end Dilshan finished it off with a flurry of big hits to remain unbeaten on 81 in double quick time.

India’s backup men showed grit and determination, but they were defeated as much by their own inexperience in the slog overs as a courageous partnership from Dilshan and Arnold.

India vs Sri Lanka, Pune, November 3, 2005

2005-11-03T04:40:00.000-08:00

India is fast shaking off the tag of being poor chasers by winning their third successive game while batting second. The fourth ODI was climaxing towards a tight finish but poor tactics by Marvan Atapattu coupled with nerveless batting by the Super Sub, Suresh Raina and steely resolve by Mahendra Singh Dhoni saw India through. Indeed the two young batters showed remarkable temperament in gathering the runs without taking any risk. Atapattu must surely be deeply disappointed but has only himself to blame for removing Muralitharan from the attack after Murali had taken 2 quick wickets to stymie the Indian chase. By the time Murali came back to bowl the 45^th over, it was too late. Dhoni finished off the match with a couple of sixes in the 46^th over, which is fast becoming his trademark flourish to end the game.

Earlier in the day Rahul Dravid won the toss and inserted Sri Lanka into bat in an attempt to exploit the smattering of grass on the pitch and garner whatever little assistance the seamers could obtain from the morning conditions. Ajit Agarkar responded by producing an outstanding opening spell reminiscent of his best bowling in Australia. He swung the ball late and back into the left handers. He got Kumara Sangakkara with a beauty that swung back in at sharp pace rapping him on his back leg in front of leg stump and almost knocked the batsman over. He then surprised Sanath Jayasuriya with one that went away and got the edge only to see Dravid drop a sitter at slip. Jayasuriya slammed the next ball for four, but Agarkar shrugged it off and got him leg before with another one that swung back into the lefthander. Justin Langer would have been nodding his head and repeating that Agarkar is one of the most underrated bowlers in the world.

The out of form Marvan Atapattu pushed himself down the order and came in to bat only at number 5 after Upul Tharanga and Tilekaratne Dilshan. Tharanga was brought in for Mahela Jayawardene, who had to run back to Sri Lanka for his wedding. Tharanga looked good for more than his 21 before he was surprise by a quick bouncer from Shree Santh that he could only top edge down to Agarkar at fine leg. Tharanga was well balanced at the crease with shots all round the wicket, and the young left hander could well be the solution at the top of the order for Lanka. Dilshan came out to bat with an aggressive intent, and had quite a few swings and misses against Agarkar and Shree Santh before he finally middled one for four. He then began to smash everything pitched up in a counter attacking innings that Aravinda D’Silva would have been proud of.

Dilshan was especially severe on JP Yadav, driving good length balls on the up. He played some powerful shots down the ground and more than compensated for Atapattu’s slow start, allowing the captain to find his form. Atapattu soon began to time the ball and even stepped down the track and hit Harbhajan over cover for a four. That was the only time he could get him away as Bhajji bowled a brilliant spell. Harbhajan has been bowling well in this series and he was excellent today. He troubled the free flowing Dilshan and kept him quite for a couple of overs, before nailing his man with a doosra that induced a leading edge to Sachin at point. Russell Arnold the next man in really struggled to get the ball off the square and slowed down the scoring rate. He finally managed to pick it up with boundaries off Yuvraj Singh. Pathan also bore the brunt of Arnold’s strokeplay before the bowler rectified his length and produced a perfect reverse swinging yorker to clean him up. Santh who was bowling well at sharp pace seemed to have injured his calf muscle and Dravid had to use Sehwag in the end overs. But, Sehwag plucked an amazing return catch to send Atapattu back. The Lankan lower order failed as Agarkar picked up three more wickets with well directed reverse swinging balls, including the big hitting Farveez Maharoof. He cleaned up Murali in the 48^th over and in the last over he ran out Zoysa with smart pick and throw with this left hand to catch him short while backing up at the non strikers end. He then got Vaas to edge one to Dhoni to bring about a quite finish to the Lankan innings and returned Man of the Match figures of 5-44. Unlike the previous game they really couldn't capitalize in the last 10 overs, with only 63 runs coming off it but 261 runs was a reasonable target.

India's run chase began with 2 maiden overs as the Lankans finally managed to bowl a stifling line and length that did not allow Sachin and Sehwag to get away. Sachin’s was lucky to top edge a good bouncer from Dilhara Fernando over the keepers head for a six. He charged down the track to Vaas and missed the ball to have his off stump knocked over. Yuvraj was sent in at number three and played a couple of lovely shots on the off side before smashing Zoysa into the hands of Dilshan at point. Dravid came in next and was in great touch with some stunning on drives wide off mid on. Meanwhile Sehwag was leading a charmed life with both Murali and Sangakkara dropping him. Sehwag and Dravid hit enough boundaries to bring the required rate below 5. Atapattu delayed using Murali during the PowerPlay overs and he was finally introduced in the 20^th over and promptly claimed the wicket of Sehwag, who tamely guided a doosra to the lone slip. Marvan's tactic to hold back his best bowler till the Power Plays are over is at best a defensive move, and at worst handing the match over to the opponents. Venugopal Rao came in to play a wonderful cameo innings of 38 of 41 balls and built a 64 run partnership with Dravid. He played Murali well, reading his doosra and employing a quick sweep which fetched him many runs and a boundary. He was particularly severe on anything short outside the off stump, cutting the ball ferociously to the point boundary. Maharoof came in for some stick with Rao dispatching him for a six and 3 fours towards point. Murali came back to deceive Rao with a cleverly bowled doosra on an off stump line and Sangakkara held a fine catch. Sensing his opportunity Atapattu brought back Fernando who surprised Dravid with a quick bouncer that he top edged to fine leg, where Vaas took a fine low catch as he ran in from the boundary. Murali sent back Pathan for a duck, and India were suddenly in trouble at 180-6 in the 35^th over.

Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were the men at the crease, and Atapattu surprisingly took Murali out of the attack after only one more over at the new batsmen. It appeared that he was saving Murali's last 2 overs for the end, but it was really poor strategy by the Sri Lankan captain. That was the opportunity for Sri Lanka to win the game and Marvan eased off the pressure. Zoysa was brought back and Raina punched him through cover for three and off the last ball of the over smashed him straight down the ground for four. Dhoni restrained himself to singles, and cut out all the big hits, but Raina was in a very positive frame of mind and was quick to pounce on anything slightly loose. Atapattu helped India's cause by bringing Sanath Jayasuriya, Russell Arnold and Tilekaratne Dilshan into the attack. Excellent running between the wicket interspersed by the odd boundary by Raina ensured that India were always ahead of the required rate. Atapattu belatedly brought Fernando back into the attack but Raina was well set and stepped down the track and smashed him for four through the offside. Fernando came back with a fast bouncer that surprised Raina but he was quick enough to hook it down to square leg. It was a stunning shot and he rolled his bat over the ball to keep it down. It would have gone for four if not for some great fielding by Tharanga. Fernando tried another bouncer and that was also pulled away for another single. Raina got his opportunity and he grabbed it, he has all the shots and packs lot of power in them too. I have said it before and I'll say it again, he looks like a great find for India.

The next over Murali was brought back into the attack, but by now both batsmen were well set with only 24 runs required in 30 balls, and they took 8 runs of Murali’s over with excellent running between the wickets. At the end of the 45^th over Raina had raced to 39 of 30 balls and Dhoni was on 29 of 39 balls with only one boundary. Dhoni changed all that in 46^th over bowled by Arnold. The sequence was 2,2,6,6 and it was Game Over. Today Dhoni showed that he can play a different kind of innings as he calmly guided India to a win that was pretty comfortable in the end. The man is definitely a match winner.

4-0 in a seven match series, and Atapattu’s captaincy is probably on the line, especially if he cannot inspire his team to win at least 2 out of the next 3 matches. For a man who recently won the award for the ODI captain of the year at the ICC awards, he appears to be pretty one dimensional as a captain. He is probably used to the tried and trusted ‘strangulation’ strategy that they employ to suffocate all teams at home in Sri Lanka. That is not going to work in the 2007 World Cup, and maybe it is time to appoint Kumara Sangakkara as the captain.

India vs Sri Lanka, Jaipur, October 31, 2005

2005-10-31T11:36:00.000-08:00

The Dhoni Blitzkrieg

Mahendra Singh Dhoni launched an incredible assault on the Sri Lankan bowling which they will never forget for the rest of their lives. He pulverized them with ten sixes, all of them sailing well over the boundary. Astoundingly enough he didn’t throw his wicket away even when he was suffering from cramps but was unbeaten at the end and finished the match by depositing the ball into the midwicket stand as a final flourish. Anyone who had seen his breakout innings against Pakistan would have known that this lad has a special talent for striking the ball, but this display was something else. The ball was struck in a projectile arc into the air like it was an artillery shell being fired. There was never any doubt that it would clear the boundary. The Sri Lankan’s subjected to such continual exposure to the shell-fire were in danger of developing symptoms of shell-shock like giddiness, headache and even mental breakdowns. 183 runs of 145 balls with 10 sixes and 15 fours!!

Earlier Sri Lanka recovered from an average start to post a huge score of 298, thanks to a wonderful 151 run partnership between Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. For the third time in the series Sanath Jayasuirya failed to get away and dragged Ajit Agarkar onto his stumps. It was a well deserved wicket for Agarkar who had come up with a tight opening spell. It was Mahela who stepped up the scoring rate with Sangakkara after Marvan Atapattu had slowed it to a crawl in an attempt to find some form. JP Yadav picked up Atapattu's wicket as Dhoni held an excellent catch standing up to the stumps. Mahela settled in quickly and played with refreshing freedom. He was watchful against a miserly Harbhajan Singh but tore into Murali Karthik, repeatedly stepping out and hitting him inside out over cover. The Lankan plan was for one of the top three to play a big innings and Sangakkara was the one who put up his hand. He was wristy and light on his feet against Karthik. He initially played second fiddle to Mahela and his 50 came up in 79 balls with only 5 fours but he increased the tempo quickly with his second fifty coming up in only 44 balls. It was Sangakkara who took the initiative after Mahela’s dismissal - he slashed a short ball from Agarkar down to thirdman, where Sehwag took his second sharp catch in as many matches. India fought back with the quick wicket of Dilshan, but wilted in the last 10 overs as Farveez Maharoof was sent up the order and smashed all bowlers for a rapid fire 33 in only 18 balls. One of his shots was a stunning tennis forehand of an Agarkar short ball outside off stump that flew flat over the bowlers head to the sightscreen. Pathan just couldn’t get his full length in the end overs, and Maharoof repeatedly smashed his good length balls to the midwicket boundary. Sangakkara finished the 50^th over with a boundary and was unbeaten on 138 of 147 balls. It was a remarkable performance by the Lankan wicket keeper showing just how wrong the World XI selectors were in leaving him out of the Super Test. He is definitely the number 2 wicket keeper batsman in the world, and is arguably a better keeper than Adam Gilchrist.

On most occasions Sangakkara’s effort would have been a match winning one, but today was Dhoni’s day. The Lankans would have been very confident of a win after Tendulkar chased a wide one from Vaas in the very first over, only for Sangakkara to come up with a brilliant diving catch. Dhoni was sent in at number three, and he started the proceedings with a six over cover off a slightly wide delivery from Vaas. It was an astonishing shot, but he repeated it again in Vaas' next over to prove that it was no fluke. When he launched into the replacement bowler, Maharoof, for another six, straight back over his head, one began to sense that something special was happening. He had hit 3 sixes in his first 15 balls. He disturbed his copy book with a pulled four of Fernando, before he launched him for another six. Four sixes and one four and he was only on 32! Sehwag acknowledged the Dhoni impact and began to take singles to give Dhoni the strike. Attapatu was in a quandary as to when to use the second and third power play. He didn’t use it after the first 10 overs, as he brought Murali and Chandana in to try and get a break through. It wasn’t working as Dhoni started collecting fours and singles. Finally Murali struck in the 15^th over, removing Sehwag when his sweep missed the well flighted doosra and he was declared leg before.

Dravid was in next and scored at a brisk rate as Attapatu employed the 2^nd power play from the 17-21^st over. Dravid was telling Dhoni to use the power plays well, but he needn’t have because Dhoni with a powerful sweep of Chandana, was still clearing the boundary. Dhoni and Dravid added 86 runs in 12 overs in which Dravid's contribution was only 28. Dhoni reached his 100 off 85 balls and celebrated by cocking his bat like a rifle and firing it into the Indian dressing room. The assault continued and the third power play was delayed until Dravid was dismissed off a return catch as he tried to work Murali’s doosra to the onside. Yuvraj came in to see Dhoni enjoying the field restriction for another 5 overs, but quickly applied himself to the task. He made a brisk 18 before he was bowled as he lazily played back to an off break from Dilshan without moving his front foot.

Venugopal Rao finally got his first bat in the series and came out to face the last over off Murali. He managed to read and safely negotiate a couple of doosras. By this time Sehwag was running for Dhoni as he had cramped up a quite a bit and his movements were restricted. Dhoni reined himself in with a few singles as he took a breather. Rao was tied down by some tight bowling from Maharoof before he danced down the track and smote Dilshan for a six. He then square drove Maharoof for a four but the bowler came back well by going past his outside edge a couple of times.Atapattu brought Chandana back into the attack to further ruin his bowling figures, and Dhoni obliged by deciding to end the match in a hurry with sixes number 8 and 9 in that over. Venugopal Rao got strike in the next over with only 2 runs required for the win, and Sehwag had a quiet word with Rao probably telling him to ease up so that Dhoni can finish off the match. Rao let a few balls from Maharoof sail past outside off stump and Dhoni promptly finished the match in the next over with his 10th six of the match off a hapless Tilekaratne Dilshan.

The entire Indian team came out to congratulate Dhoni for his stupendous innings. The Rajastan Cricket Association was so enamored by Dhoni’s knock that they decided to give him a cheque for Rs. 10 lakhs in addition to the man of the match award. As Dravid said in his post match comments, it was a privilege to see Dhoni bat.

3-0 in a 7 match series, the vice is tightening around Sri Lanka.

India vs Sri Lanka, Mohali, October 28, 2005

2005-10-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

India dominated Sri Lanka for the second successive game and it looked as if the Lankans were still in bit of a shock after the massacre in the opening game. Second time around they managed only a dismal 122 runs in less than 36 overs and the Indians romped home by 8 wickets in the 21^st over. Sri Lanka appear to have been caught unprepared for this kind of assault from a team that they had only recently beaten three times in a row. India really has pummeled

Sri Lanka

into a corner and is poised to deliver the knockout punch. It only remains to be seen if the battered Lankans can pick themselves up.

Mohali is a really beautiful modern stadium and Atapattu wouldn’t really have had a problem with losing the toss and being asked to bat first on a pitch that looked full of runs. But, it became an ugly setting for him in the very first over as Pathan swung the ball wide and Jayasuriya chased it right down the throat of Sehwag at thirdman. The new opening partnership had failed and Marvan had to walk out to join Kumara Sangakkara. Agarkar followed up with a maiden in the second over and the pressure was on. Sangakkara tried to take the intiative with a few boundaries, but Atapattu fell to an injudicious drive at a slower outswinger from Agarkar. With both new ball bowlers swinging the ball, Jayawardene and Sangakkara tried to counter attack, but failed with poor choice of strokes. Jayawardene flicked Pathan to square leg and Sangakkara tried an ugly stand deliver pull shot to a ball that wasn’t short enough and the ball ended up in mid on's hands. In between Pathan was on a hatrick as Tilekaratne Dilshan stuck his front foot down the pitch right in line with middle stump and a perfect in swinger. Half the side was gone before the first 15 overs were up, and Irfan Pathan had Man of the Match figures of 4-37.

Russell Arnold was outfoxed by Harbhajan’s over the wicket line and the pressure was maintained by the wicket to wicket line of JP Yadav, who also managed to take 2 wickets in 2 balls. Murali Karthik was miserly in his five overs and the runs were cut down to a trickle. Upul Chandana was super subbed in as a batsman to boost the score, but it was to no avail as the tail collapsed and only Murali provided some entertainment at the end. 122 was a terrible score, and the only thing the Lankans could try and do was to regain some pride by taking a few wickets.

Unfortunately that wasn’t to be as the Sachin-Sehwag show began and they smashed 80 runs in the humiliating 10 overs the Lankans had to bowl before the dinner break. Tendulkar was at his aggressive best again. He started off by smashing Vaas back past a jumping Sehwag and never let up. He was brutal on anything pitched up, and repeatedly smote the ball back past the bowler. There was another cheeky paddle sweep of Vaas, and this shot has surely got to be demoralizing for the bowler. Murali’s first ball was met with a quick dance down the track and lofted over mid off. It was vintage Tendulkar, and it was a sight to see. The Lankans had better come up with a plan to dismiss Tendulkar, because he is taking the game away from them.

Sehwag was in a typically belligerent mood and Nuwan Zoysa’s plan of bowling short to him on leg stump didn’t work as he was pulled and hooked away for 4,6,4. Sehwag gave it away with a tame return catch to Maharoof in the 10^th over. JP Yadav was sent in to gain some batting practice but Murali got the best of him and remains the only bowler who has troubled the Indians. Dravid and Tendulkar easily finished off the game. It was an exhilariting performance by the Indians.

After the match, Marvan Attapatu struggled to explain his team’s performance and frankly said that they have to rediscover their self belief to win. Tom Moody has only a couple of days to motivate his team before the third match in Jaipur. Once again Dravid’s captaincy was astute and at the end he was all praise for his bowlers. With his team responding to him, Dravid and India look ready to apply the finishing touches with or without the selectors meddling.

India vs Sri Lanka, Nagpur, October 25, 2005

2005-10-25T04:11:00.000-07:00

The masters of ‘strangulation’, a term coined by the Lankans, were subjected to India’s version of the same. A huge score while batting first was followed up by some wonderful spin bowling as India snuffed the fight out of the Sri Lankans. Harbhajan Singh bowled as well as he has in recent memory and deserved more than his three wickets. With Murali Kartik, super subbed into the Lankan chase, firing in the ball and extracting sharp turn, reminiscent of the test match against

Australia

on the minefield in Mumbai, it looked almost impossible to bat. Rahul Dravid was the captain in that Test match too.

In the morning, one had to marvel at Sachin Tendulkar’s return to international cricket after six months. He put to rest all concerns about his tennis elbow with a stunning lofted on drive for six off Dilhara Fernando. He proceeded to delight everyone with a cheeky paddle for four of Vaas, and also revealed a powerful ondrive of Fernando. It was an extremely aggressive knock and he set the tone for the entire innings. He didn’t hesitate to play aerial shots and was almost back to his fluent best. His lack of match fitness showed as he began cramping up in the eighties. He missed his hundred which would have made it a fairytale comeback, but still it was a remarkable innings.

The positive intent of the Indians was evident throughout the match, and today Dravid proved to be the captain with the Midas touch. Irfan Pathan was sent in at number three and showed that he can be India’s answer to the Flintoff phenomenon that is putting pressure on every international team to find an all rounder. He played with a straight bat initially before opening his shoulders and started playing the big shots. He was troubled by Murali, but got really stuck into Upul Chandana, clouting him for 17 runs in one over with two massive sixes. The Indians exploited the 20 power play overs and didn’t let up even after that as the sixes and fours continued to flow. Pathan accelerated quickly to catch up with Tendulkar, and the combined assault resulted in 164 runs in 24 overs. Both batsmen were dismissed in quick succession as the Lankans fought back but Dravid came in and played like the Vidarbha ground was tailor made for him. His timing was spot on from ball one, and he continued India's aggressive tone with a blistering 85 from 63 balls. Dhoni again flexed his cavalier muscles and along with Dravid powered India to a mammoth 350-6, with Dravid remaining unbeaten.

The Sri Lankan run chase got off to the worst possible start, as Pathan swung one back into the cynics who doubted his ability in the subcontinent and cleaned up Marvan Attapatu. Shreesanth started well on his debut with a promising first over but soon found out that an ODI in India is not the best place for a young fast bowler to make his debut. Jayasuriya and Sangakkara pounced on every slight error in line and length from all three fast bowlers. Sangakkara was in great touch and smashed two sixes on the leg side, one with power and the other with finesse. After giving his three medium pacers a short stint with the new ball, Dravid quickly realized that the seamers were up against it on this pitch, and in the 11^th over he chose not to enforce the power play and brought in the spinners. Harbhajan struck in his first over as he went around the wicket and Jayasuriya tapped the ball to Dravid at short cover. In the very next over Sangakkara somehow worked the turning ball straight back to Sehwag and with two soft dismissals the promising chase was over almost as quickly as it began. Bhajji and Murali Karthik then destroyed the Lankan middle and lower order with three wickets each. The chase became impossible as the ball was turning sharply even when it was fired in. Whoops of delight from the bowlers became common place as one after the other the batsmen left shaking their ahead disbelievingly at the turn. Shreesanth was brought back to clean up the tail and his bowling figures. The young lad looks like an excellent prospect because of his control over his line and length. Also he has got Sachin Tendulkar as his mentor at mid on.

Sachin’s knock really highlighted how much this Indian team revolves around him. Later in the field he showed why Greg Chappell played a masterstroke by anointing him the chief mentor of the team. Strategy and encouragement were all visible in Tendulkar’s proactive performance in the field today. Dravid couldn’t have been more pleased with Tendulkar’s return and said as much in the post match ceremony.

It was an emphatic performance by the new India captain; round one to him, just eleven more to go.

Dravid

2005-10-24T01:17:00.000-07:00

No acceptance speech, no press conference, no practice camp and no team strategy planning sessions, at least nothing more than a teleconference. Thus begins Rahul Dravid’s captaincy, a transfer of power in suspended animation.

Nobody deserves the Indian Captaincy more than Rahul Dravid. His performance in Adelaide, Australia ’03-’04, alone earned him the right to lead. But, what he has slowly discovered is that being deserving and earning the right does not mean that the captaincy will be handed to him. Sourav Ganguly, with a back to the wall century in the Duleep Trophy, reminded him that he is not going without a fight, and people asking Ganguly to relinquish captaincy should step down from their high horses.

It is a battle that is not won easily; factors beyond Dravid’s control are influencing the result. The Board, the selectors, Greg Chappell, all have their own ideas, and in the end Dravid will be one who is responsible. Mere willingness to lead is not going to pave the way to success; a burning ambition to be a leader is what is required. The tri-series in Sri Lanka was a tough initiation and it should have helped him in preparing for the job. The selectors have dealt him 12 cards ( 7 against Sri Lanka and 5 against South Africa) and he has to conjure a winning hand from it. Unfortunately, his quota of beginners luck is already over, but 12 is definitely better than 7.

The Show Must Go On

2005-09-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

Now Showing: Cricket Hungama
Starring: Sourav Ganguly, Greg Chappell, Jagmohan Dalmiya, Sharad Pawar, Ranbir Singh Mahendra
Guest Appearances: VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Freddie Flintoff
Item Number: Harbhajan Singh, Raj Singh Dungarpur

This is a riveting thrill a minute drama that will leave you stunned at the end. It has an explosive beginning with the protagonist’s very survival under threat. Ganguly as the lead character is ably supported by new comer Chappell, who has pulled no punches in an eye opening performance that almost puts to shade the work of the established star. Ganguly's five year run at the top, seems to have lulled him into complacency with specific pointers to his lack of fitness, but in the end he reveals his hidden strength by working the room, and connecting fantastically well with his co-stars.

One has to marvel at veteran thespian Dalmiya's performance, especially his scenes with the other heavy weight contender Sharad Pawar. It is reminiscent of Mohammad Ali’s rope trick in his Rumble in the Jungle with George Foreman. Silent in the beginning, absorbing all that Pawar can throw at him, before essaying another one of his masterpieces. Mahendra plays the part of the supporting actor very well with platitudes like "Cricket must go forward."

Raj Singh is wasted in an unnecessary item number, but Harbhajan definitely adds some spice to the proceedings. Laxman and Flintoff should have skipped the whole thing, but Tendulkar has a brief cameo that leaves Ganguly nodding his assent. The ending was stunning yet disappointing, but you can see that it is for purely commercial reasons. For those who are unhappy with the ending, there is a silver lining, the casting directors will no longer be appointed on a zonal basis, and this should prevent regional bias in the auditions for Team India.

The Show Must Go On, and no doubt, there will be a sequel.

This is the End

2005-09-18T23:56:00.000-07:00

Beautiful friends, it was a saddening experience to see a brave warrior resorting to politics and media manipulation in his pathetic attempt to cling on to power. What have we done to this proud cricketer who has arguably been the best captain of the Indian cricket team?

The same man who took the fight to the gnarly Aussie in their own backyard, and made us all proud to be Indian cricket fans is now a poor imitation of his former self. Why did this happen? No, why did we let this happen? Why can’t we make difficult decisions early so as to prevent the catastrophe later? Ganguly should have been asked to step down as captain after the dreadful Pakistan series. That should have been the end. Instead the drama was allowed to continue. The selection committee didn’t have the cojones to remove Ganguly as a captain, when it was plain to see that his tenure was done, but now we have to witness this tragicomic sequence of events.

And this is only the beginning of the end. Strap yourself in, with a stiff drink to watch the show because we are bedeviled to be Indian cricket fans. But, do remember, it is only a game.

India vs. New Zealand, Final Videocon Tri-Series, Harare

2005-09-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

New Zealand's supreme confidence overwhelmed a fragile Indian team in the Final of the Videocon Tri-Series. India did not choke this time, but lacked the self belief to win and from a dominating position they just didn't know how to finish it off.

India won the toss and Ganguly, knowing India's ability to collapse while chasing, wisely decided to bat first. Ganguly is a brave man, and he survived Bond with more luck than pluck, and chose to attack Kyle Mills. He stepped out and lofted Mills over cover for boundaries. Meanwhile Sehwag played Bond cautiously, but he slaked his boundary thirst with two slightly off target deliveries. He was brutal on both Oram and Mills and kept dispatching the ball to the boundary in the arc between point and third man. It was quite incredible as he kept up the barrage even as Fleming added more fielders to the region. India had its best start of the series, and even after Ganguly fell, Kaif stepped in and played the ideal number three role, accumulating runs without a dip in the scoring rate. He displayed his entire gamut of strokeplay, but the most pleasing ones were his on drives.

India were scoring at more than 6 an over and reached 150 in the 25th over, but that was the beginning of the slide due to an excellent spell from Daniel Vettori. He claimed Sehwag and Dravid in quick succession, as both batsmen were deceived. Sehwag was deceived in flight and lobbed a simple catch to cover and Dravid was dismissed by a beautiful arm ball. 10 overs and 2 wickets for 35 runs. It was a remarkable performance by the spinner who at this moment has got to be the best left arm slow bowler in the business. Vettori pretty much brought New Zealand back into the game. India's lower middle order could not accelerate at the end and this was epitomized by the selection of Harbhajan as the Supersub and not Nehra. Nehra came out to bat in the last over and immediately showed his daftness with the bat by swinging the ball down fine leg's throat with 4 balls left and Mohammad Kaif batting on 92 at the other end. Harbhajan sat in the pavilion! If one of the main bowlers was going to be the SuperSub, it should have been Nehra. It is a minor point, but every tiny detail is important in a Final. If not for Kaif's cool head, India wouldn't even have gotten past 250.

A total of 276 is not a trivial chase, but the New Zealand openers started out with a planned assault on the two Indian left armers and Fleming took particular pleasure in tearing into Pathan with five boundaries in one over. Without assistance from the conditions the Indians did not have a plan B, and all three front line seam bowlers were contemptuously treated. There are a few players who seem to revel under pressure and save the best for the big occassion, and Sehwag is undoubtedly one of them. After bowling half trackers throughout the series, he came up with a great spell in the Final. His flight and spin snared 3 wickets, and he along with Harbhajan slowed the galloping Kiwi run rate. It was strange that Sehwag got the wickets while India's star off spinner couldn't. Astle played Harbhajan with extra care and made sure that Bhajji didn't get any wickets. This probably was the single most important reason why India couldn't win.

In the end India dropped catches as Lou Vincent rode his luck to blast a few boundaries in his inimitable style. Astle also opened out to reach his hundred with a six and the two brought about a quick end to the match. Raina was one of the fielders who dropped a catch, and he is one of the players I have touted in this blog as a great fielder. Dravid missed one that went right through his hands and he must be wondering if he has to get some prescription lenses to correct his vision because he also got bowled 4 times in this series. But, Dravid is the hardest working player in this Indian team, and if anybody can come out of a bad patch soon, it is he.

After the match Ganguly admitted that India must be lacking something, since they lose finals from good positions too. He has been a frank captain, and maybe this is the first step to change. One remembers Allan Border similarly questioning his team's mental ability after losing a Test match to a Walsh and Ambrose inspired West Indies by one run. It was after that series that Australia started their domination of world cricket under Mark Taylor. To win, one has to first believe they can win and India sorely lack that belief right now. They need some luck and they need some belief too, and we might yet be able to see victories in a Final.

India vs. New Zealand, Harare, September 2, 2005

2005-09-02T11:33:00.000-07:00

Mohammad Kaif played one of his best innings for India since the 2002 NatWest Trophy final and guided India to a comfortable win chasing 278 against New Zealand. This has got to be one of India’s most impressive wins while chasing a large total. Today, after the blistering start provided by Sehwag, the customary panic and choking in the end was replaced by solid partnerships throughout the innings and a brutal flourish in the end by Dhoni.

New Zealand’s bowling attack sorely missed Shane Bond’s firepower and Chris Cairns hamstring injury resurfaced to restrict him to only 3 overs. This loss causes one to reflect why Fleming would want to rest Bond and Vettori and let India enter the Final on a high. One will have to wait and see whether his strategy to keep his trump card for the end works or not.

Earlier in the day, it was the much maligned Ajit Agarkar who bowled an excellent first spell after both the left armers had an off day. Agarkar picked up the first wicket of Nathan Astle with a good outswinger that bounced more than Astle expected. Agarkar also deserve’s credit for the second wicket, as he effected a stunning run out of a dangerous looking Fleming with a sharp bit of fielding in his follow through. An inside edge of Fleming’s bat onto his pad trickled the ball onto the legside and as Lou Vincent charged down for a single, Agarkar quickly moved to his left swooping on the ball, picked it up, turned and threw down the stumps at the non strikers end to have Fleming well short of his ground. Agarkar easily is India’s best outfielder and one of the faster movers in the Indian team. Agarkar first 6 overs cost just 16 runs and he had a wicket and a run out to his name. His 7^th over went for 14 runs as Lou Vincent took to him with some stunning shots on the up and a lucky top edged hook also. Just as Vincent was racing away to a big score, and even better piece of fielding from Yuvraj Singh at point resulted in his run out. Hamish Marshall slashed the ball, and Yuvraj diving full length to his left, collected the ball cleanly with his left hand, sat up on his knees and threw down the stumps to run out Vincent. Good fielding is not usually associated with India, but today they were excellent on the field. At the post match ceremony Ganguly remarked that India has fielded well in the last 3 games, and said one of the reasons was the good outfields in Zimbabwe. This reminds us that India really needs to improve all the outfields in the State cricket grounds to have a national team full of excellent fielders. I think the conditions of the Indian outfields are improving and more of the newcomers will be better fielders.

JP Yadav was bowling wicket to wicket and keeping things tight, and he snuck one in through a surprised Marshall’s defense. At 115-4 in the 22^nd over New Zealnad had to be cautious and India were doing well, but McMillan and Styris played very sensibly for the next 20 overs and added nearly a 100 runs without taking too many risks. This is where India was missing Harbhajan’s wicket taking spells. Bhajji bowled well, but they played him equally well with McMillan especially, frustrating him by taking guard on off stump and working most of his balls to the leg side for runs. One didn’t see too much off Bhajji’s doosra, and I think he bowled it only once or twice. Yadav bowled well to finish with 1-34 off his 10, but one expects more from Harbhajan than is 0-46 in 10.

Agarkar cleaned up McMillan in the 43rd over, but after that Brendon McCullum played a blinder taking a heavy toll of both Agarkar and Pathan. Agarkar went for 20 runs in his last over, ruining his bowling figures to finish with 2-61. McCullum’s hitting prowess is fearsome and he smashed 3 fours and 2 sixes before Nehra finally got him. Then Jacob Oram stepped up to the party, clobbering 14 of only 5 balls before a wayward Pathan finally got him. These New Zealander’s bat deep and they bat powerfully, they didn’t even have to really use Chris Cairns big hitting and the only thing that prevented them from reaching 300 today, was India’s sharp fielding. India took all their catches and Dhoni was also neat behind the stumps, even though he conceded one bye while standing up to JP Yadav’s medium pace. In the end New Zealand finished on 278 and it was a very good score.

To win the match India needed a good start, and Sehwag and Ganguly obliged. Sehwag pummeled Andre Adams multiple times through the point region and Fleming had to keep two fielder on the off side boundary and four in the ring. For good measure Sehwag pulled the next short ball through midwicket to finish the Adams over with 4 boundaries. In fact today he played a couple of pull shots for boundaries as New Zealand tried to cramp him for room. Even Ganguly looked to be in good touch with a couple of exquisitely timed shots through the off side, but his plan to aggressively counter the short ball by pulling it didn’t pay off today as he hooked one right down the throat of the lone fielder at deep fine leg. He and Sehwag had set the platform with a 66 run opening partnership.

Looking to the future, one can’t expect Ganguly, Tendulkar and Dravid to pull of their heroics again in the 2007 World Cup and Chappell’s flexible batting line up policy has finally identified the new number three batsman for India. It is Mohammad Kaif. He displayed his maturity today and announced that he was ready for this role. His on drives off Oram were beautiful to watch and even Tendulkar would have nodded his head with pride. Sehwag’s pyrotechnics finally came to an end as Oram brought one in back sharply to knock out his off stump. Sehwag missed his half century, but he had played his part.

Kaif didn’t play many false strokes and scored his 50 at almost a run a ball with the help of the fielding restrictions of the 3 power plays. Dravid settled in for the long haul and the two played sensibly with cushion of a rate well above the required one due to Sehwag. Chris Cairns was off color coming back after his hamstring injury and he bowled a few short balls which were powerfully dispatched to the point boundary by Dravid. Dravid and Kaif reprised their roles from the 2003 World Cup super six match against New Zealand and shared another 100 run partnership. Styris, got Dravid bowled for the third time in this series, to keep NZ in the match. Yuvraj came in and started well and even stroked a beautiful six of Nathan Astle over the long on boundary. The Kiwi Super sub, off spinner Jeetan Patel, bowled pretty well on debut but today the Indian’s played him well with Kaif being pretty severe on him early on. He was brought back for another spell and the Indians continued to nudge him around for singles until they were within 60 runs of victory. Yuvraj tried to hasten the proceedings by driving Patel to the long off boundary but perished trying to sweep a quicker one. 223-4 in the 40^th over and the match wasn’t over yet.

Dhoni was the next man in, and he had his eyes set on Patel. He played it easy for a couple of overs as Kaif reached his hundred, and then after elbowing Patel while completing a single, he smashed him for 2 successive sixes. The first one was a powerful blow that hit the roof of the stadium. I have said it before, but I’ll say it again this guy Dhoni is really strong, built like an ox, and he hits the ball really hard. He can turn out to be a really good late order hitter for India.

After Dhoni’s pyrotechinics the match ended quickly and India won with 15 balls to spare.

Ganguly and Chappell must be really happy with India’s performance and Stephen Fleming must be ruing not playing Shane Bond in this game. India has to play another game against Zimbabwe on Sunday before the Final against New Zealand on Tuesday. With Bond in the final, New Zealand will be a much better bowling attack and it is going to be great just watching him bowl, the anticipation is to see how Sehwag will tackle him.

New Zealand vs India, Bulawayo, Aug 26th

2005-08-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Team India
Born: 5^th September 1999, Singapore
Died: 26^th August 2005, Bulawayo

Death by a lethal injection
Of Bond’s pace and bounce
Sourav’s familiar demon
Made him a quivering dunce

Yorked was Venugopal
His bat still high
Bond breached the Wall
And the end was nigh

Straight to point flailed, Sehwag
Third man swallowed Kaif
Yadav and Pathan wagged
Before Bond wrote the epitaph

RIP

Videocon Tri-Series Preview

2005-08-25T19:54:00.000-07:00

This preview is intentionally written after the opening game between New Zealand and the host, Zimbabwe, because that result has no significance on the competition.

Stephen Fleming knows full well, that the Videocon Tri-Series in Zimbabwe is a two team contest and has already fired the opening salvo saying that he is surprised at India’s delayed arrival to Bulawayo and that he expects India to struggle in the lung burning afternoon conditions. Fleming has never been shy with his opinions.

Ganguly on the other hand is already on the defensive trying to explain his team’s amateurish itinerary and has squarely put the blame on the BCCI. I think the truth lies somewhere in between, with both parties, the Captain and BCCI, having to cop some of the blame. BCCI has to be blamed for not organizing a pre-departure camp in Mumbai, their excuse was that they could not find practice pitches!!! Ganguly turned up late for the scheduled departure press conference and should take his share of the blame. But the man was celebrating his wife’s birthday so let us give him a break. Both parties are upset and Greg Chappell must be pulling his hair out in frustration. One has to wait and see if the organizational skills of the BCCI improves with Chappell’s nudging. One would have to say don’t expect any miracles.

Ganguly continues to amaze with his frank comments that because his competition is somebody of the calibre of Dravid, it was no wonder that the selection committee took three hours before deciding who is going to be the Captain of India. Competition is good and it could spur Ganguly to be bolder captain, otherwise it could very well be the end.

But, he also amazes everyone with his comments that the 2007 World Cup is too far. Probably that is because Ganguly is focusing on the immediate because he has no idea what the future holds for him.

The team selection is pretty fair, and I am glad that newcomers in the Sri Lanka series, Rao, Raina and Yadav have been given an extended run. Consistency in the selection is important as England have shown us. Also, I would caution the Ajit Agarkar bashers to rein in their criticism, because he has one of the better records amongst Indian bowlers after the 2003 World Cup taking into account both wickets and the economy rate, and he could surprise everyone with his bowling in this series. He was a pretty impressive bowler in the one match he had against Pakistan. The batting still looks fragile with Dravid being the only consistent batsman in this team.

New Zealand are the favorites and India will have to dig deep to beat this classy team.

Final: India vs Sri Lanka, Aug 9, Khettarama Colombo

2005-08-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

From a great position at 186-2 in 35 overs, India collapsed like dominos with ridiculous run outs being the order of the day. One can say that India truly compete with South Africa for the ultimate choker tag. Sehwag’s blazing knock at the top along with a calm and collected partnership from Dravid and Yuvraj brought India close to an elusive victory in a Final before Sri Lanka asserted their supremacy in home conditions.

In the afternoon Dravid’s luck with the toss ran out, as Atapattu won the toss and elected to bat. Zaheer’s nerves were shot for the big final and his opening spell reminded one of the World Cup final in Jo’berg. He couldn’t control the swing and bowled 3 wides and a noball in his first over. Jayasuriya was in great touch and stroked the ball beautifully, including a stunning swivel pull off Pathan. Atapattu was also middling every ball and Sri Lanka were motoring along at six an over. Zaheer’s nervy opening spell forced Dravid’s hand, and Nehra was brought in early. He cleaned up Attapatu with a beauty, the ball shaped into the right hander and as Marvan played for the swing, it pitched and moved away off the seam. It would have been too good for most right handers and Atapattu was no exception.

‘Loco’ Loku was sent in as a pinch hitter and he smacked a couple of boundaries before Nehra pleaded a leg before from the umpire even though the ball may have pitched just outside leg stump. India’s catching and fielding was shoddy, with Dhoni showing that he is a batsman first and keeper third. He dropped Jayasuriya off Pathan and in fact parried the ball onto Sehwag’s jaw at first slip. It definitely didn’t shake Sehwag out of his stupor at first slip, as he gave Sanath another life at slip and this time Zaheer was the bowler to suffer. Sehwag was moved out of the slips to short point and finally caught one smashed straight to him by Sangakkara. Nehra was the strike bowler again and he had taken three wickets in the first 15 overs.

With everybody clamoring for five bowlers and Dravid also admitting that the fifth bowler was proving costly for India, Laxman was dropped and India played five front line bowlers including both the spinners in the team. But with today’s display Kumble would have pretty much stifled the call for five bowlers. He couldn’t get his line right and kept drifting down the leg side as Jayasuirya swept him repeatedly to the boundary. It appears as if Jayasuriya has a mental edge over Kumble and dispatched him for three boundaries in his second over. Mahela Jayawardene started very slowly but Jayasuriya picked up the slack and biffed boundaries with relative ease. The heat and humidity of Colombo claimed him, as he was run out while coming back for the second by a great throw from Harbhajan at fine leg.

Russel Arnold was promoted over Dilshan to continue the left and right handed batting combination and this really affected the Indian bowler’s line. The spinners failed for India as neither were able to pick up a wicket and Kumble proved to be very expensive. Dravid had to bring on Sehwag to try and stem the flow of runs, but he couldn’t either. Arnold was in great form and was scoring at a run a ball easily and reached his half century with a mere three boundaries. Like in the previous league match between the two countries, this eased the pressure of Jayawardene who finally managed to up his strike rate from 50% to 80% by the end of his innings.

For India there was only one bowler, Ashish Nehra, who was performing as he took six wickets. His figures were ruined in the end as he was clattered for 13 runs in the last over. India required 282 for a win, and everybody knew that it was going to be a tough chase. Nobody was prepared for the Sehwag assault.

Sehwag had walked out with a mission. Vaas started off with a maiden to Ganguly. In Maharoof’s first over Sehwag smashed the ball through covers for a four. He missed a couple of cut shots which were too close to his body. His balance at the crease was good and he looked like he was back to his best. In the next Maharoof over he smashed 15 runs, as the ball was landing in his hitting zone outside the off stump and he brutalized it through and over the covers. Atapattu brought Lokuhettige to replace Maharoof in the sixth over and it was carnage. Sangakkara was standing upto the stumps to prevent Sehwag from stepping out, and it didn’t matter as he smashed the first ball, a short one, from the crease, over cover. The next one was a genuine edge and it raced away to the thirdman boundary for another four. Sangakkara went back to his normal position, to give himself a chance at catching the edge. The next ball Sehwag danced down the wicket and hit Loku over his head for a phenomenal six. Sangakkara came back upto the stumps, but it was no matter as the next three balls went for three more fours, with two of them being one bounce and over the ropes. The sequence was 4,4,6,4,4,4. Poor Lokuhettige didn’t know what hit him, and one felt sympathy for him as the camera panned over to him standing on the boundary at the end of the over, his hands were on his head and his mouth was open.

Vaas coming back after a hamstring injury never bowled a loose ball and cramped Sehwag for room as he tried to cut, and he chopped the ball onto his stumps. But, Sehwag had set the platform and India were 62-1 in the seventh over. Ganguly and Dravid played sensibly continuing to score boundaries at regular intervals to make sure India were 99-1 at the end of 15 overs. Ganguly was dismissed leg before by Dilshan in the 16^th over. Dravid and Yuvraj both played fantastically well, with Yuvraj surprising everyone with his excellent handling of Murali. Both batsmen swept him on length to keep the score ticking along. They added 84 runs in 20 overs to take India to a commanding position of 186-2 in 35 overs. Atapattu was panicking and setting defensive fields as the partnership kept building. Good fortune rather than anything the bowler conjured resulted in Yuvraj being dismissed off a top edged sweep off Chandana and the momentum swung back to Lanka.

Dravid and Kaif were beginning to build another partnership with Dravid begining to open out before a silly run out sent him back. Chandana soon deceived Dhoni with a flipper that caught him plumb in front, and after that it was frustration and desperation that sent one batsmen after another back to the pavilion. The most comical dismissal was Harbhajan’s run out where he kept running after playing his shot, not bothering to listen to Kaif at the other end. It was a disaster. The required rate soon reached 12 runs an over and Kaif was dismissed trying to slog Vaas and India whimpered to the finish.

The success of Sri Lanka’s spinners further exposed the failure of two of India’s world class spinners, Kumble and Harbhajan. They bowled 20 overs between them for 104 runs and no wickets to show for their efforts.

Through out this series and in the previous season, Indian batsmen’s failure to handle spinners including part time offies has to be one of the biggest concerns for Greg Chappell and the selectors. Another area of concern is the lack of progress of Zaheer Khan. Pathan had a decent tournament except for the final and Nehra has been consistent in all games and was the highest wicket taker in the series. The fielding has never been outstanding and India saved it's worst display for the final. Maybe it is time to pick only athletic players for the one day internationals. Chappell has more questions than answers and continued lack of success from team India will have people baying for his blood.

India vs West Indies, Aug 7th, Khettarama, Colombo

2005-08-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

Dravid won the toss and elected to bat. It seemed like a wise decision considering Khettarama’s stadium’s supposed bias against teams batting under the lights, but a quick bouncy pitch and sharp bowling by the Windies pace men left India struggling after the first 15 overs at 49-2 with Ganguly also being sent back by a Powell snorter that took out his left forearm and sent him to the hospital. Powell got Laxman caught behind, and this wonderful batting artist is fast approaching retirement from one day international cricket. Sehwag played another ridiculous innings at the top, being bowled off a no ball and kept scoreless by a cramping leg stump line from Butler. Butler finally got his man leg before by shaping the ball into him. Sehwag has to sit down and come up with a strategy to counter the plans that all international teams prepare for him. Maybe he has to focus on scoring some runs on the leg side and not allow the pressure to build up.

Yuvraj Singh rediscovered his timing and played some wonderful shots along with Dravid to ease the pressure. Tino Best bowled a couple of wonderfully directed bouncers to Yuvraj, and the second one had Yuvraj flat on his back. Windies appear to be playing better without the ultra conservative Chanderpaul as the captain and the stand in, Sylvester Joseph, proved to be a brave and attacking captain. He brought Omari Banks to the attack in the 16th over and had immediate success. Dravid who was playing well was bowled by Banks while attempting a forcing shot on the leg side. He was a touch unlucky as the ball rolled on to his stumps from an inside edge onto his back foot. 52-3, but it was virtually 4 wickets down with Ganguly unlikely to bat and India was in serious danger of returning a sub par score against the fired up Windies bowling.

It took 4 matches in Sri Lanka before India finally produced a good batting partnership. Yuvraj and Kaif added 165 runs in just under 30 overs. Kaif ran extremely well and added about 10-15 runs to Yuvraj’s score with his speed between the wickets. After getting his eye in Yuvraj began to accelerate effortlessly and his strike rate jumped to 98%. He began to dominate the bowling and contemptuously dismissed Best’s second spell bouncer to the midwicket boundary and also slapped Powell’s bouncer for a wonderful six. This innings of 110 was reminiscent of his 139* in Sydney against Australia. India have really been missing the Yuvi-Kaif lower middle order partnerships, and this performance illustrates why India were such a powerful one day team leading up to and during the 2003 World Cup. Dhoni came in during the 46th over and flexed his butcher arms to hoick a couple of sixes and a cheeky sweep of Best to add 28 in 13 balls helping India finish on 262-4, with Kaif unbeaten on 83.

One would think that total was beyond the fragile Windies batting especially with Chanderpaul not in the side, but this greenhorn team has certainly found its feet in international cricket and competed hard till the end. Marshall and Morton got off to a frenetic start scoring at more than 6 an over, and Marshall hit a lot of boundaries off Zaheer. They were both able to handle the indippers from Pathan with more distinction than in the earlier matches. Pathan finally had to produce one of his perfect inswingers to account for Marshall. Both Joseph and Deonarine fell trying to play ambitious boundary hits. 3 wickets down, and it was the perfect setting for Anil Kumble. He showed his class and the young West Indian’s had never seen anything like him before and he grabbed three crucial wickets. Kumble made a strong case for playing 2 spinners in the final.

As has been the pattern with the Indian bowling in this series, after having the opponents out for the count by grabbing the first 6 wickets, they couldn’t finish it off. Kumble had finished his spell and Dravid gave his part time trundlers a long spell. Yuvraj and Sehwag bowled in tandem for a short while. Morton and the young keeper, Ramdin, built a solid partnership off the fifth bowler taking Windies to within 70 runs from victory. They got close but couldn’t finish it off as the heat and humidity of Colombo tired Morton and he got out to a tame clip to short midwicket off Nehra, after scoring a valuable 84. Ramdin continued valiantly but it wasn’t to be enough as he had no support at the other end. It must be said the Sehwag bowled better in this innings than any of his previous outings and he also got the wicket of the dangerous Tino Best. Butler, who was run out by a direct hit from Kaif at long on, and Powell couldn’t contribute that much. Even though Nehra and Zaheer were expensive in the end overs, they didn’t panic and came back strongly in the 49 and 50th over to seal the match for India.

A few flutters for Dravid, but India showed its experience to hold on for an important win. The West Indian team can be proud of their showing on this tour, coming in with a second or maybe even third string team which was written off even before a ball was bowled. They gave it their all and were playing as a team. I did say after their first game against India that if their batting could put some runs on the board their bowlers can create an upset, which they did against Sri Lanka yesterday. The impressive thing was that they continued to improve as the tour progressed. Sylvester Joseph has displayed fine leadership skills, a future captain of the West Indies.

Everything is set for the final between India and Sri Lanka on Wednesday. The Premadasa stadium in Khettarama has better one day international pitches than Dambulla and it looks like we won’t have a low scoring final. Batting second did not seem to be a distinct disadvantage and the match definitely will not be decided by the toss. The better team will win.

India vs. Sri Lanka, August 3rd, Dambulla

2005-08-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

Captaincy is looking a lot tougher for Rahul Dravid now. India have been unable to beat Sri Lanka in this competition in two attempts. Today when Sri Lanka were 95-6, chasing 220, it looked like Dravid would win his first significant match in the Tri-series, but Mahela Jayawardene thwarted all plans.

Jayawardene's batting average of 30 reveals that he will probably never become the new Aravinda DeSilva of the Lanka team. But, today his innings would have shed a lot of the DeSilva baggage that he has been unfairly forced to carry. In the beginning of the innings he was completely bogged down, but never gave it away and in the end guided his team to a remarkable victory with a flurry of strokes. His partner in the undefeated 6th wicket stand was Upul Chandana. Chandana had an almost perfect match; displaying his athleticism in the field, beautifully drifting leg spin bowling and a hard hitting knock with the bat that eased the pressure off Jayawardene.

India almost had the match in the bag, and this will be a tough defeat to swallow for the team. One can argue that the batting became much easier into the night under the lights as the pitch stopped gripping for the spinners and the ball came on nicely to the bat. The bowlers were pretty ineffective after a certain point, and Dravid was expecting Harbhajan to exert the pressure after the seamers opening spells and take a couple of wickets, but today wasn't Bhajji's day. But, the main reason for the defeat was not the bowling, but the failure of the Indian middle order. Sehwag and Ganguly had the best opening partnership of the series with 67 runs in the first 15 overs. They were helped by some shoddy catching, Sehwag had 2 lives, and a defensive approach from Attapatu in the first 15 overs. But, after Sehwag got out, the innings never built up any momentum. A carefully Ganguly, who never raised his bat to acknowledge cheers from his mates for his 10,000th run or for his half century, was circumspect in the beginning, but he did try to accelerate by stepping out and hitting a few boundaries before Upul Chandana snared him with a sharp legbreak. Laxman got a life on zero, when the umpire failed to hear an edge, but he continued to potter around, hitting the ball repeatedly to the fielders, before ending his misery when a Dilshan offbreak cleaned him up. Chandana and part time off spinner, Tilakaratne Dilshan strangulated the Indian batsmen and never allowed any of them to get away. Dhoni hit a few powerful shots with his baseball player like forearms, but it didn't last long. Dilshan took 4 wickets and adds his name to the list of spinners who have feasted on the supposedly best players of spin.

At 117-2, a total of 240 seemed like a reasonable target, but Dravid failed for once and the middle order collapsed. For a while it looked like India wouldn't even reach 200. It was only a superb cameo from Pathan that vaulted India to 220. Pathan hit the ball powerfully and he hit straight. He managed to add 40 odd runs in the last 3 overs, and his partners didn't contribute much.

It wasn't enough. India's batting is still weak and the fifth bowler today, Ganguly and Sehwag, were expensive. Maybe India should drop Raina and play the only true all rounder in the squad, JP Yadav. Dravid easily is the captain with the most tactical nous in this competition but it has become apparent, that alone is not enough. A Captain is only as good as his team, and I am sure Ganguly will second that.

India vs West Indies, July 31st, Dambulla

2005-07-31T11:47:00.000-07:00

The under strength West Indies who really have no hope of winning this tournament, was not expected to seriously challenge

India

and they didn’t. Even if this is their second string side, their batting is so pedestrian that it points to a real lack of depth in their domestic tournament. The only batsman who can be classified as an international player is Chanderpaul. It really is a tragedy, because their pace bowling attack is very good, and at times can even be considered menacing and you are left wondering what if?

Jermaine Lawson can be a match winner with his extremely sharp pace and bounce. He got Sehwag in a way reminiscent of some of his earlier failures against the Hooper’s Windies team in the 2002-03 one day series, where they angled the short ball into his body and got him out caught at short fine leg. This time it was the keeper, Denesh Ramdin, who moved across so well that he made a difficult catch down the legside look ridiculously easy. Even Powell and Best were bowling at 90mph, but in the end the Windies didn’t have enough runs on the board and they ran into the Wall known as Dravid. If the Windies can put up a decent batting performance in the next game against Lanka their bowlers might be able to create an upset win.

Apparently captaincy has just spurred on Rahul Dravid’s batting. The strength of purpose and resilience he displays in batting is unbelievable and he is definitely leading from the front. He has given his bowlers lengthy spells to build up their rhythm in each match, and they might yet peak in the final. Harbhajan bowled very well again, and is looking like India’s best bowler in this series. The other impressive performance today was by Suresh Raina. He had some luck early on, being reprieved at point off Lawson when he hadn’t scored a run and later by the keeper off Best. But, he showed great skill off his pads, picking off Powell’s wayward deliveries powerfully to the boundary. He also handled the short ball well, and revealed some off side flourish from the back foot. At 18 years old, he looks like an exciting talent for India. Raina was again outstanding in the field, and earned a run out with an extremely quick chase, pick up and accurate throw to the keeper. He bowled useful off breaks too, picking up the big wicket of Chanderpaul, and looks like a cricketer who enjoys all aspects of the game.

But, the Indian batting still hasn’t taken off and if India has to win the Tri-Series the batsmen have to build partnerships. It must be pointed out that Kaif looked better against the new ball than Yuvraj Singh. Sourav Ganguly will be back for the next match, and it’ll be good for India to have his experience in the top order. Even with Dravid and Chappell stressing on flexibility in the batting order we can be reasonably sure that Ganguly will open the batting.

India vs Sri Lanka, July 30th, Dambulla

2005-07-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

India’s batting failed to adjust to the slow nature of the Dambulla wicket and the top order was quickly sent back to the pavilion. VVS Laxman had to sit out of the match because of a stiff back, and his experience was missed at the top, especially with Yuvraj looking vulnerable to the moving ball. Sehwag began as if it was going to be another romp in the park by creaming three fours of Lokuhettege’s first international over. But Maharoof, who was bowling inswingers all along surprised him with a perfectly pitched leg cutter that opened him up and took out the off stump. It was a very impressive opening spell by Maharoof and he received good support from Lokuhettege, who castled Dhoni. In the first 15 overs they really setup the game for Sri Lanka. This was complemented by beautiful bowling by Murali which ensured that Lanka was always on top. India's debutant Suresh Raina was shaping to cut his first ball but was foxed by a fast doosra from Murali and was caught plumb in front. Kaif succumbed to the slow pitch and offered a tame catch to mid on, off Fernando.

It was left to a rear guard action from Dravid and the second debutant, Venugopala Rao, to build the only decent partnership of the Indian innings. Rao was also struggling to pick Murali’s doosra but Attapattu erred by removing Murali from the attack when India were on the mat and let Arnold and Dilshan bowl some unnecessary overs. Dravid and Rao toiled away and added valuable runs. The Sri Lankan captain’s largesse was highlighted when Murali was brought back in the 44^th over and he immediately took 2 wickets in 2 balls, snaring Rao with another doosra. Rao played well, nudging and pushing the ball around, but it was more of a teaser knock and one was left waiting for him to open his shoulders. Incredibly enough Murali was removed from the attack again, and Harbhajan and Zaheer Khan added an additional 43 runs for the 9^th wicket and India scrambled to 205. Maybe Attapatu wanted a challenging score to chase?

Dravid quickly realized that bowling Sri Lanka out was the only way to win the match and attacked continuously with his four main bowlers and aggresive field placements. Sangakkara was playing beautifully off his pads and got stuck into some loose balls from Khan, but Pathan who was bowling a very good line trapped him leg before to get the first breakthrough. Raina then made up for his first ball duck with a brilliant pick up and throw from square leg to run out Marvan Attapatu. He looks like an excellent fielder, with an extremely quick arm and is almost as athletic as Kaif. Dravid maintained the pressure and good bowling by all the frontline bowlers especially Bhajji ensured that none of the Lankan batsman converted any of their starts to big scores. India kept taking wickets to remain in the game, but Jayasuriya who was batting down the order because of a dislocated shoulder, an injury sustained while fielding, had enough experience to take his side home. He received good support from the lower order including a stunning cameo from ‘Loco’ Loku and solid batting from Maharoof . Even after all these years, Jayasuriya still remains the only proven matchwinner with the bat in this Lankan team. Theoretically, this should make it easier for India to beat Lanka but today, he was too good even with only half a shoulder.

What was impressive was how easily Dravid has stepped into the leadership role. On display today, was a captain’s knock while batting and aggressive field placements while defending a small total. He absorbed the pressures of captaincy like a sponge and seems to be thriving under the responsibility. The entire team responded to him and always looked to be bowling to a specific plan. Too early to say anything about the coach and Chappell’s effect can be measured only after the series, but Dravid has made an immediate impact.

Ganguly: The end is nigh?

2005-07-22T00:08:00.000-07:00

That is the question on everyone’s mind after the selectors announced the Indian team for the tri series in Sri Lanka. Rahul Dravid is the captain and Sourav Ganguly is the 16^th man.

Is there a problem?

The date for the selection of the Indian team was set as July 18^th, and 2 days later, July 20^th, the deadline was to expire for the BCCI and ICC to file their papers for arbitration by Justice Albie Sachs, who will issue the final and binding decision on Sourav Ganguly’s six match ban. The rival parties, i.e. BCCI and ICC have till July 22^nd to reply to the stand taken by each other. This implies that the final decision may not be announced until a couple of days after July 22^nd or even later. Justice Sachs has not set a date for his verdict, which is sensible because how can he decide the date for the verdict before he sees the papers? The Indian team leaves for Sri Lanka on July 23^rd, and India’s first match is on July 30^th.

What do all these dates mean? It means that there was no way that Ganguly could have been appointed as India captain, because there is no certainty that he can even goto Sri Lanka. Nobody wants ambiguity at the top, and the selectors made the right decision in appointing Dravid as Captain for the tri-series. People have criticized Ganguly for not accepting the punishment and face his lot like the other captains, Inzamam-ul Haq and Grame Smith who received similar punishment and took it on the chin. But why should he? Why shouldn’t he fight tooth and nail, it is his right to do so. Wouldn’t you appeal?

Greg Chappell made a telling observation, there are not many people who have the qualities to be a leader. Sourav Ganguly in many ways has been India’s best captain, so let us not brush him aside. The selectors wisely appointed him as the provisional 16^th man. Ganguly is a fighter, and it would be foolish to write his eulogies, but, if India goes on to win the Lanka tri-series under Rahul Dravid, it will mark the beginning of the end of an era and will be Another Brick in the Wall!

How about a round of Kudos to Jagmohan Dalmiya?

2005-07-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

Jagmohan Dalmiya, on July 17th, 2005, received the International Journal of the History of Sports Achievement award for administrative excellence in global sport. The scale of the achievement can be measured by the other winners, Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president and Juan Antonio Samaranch, the former International Olympic Committee chief.

He has been India's best sports administrator by far. He has often unfairly been criticized for his authoritarian style and hunger for power. Let us be unbiased and laud the man, celebrate his achievements and not pull him down all the time.

You know I have read the same criticisms of Dalmiya previously being applied to Samaranch. He is authoritarian, clung onto to the IOC post for too long, extended his term etc. etc. etc. People in power have to accept that criticism is a byproduct of the job, and the true test is to continue your job in face of criticism, instead of slipping into a quagmire by responding to it. To not respond, is against human nature, you have to be almost Gandhian to be like that, and very few people can do it. Dalmiya has responded to criticism and we have immediately labeled his actions vindictive, but for all his human frailties he has been a tremendous administrator. Just as we should not expect Tendulkar and Warne to be saints, let us not expect Dalmiya to be one. He is not, he is a scrappy doer and that is what we want from people in administrative positions.

Dalmiya made cricket a Global sport. None of the previous ICC Chairmen looked at the post as anything more than a golden parachute to enjoy their retirement. He made it professional, he made the ICC a body to contend with by enriching it's coffers and truly understanding the monetary value of the game of cricket. Not too far in the distant past, the ICC was often called a toothless tiger, and he changed that. Now all the cricket boards of the Test playing nations fear going against the ICC and its International Tours & Fixtures program. What an amazing turn around!

It is an incredible story, and one worth making a movie about. Well done Jaggu-da, I am proud of you.

2005-06-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

Such were the possibilities. The Champagne bottle is still in my cabinet. :-(

Preview: India vs Australia 2003 Cricket World Cup Final
March 22, 2003

I never saw the 1983 World Cup Final live; I have always regretted that. 20 years later I get my chance.

I saw India lose the 1987 semifinal to England, and I felt the pain. I saw the 1996 semifinal being awarded to Sri Lanka due to crowd trouble at the Eden Gardens. I remember Kambli’s tears and I still feel the pain of that loss. 1992 in Australia was a disaster and England 1999 was huge disappointment. Now, it is the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup and we are playing Australia in the Final. It is like a dream.

I have seen India’s famous wins - WSC 1985, Hero Cup 1993, Titan Cup 1996, Coca-Cola Sharjah Cup 1998, NatWest Trophy 2002 but nothing will compare to what I’ll feel tomorrow when the final begins. My heart will be racing, the adrenalin will be running high as I watch Tendulkar walk to the crease, mark his guard and prepare to take strike for the first ball of the Indian innings.

Will Sachin hook or duck under the first bouncer from Lee? Will Ganguly survive the bouncer? Has everybody forgotten McGrath? Will Nehra produce another magical spell? How will we get rid of Hayden and Gilchrist? Tomorrow will decide Saurav Ganguly legacy, it will either confirm that he is India’s best captain, or merely a good one.

You are all wondering what we should do tomorrow for the final. Let me tell you what we should do, we should buy a bottle of champagne, pop the cork after we win and down the bubbly while listening to Queen’s “We are the Champions.” After the dust settles and everybody goes home, I am going to open a bottle of wine, replay the final moments on my Tivo and savor each drop as I sit back and listen to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.”

Yes, I am crazy, but the World Cup happens only once in 4 years, and I don’t know when/if I’ll ever see India play in a World Cup final again.

Life is good. Are you ready?