First Ever ODI Series WIN in Srilanka for India

Dhoni and team posted a comfortable victory over Srilanka in the 4th ODI on the reserve day to make history. This is India's first ever ODI series win in SriLanka. It was an all round effort from the Indians with important contributions from Kholi,Dhoni,Raina,Munaf,Zaheer and Harbhajan. For SriLanka the top order failed to fire yet again to put up a chase of a seemingly moderate Indian total. Dhoni and team was desperate to win the series as they have lost 2 ODI tournament in the recent past (kitply & AsiaCup).

V.Kholi provided the start India needed with a solid half century but quickly India was in trouble losing 3 quick wickets. Dhoni and Raina put up a 100+ partnership to reach a respectable total. Dhoni is proving to be a very good batsmen in the recent past with some mature innings and its a real good sign that we have a batsmen who can put his head down and also pep-up run rate when the run rate goes down and when the batsmen is your team captain the whole team confidence goes up. Raina is also gaining in confidence match after match to play some brilliant innings to prove that he is here to stay. Youraj is just out of sorts and not among runs and may be he need to come bit late in the order so that he can free his arms and get back the much needed runs. As expected the lower order Badrinath,Sharma did not have many overs to settle down to get big runs, this is the reason one has to grab the chances that come your way to stay in the thick of action. Once Sachin and Sehwag is back in the team, i doubt if badrinath and sharma will have a place in the playing 11 or even in the team.

The fast bowlers in Munaf,Zaheer and Pravinkumar played their part to perfection in all the 4 matches. Munaf has been splendid with lot of control in the line and length and has been among the wickets, i have always felt that he is a good bowler and little lazy in the out field but watching him in the IPL gave us think differently on him and he proved he can be very good if used properly. Zaheer has been a lot more fit and willing to give the extra effort and that was visible in his bowling figures through out the series. PravinKumar IMO is a ordinary bowler but has a big heart to fight it out, he has been belted for runs in this series but was lucky enough to pick wickets at crucial stages of the game. Harbhajan has been fantastic through out the series both in Test and ODI with lot more flight and direction but the over exuberance at times in the middle is not doing any good.

Over all we have a wonderful,young team in good hands and can wish for some good times in the coming years in the ODI tournaments.

Bradman's Centenary

Today is a very special day for all the cricketers and cricket lovers all over the world its the centenary of Sir Donald Bradman. The man who changed the way the batsmen looked at how to score runs and a reference book for all the cricketers in the world, Sachin must be the most lucky person to have got accolades from the great saying that he saw him bat when Sachin bats.









England Crush SouthAfrica

England beat SouthAfrica by 10 wickets in the 2nd ODI to lead the series by 2-0. Stuart Broad bowled his best to reduce SA to its lowest total in its ODI history. SouthAfrica was bowled out for 85 with S.Broad taking 5 wickets and FlintOff and Harmison picking the other 5 wickets. SA lost too many quick wickets in the initial overs and never inclined to come back to put up a decent score. Stuart Broad used the overcast conditions to full effect and the wicket was assisting seam movement of the pitch which made life difficult for the SA batsmen. Big Flintoff was in good form that he hit the deck and was able to produce fair amount of bounce and seam movement, Harmison had to bowl just 1 over and he took 2 wickets.

I think Smith and team is still to come out the hangover of winning the test series, there are few new faces but the core is from the Test team and the way the team crumbled looked like they are little too complacent about the ODI series. Not sure why on a overcast conditions one would want to bat first after winning the toss, may be the failed run chase in the previous match influenced the decision but it totally back fired. SA brought in Gibbs,Albie Morkel (IPL fame) and few other new comers in the side but none of them were successful. Hope SA puts up a better show in the next ODI.


Team India Praying for Rain

Dhoni and team must be praying for rain to go back winning the ODI series (2-1). Rain has washed out the 4th match and the Srilankan whether department has forecast rain for the rest of the week and hence there may not be any match even on the reserve day and the last ODI on Friday/Saturday. For once the Indian players must be wishing rain to make sure that they need not play the last 2 games to make sure that they go back with a series win after losing the Asia Cup and the KitplyCup.

Missed Opportunity

Its been a tale for more than 2 decades now that regularly cricketers from TamilNadu throw the opportunity at the International level. The list is pretty big starting from W.V.Raman,B.Arun, Venkatramana,AshishKappor, Hemang Badani and recently L.Balaji,Sriram and D.Karthick and now waiting to get added into the list is Badrinath.

TamilNadu has one of the best infrastructure in India for cricket with dedicated grounds and league system to run cricket. TN is lucky to have very good cricket administrators at every level (state,district,college & school) and has full support from corporates (TVS,Chemplast,IndiaPistons,IndiaCements) ,Govt Banks (SBI,IB,IOB etc) and Railways are all part of the league systems and who have been with the TNCA for decades and helped cricketers and promote cricket in the state. TNCA has announced that they are planning to build a world class cricket stadium with seating capacity of over 1 lakh and this facility will be inaugurated in time for the WorldCup 2011. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Chennai_set_to_beat_Eden_Gardens/articleshow/3405937.cms

In spite of all this support we have not been able to produce cricketers who are regular in the Indian Team over a period of time. We have had glimpses of class from players like Venkatraghavan, Srikanth and RobinSingh to name a few who were regulars in their playing days and after that we have not had a single player who was sure of his place for years now. I am not sure if its our style of game (all aggressive stroke players) or the complacent nature with in our culture. Our neighboring state Karnataka has produced some great players in Vishwanath,Chandrasekar and recently Srinath,Dravid and Kumble who have played important roles for Team India in the past few decades.

Any organization or institution has the mind set of looking into talent from the past performance of the region and the dismal display of TN cricketers have not helped the budding youngsters here to get a positive look unless you are exceptional. I think its very natural in any selection process, you take the states like Bombay,Karnataka,Delhi,Punjab (to an extent), they have had good cricketers all the time, its pretty obvious that a player from Bombay with decent scores gets the nod over a player from say UP,TN because the past players have proved in with lot character and toughness to succeed at the highest level.

TNCA has been one of the best run associations and its hard to believe that with such infrastructure we have produced only handful of players with high quality. Its time the people responsible for running the game wake up and take note of this and bring in innovative methods to improve the confidence level and prepare players for the big stage.

Captain's Lead From the Front.

India and England were lucky to see their captains play matching winning innings but SriLanka was not that lucky. M.S.Dhoni played a good patient knock to make sure that India reach a respectable total after losing losing 4 wickets for 90+. Pieterson was in a better position with openers giving a flying start of 70+ and had the big hitting Flintoff scoring 70+ in quick time to reach 275 in 50 overs and was 90 not out.

India started slowly with Gambhir looking very ordinary and couple of missed run-outs. Kholi played some nice shots in the leg side and reached 25 to get run-out and Gambhir was out in quick time. Yuvraj who showed sign's of getting back to form with a well timed six over mid-wicket got out cheaply poking to good out swinger. Raina was on the other end grafting, Badrinath the hero of the 2nd ODI played one of the worst shots in the given scenario of the match to throw his wicket. Dhoni came in and played a patient knock to build a partnership with Raina to take the score to 140+. When both the batsmen looked to free themselves with some hitting, there was this terrible mix-up and Raina was run out. R.Sharma scored a quick 32 and finally India scored a respectable total of 237.

Srilankans started very badly with losing wickets quickly to be in a bad stage of 59-6. It was left to captain Jayawardane and Thusara to show some resistance and at one stage Jayawardene looked to take the game from India but it was too much for asking. Good to see Zaheer among wickets in this series and looks more fit to give his best. Praveen Kumar has been among wickets but has been giving away too many runs for his wickets. Munaf a good steady bowler is back in thick of action and among wickets and its good for India. Harbajan has been good through out the series with some steady bowling and Yuvraj filled the 5th bowler slot. For Srilankans their top order batsmen Jayasurya,Sangakkara,Silva were not getting runs and jayawardane must be a worried captain.

India in Beijing Olympics

After Abhinav Bindra's Gold, India has not had many success in Beijing. Rathore,Saina,Sania and other contingent is all out of the games, the only hopes for another medal is from the Tennis Stars Mahesh & Peas pair and to an extent Anju George.

It was heart breaking for the whole of India and Saina to have missed from a formidable position in the quarter-final. Good that her performance is being noticed and the Netball Federation has recognized her feet to award cash prize of 1 lakh (Yes you read it correct its just 1 lakh) at least they have come forward to recognize her effort. This is the most sad state of affairs of many federations with no funds and no initiative to approach corporates for sponsor's. I am 200% sure that the big corporates like Tata,Reliance,UBGroup,Sahara would have provided funds to reward her achievements with much better cash award, its the lack of initiative and will to do that.

She is young and talented and this is the time to appreciate her efforts and keep faith and provide all facilities to get her ready for the next Olympics. Cash award of 1 lakh in these days will not help in any way but feel bad. I also feel that the corporates should take some interest in special talents like Saina and spend time and money and provide her with what ever is needed to make her the champion. I am hopeful and this will happen in time and its up to the sports governing body to move things in their favor.



India takes on SriLanka in ODI

Dhoni was in the receiving end this time from the sports journalists with the repeated question on " How Indian Batsmen plan to take on the Magical Mendis". Dhoni put it rightly stating that its up to the individual person and what were you talk and plan in the dressing room its up to the player to tackle the bowling on the pitch on a given day. He is perfectly true, even if you see 100's of video its not going to help, how one plays on the given day makes the difference.

Yet another accolade for Sachin from his captain on scahin's absence due to injury and how it affects the team.

"It's not just his contribution with bat and the ball, but he comes up with brilliant suggestions and advice on the field. The impact he has in the dressing room is great."

I think this is the best chance for the youngsters like RohitSharma,Raina,Kohli,Badrinath to prove that they can deliver in the main stage and its also a challenge for Youraj and Gambhir to prove that they can take the responsibility of carrying the team to victory. Good that finally the selectors have given a break to Ishant Sharma and it should do good to him and be fit for the forth coming Australian Test Series at home.

On the side line, Sreeshanth is making waves in Bollywood functions playing host with Mandira. He was left out from the Indian team for fitness problems but was fit to perform a full dance sequence with Mandira Bedi and also kept the crowd enjoying with his acting skills. Good he has a carrier after cricket :):)

Bindra Lives India's Dream.

Bindra took the world by surprise and India into cheer and celebrations when he won the Olympic Gold, the first in an individual sport for India in Olympic history. As he has mentioned in his post victory interview its just the beginning and hope that the young kids show interest beyond Cricket.

As expected the whole country started to pour in cash awards to the champion and has proved successful sports men will be rewarded and over a period this will change to upcoming sports people will get the kind of encouragement and support to achieve greater targets.Four state governments had announced cash rewards to the tune of 1.4 crores. As usual BCCI also announced a reward of Rs 50 lakh for Bindra and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad gifted lifetime AC first-class travel pass and SpiceJet gave him free unlimited travel for life.

Now is the time for the SAI (Sports Authority of India) to take advantage of the interest and support extended by the corporates into tie-up for sponsors to support good talent in various sports to reach greater high's in the coming CommonWealthGames and the next Olympics. I would even go to the extent of asking people like LalithModi,I.S.Bindra to help run these federations and build infrastructure and most importantly sell the sports and make the transition happen. I think this is the golden opportunity for the federations to take a leaf from BCCI and start doing things rather than accusing that Cricket is eating their lunch.

On Cricket

As expected Srilanka won the match and the series without much of a problem and England won the fourth test to end the series as the losing side with series score line as 2-1.

There is bug difference in how SouthAfrica won the series and Srilanka won the series, SA had to fight session by session to win the test matches, where as Srilanka had no problems they were dominating the series so much that the results were mostly in the expected lines. India's famed batting order played worst cricket in the recent memories and never looked to make a fight and rather they were losing steam to fight as the series progressed. England had some fabulous performances from Peiterson,Anderson,Flintoff,I.Bell event hough they lost the series, where as India had just 3 names in Sehwag,Gambhi and Harbhajan to name with some good performances. SA had some brilliant performance from its captain Smith and the top order never gave up and fought well with Prince,McCanze,Amla and DeVillars coming good at important stages of the game. SA bowlers in Styen,Morkel,Ntini all played their role to perfection and Boucher kept wickets like a champ and scored runs when mattered most. Fro Srilanka it most the two magical spinners all the way and some good batting by their captain and deputy and one has also mention about the fielding and good judgment from Jaywardene on the referral which made lot of difference to the outcome of the game. Overall SA fought their victory and Srilanka won it by discipline.

IMHO its time that the selectors need to think in bringing in fresh blood into the test series also, I can see at least 2 of the top 4 needs to be replaced to bring in the young talent to test. I also feel its time that we replace the aging Kumble and bring in fresh talent so that we have some time to build the team.

Mega Week End For Sports Lovers.

Olympics kick starts today in Beijing with grand opening ceremony and rest of the world can take some time to appreciate how China has turned around to host the mega event in style.Media reports suggest that China is doing all the is possible to make this a great success and show the world that China has arrived into the main stream. Already they are making giant strides in various business and now into sports.

From India's Medal prospects, the shooting contingent is confident of repeating the feat achieved by Rothore and pretty sure of bringing back couple of Gold this time. We also have the great individual players in Tennis Sania Mirza and the doubles Kings Mahesh and Peas to bring some medals. Good luck to all the participants and China for a successful Olympics.


We also have Cricket this week end!!!!!!

For the first time in years that cricket has been pushed out of the main sports page in the Indian newspapers to give way to the Mega event Olympics. India takes on Srilanka today to play the decider of the series with both winning 1 match each. Even though India won the 2nd test Srilanka starts favorites for the decider with home advantage. The Curator has given hopes for the fast bowlers stating that the pitch will have good bounce and pace, hope its not part of the off the field game plan of the Srilankan think tank. Toss will be very vital on the result of the match, as in all the sub-continent wickets the pitch plays true for the first 2 days and starts to break and keep low from the 3rd day winning the toss and posting reasonable total of say 450+ will always help take the 1st innings lead and put pressure on the side batting 4th.

Kumble must be praying for his top guns to fire in this test, Sachin,Dravid and Ganguly have not scored a 50 in this series and Laxman has only one to credit. Karthik is the biggest failure in the tour with bad performances behind and in front of the stumps , dropping at least 4 catches and not scoring many runs. IMHO kumble just should not play a combination because they won the last test match, its ridiculous if karthick plays this test match in spite of having a reserve keeper in Parthiv Patel.

Sorry about not writing on Indian's big victory on the 2nd test, i was not able watch the match fully so could not write my views on the match. I just thought it would not reflect my opinion if i write based on news paper reports. Any way i will try to write on this 3rd test catching the highlights.

England Dominates Day 1

England bundled out South Africa for 190+ and sitting pretty at 50 for 1. South Africa was at 100 for 1 at one stage and some brilliant bowling from Harmison and Anderson quickly pushed them to 140 for 5 with harmison taking 2 and Anderson taking 3 and reached a personal milestone of 100 test wickets. Panesar and Broad helped to finish of the SA tail with 2 wickets each and it was thumps up for the new England Captain Peiterson on day one on his new role. Ntini sent back strauss early but could not push for another wicket as Bell and Cook played the rest of the day with no problems and stroke the ball well.

Wish the readers enjoy all the sporting actions in store in the coming weekend and through out the Olympics.

Too Early for Khel Ratna

Khel Ratna the most prestigeious award for sports person in India has been conferred to Dhoni for leading India to the T20 World Cup victory and recent ODI series victory. Happy that after Sachin a cricketer is getting this award and it should do a lot of good to Dhoni's confidence. Thanks to BCCI for getting this award to a cricketer.

IMHO its too big an award too early in his carrier. I just can not think that he is greater player than the stalwarts like Sunil Gavasker, KapilDev, Vishwanath,Rahul Dravid, Saurav, Kumble and many more to name who have acheived a lot for the sport. Cricket being a team game and winning a T20 world cup should not have been the criteria for this award. Its pretty early days in his carrier and this award is too big for him.

England runs out of choice to make Kevin Peterson the captaincy, I think Strauss would have been the correct choice with the experience and maturity he has shown over the years of good and bad form. Peterson is a free flowing batsmen and england is adding to the pressure already on him to perform all the time he walks to the field. It should not be any big pressure for both the teams as the series has already been decided.

Splendid Smith spearheads series win

South African captain played his lifetime innings (150+ not out) to take SA to series victory against England in England after 40 years. SA were chasing a target of 280+ and started well with 50+ partnership but quickly lost 4 wickets with some dubious decisions and were at 93-4 and the game could have gone any way but for the brilliant performance from captain Smith.

Smith was in his best through out the innings, the short arm pull, the unorthodox straight drives and the superb square drives were simply brilliant. From 93-4 he put a 75 partnership with devillers and reached the target with the company of the experienced boucher. Smith just played his natural game and it was treat to see the ball flowing to the boundary between the country and the deep-midwicket in-spite of the fielders in the line. He was under immense pressure as Flintoff and Panesar were bowling their heart out but he never looked getting out and just dominated the bowling. Boucher with all his experience, played yet another gem of an innings to support his captain to reach the total. Boucher has been accorded as one of the best wicket keepers but he has played many important innings for SA and i am sure this knock will get him the respect he deserves.

I think after long long time a captain has made runs in the 4th innings to win a test and series, Ponting and Lara has done this a few times. I doubt if the great Sachin has played an innings like this in his long carrier to score runs in the 4th innings to take the team to victory. I can remember the chennai test where he failed to finish after getting century against pakistan and the 120 run chase in WI which India failed. Even though there is comparing players, this was such a special innings from Smith which i am sure will not be matched in the near future and will stand tall in the memories of the cricket fraternity.

After this innings Smith stands tall in the list of batsmen who have done well with shear determination, even though he lacks the grace of the top cricketers.