3rd Test starts tomorrow (29-10-08) in Kumble's happy hunting venue and the one question in all the cricket lovers mind is "Will the Aussies put up a fight in this test match". Kumble is back to lead the team and fully fit to take his place and with 55 wickets in last 6 tests in Delhi, he must be raring to go and hoping that the favorite ground brings him back to form. After long long years Indian Team Management has a very tough task in picking the playing XI and Cheeka must be wishing that Harbhajan is not fit to play the match so that there is no issues in selection. Harbhajan is nursing a toe injury and is a doubtful starter for the Delhi test.
Aussies are under great pressure to perform and prove that they are as good a team as they were few years ago. This Australian team reminds me the AlanBorder team which was fighting the transition from retirements of Hughes,Lillie,Marsh etc. Pontings top guns are not firing and the Australian media is making things worse by accusing that the seniors are not playing their part and forces few changes in the team. Clark has made it clear in his pre-match interview that the senior players need to come good to save the test series. He has also mentioned that the seniors should be thinking of the present series and not get carried away with the long season ahead (summer in SA,Ashes etc).
Ponting started with a brilliant century in Bangalore but has not been able to repeat the same in Mohali, he has even gone to S.Waugh to get his problem corrected in playing the in- swingers. Hayden,Clark,Hussey,katich,Ponting should score runs and there should be a big innings from these guys to put up a decent score. Bowling has been the weak link and i don't thing S.Clark inclusion will change things dramatically, with Lee losing his wicket taking ability in the dry slow wickets its going to be a uphill task for the Aussies to come back to terms and win the test, having said that, i have a feeling that, if Hayden and Ponting get runs the whole thing will change and the bowlers will get confidence and runs behind them to get the wickets.
The curator has mentioned that as usual the ball will start turning square from the third days afternoon session and the toss is going to be very vital. Kumble might even send Dhoni the lucky man to spin the coin to win the toss and bat first and make full use of the turning track from the 3rd day.
Wish that Australians put up a fight in this test.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Emphatic Victory - Empty Stands - Worrying Trend
First up congratulations to Dhoni and Team India on the brilliant victory against the world champ Aussies. The whole five days were dominated by the Indian's and never let the Aussies to come back into the game. Dhoni the most successful and to an extend lucky captain in the recent times was adjudged Man of the Match ahead of some brilliant performances from Gambhir,Mishra,Zaheer,Ishant,Ganguly,Harbhajan and the champ Sachin. After long long time we could see a collective effort from the team translating to a brilliant win. Aussies were not in their element and gave too many quick runs in both the innings and their bowling looked very ordinary. Ponting mentioned that the Indian seamers were performing far better than the Aussies in the series. Also their main stay Hayden and Clark are not in form and that shows in their performance, apart from this they seem to be missing the services of McGrath,Warne and Gilli very much. Lets hope Aussies put up a good show in the coming two tests.
My fears on stadiums going empty for Test Series even in India has come true with the Mohali Test. Its worrying to see the empty stands played between equals (India vs Australia :) ), we have been watching some very interesting 3 days and in fact India has been dominating all the 3 days but still there is no crowd to watch the game. The same thing happened in WestIndies when took on the Aussies last summer and i feared that the same could happen in India with the advent of the slam bang IPL (emptystands)and it has happened.
Mohali crowd is respected for being very knowledgeable on the game and come in scores to watch good contests, the Punjab Cricket Association did its best by letting in school students free but that was not enough. The most troubling fact is even on the week-ends we don't see the crowds, even though India was not batting India was dominating the match and it was the most exiting 2& 3rd day in the very important series.
Team India's international commitment is already full and with the advent of IPL and ICL the Indian public is already provided with too much of cricket entertainment. Test cricket which is like the true cricket and the purists cricket with its nature of slow run scoring and battle of mental strength is not liked by the crowds after the slam bang version T20 made its way into the living rooms of millions of homes all around the world. Its time cricket administrators all over the world take note of this depressing trend and do something to preserve the Test Cricket.
My fears on stadiums going empty for Test Series even in India has come true with the Mohali Test. Its worrying to see the empty stands played between equals (India vs Australia :) ), we have been watching some very interesting 3 days and in fact India has been dominating all the 3 days but still there is no crowd to watch the game. The same thing happened in WestIndies when took on the Aussies last summer and i feared that the same could happen in India with the advent of the slam bang IPL (emptystands)and it has happened.
Mohali crowd is respected for being very knowledgeable on the game and come in scores to watch good contests, the Punjab Cricket Association did its best by letting in school students free but that was not enough. The most troubling fact is even on the week-ends we don't see the crowds, even though India was not batting India was dominating the match and it was the most exiting 2& 3rd day in the very important series.
Team India's international commitment is already full and with the advent of IPL and ICL the Indian public is already provided with too much of cricket entertainment. Test cricket which is like the true cricket and the purists cricket with its nature of slow run scoring and battle of mental strength is not liked by the crowds after the slam bang version T20 made its way into the living rooms of millions of homes all around the world. Its time cricket administrators all over the world take note of this depressing trend and do something to preserve the Test Cricket.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Sachin on Top -- We are Fortunate
I am lost of words when ever i try to write some thing on Sachin, We are just fortunate to have watched him grow from strength to strength and shape up his long innings in the middle. You just can not measure the kind of joy he has brought to the fans with his brilliant performances year after year. Again are fortunate to have Sachin in India and get to watch the whole 19 years of great batting.
How can one forget his test century's in his early days in England and Australia, the maturity in getting runs in the middle of his carrier, one stage he was just the only player to score for India abroad before Dravid,Ganguly and laxman gave him a break.
This is yet another milestone and nothing much for a person like Sachin and wish him good health and luck to enthral fans like me for at least another 2-3 years.
How can one forget his test century's in his early days in England and Australia, the maturity in getting runs in the middle of his carrier, one stage he was just the only player to score for India abroad before Dravid,Ganguly and laxman gave him a break.
This is yet another milestone and nothing much for a person like Sachin and wish him good health and luck to enthral fans like me for at least another 2-3 years.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Mohali Test
Team India and Australia are working hard in preparation for the 2nd test in Mohali, the whether has been a dampener for the teams preparation and also the pitch preparation. Mohali as we all know will be a true wicket for all the five days and the conditions in this season will help the seam bowlers and batsmen would love to see the ball nicely coming on to the bat. Overall we can expect some good cricket over the next 5 days.
With the 1st test drawn, its a 3 test series with interesting battle in the field. I would say both the teams are even with slight advantage towards the Aussies going into the 2nd test. I expect both the teams to play some positive cricket rather than playing defensive cricket. Its very unusual to see that Australia score under 3 runs per over in the 1st innings of a test match. Indian top order has been struggling for form for some time now, hence as expected were playing time rather than scoring runs.
Aussie batting looks solid with Ponting,Hussey and Katich in good form backed by Watson and Haddin. We all know that Hayden does not stay out of action for long and sure he will enjoy the bounce and pace in the Mohali wicket and Clark is good player to fail for too long. The Aussies must be worried about the bowling attack for sure, their spin attack is very weak and India should be planning to exploit this, having said that Lee and Johnson will be very tough to negotiate in helpful wickets.
India's biggest worry is their top order, the fab-4 managed to score some runs but all the four struggled to get the runs. Sachin in particular looked out of touch and his feat was not moving and was playing away from the body against the spinners most of the time. No doubt that he is the champion batsmen the world has ever seen and also as a die hard fan, i wish to see a good knock in Mohali. Ganguly,Dravid,Laxman managed to score runs but as the wicket in Bangalore was under-prepared they had to struggle to get their scores. Of the fab-4 Dravid looked much better and hope he gets big score in Mohali. Sehwag and Gambhir should continue to provide good starts and hopefully gambhir will capitalize on the good starts.
Kumble must be hoping to see a repeat or better performance from his seamers. Zaheer khan and Ishant were just brilliant in the 1st test and Ishant should be just raring to go in the helpful Mohali wicket. Zaheer's past performance has been in patches and has not been consistent meaning if he picks wickets in a test the next will not be that good. Hope he is maturing as a bowler and will start performing consistently. Harbhajan playing in front of his home ground should be hoping to do well but i doubt if the wicket will help spinners much, if kumble is fit the wicket should help him to get back to his stride.
With the 1st test drawn, its a 3 test series with interesting battle in the field. I would say both the teams are even with slight advantage towards the Aussies going into the 2nd test. I expect both the teams to play some positive cricket rather than playing defensive cricket. Its very unusual to see that Australia score under 3 runs per over in the 1st innings of a test match. Indian top order has been struggling for form for some time now, hence as expected were playing time rather than scoring runs.
Aussie batting looks solid with Ponting,Hussey and Katich in good form backed by Watson and Haddin. We all know that Hayden does not stay out of action for long and sure he will enjoy the bounce and pace in the Mohali wicket and Clark is good player to fail for too long. The Aussies must be worried about the bowling attack for sure, their spin attack is very weak and India should be planning to exploit this, having said that Lee and Johnson will be very tough to negotiate in helpful wickets.
India's biggest worry is their top order, the fab-4 managed to score some runs but all the four struggled to get the runs. Sachin in particular looked out of touch and his feat was not moving and was playing away from the body against the spinners most of the time. No doubt that he is the champion batsmen the world has ever seen and also as a die hard fan, i wish to see a good knock in Mohali. Ganguly,Dravid,Laxman managed to score runs but as the wicket in Bangalore was under-prepared they had to struggle to get their scores. Of the fab-4 Dravid looked much better and hope he gets big score in Mohali. Sehwag and Gambhir should continue to provide good starts and hopefully gambhir will capitalize on the good starts.
Kumble must be hoping to see a repeat or better performance from his seamers. Zaheer khan and Ishant were just brilliant in the 1st test and Ishant should be just raring to go in the helpful Mohali wicket. Zaheer's past performance has been in patches and has not been consistent meaning if he picks wickets in a test the next will not be that good. Hope he is maturing as a bowler and will start performing consistently. Harbhajan playing in front of his home ground should be hoping to do well but i doubt if the wicket will help spinners much, if kumble is fit the wicket should help him to get back to his stride.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Curse of TN Cricket
Its has been the curse of TamilNadu Cricket for a long long time now and it just continues over and over now. I am talking about the recent failures of S.Badrinath in the Irani Trophy and the BPXI game against the Aussies. I am sure Srikkanth must be feeling let down so much more than Badrinath himself, Cheeka picked Badri ahead of Youraj,R.Sharma and Kholi for the first 2 test matches. All the three scored hundreads in the practice game and proved the selection commitees selection of badrinath is wrong.
Chances of playing in the XI in the first test is very bleak with fab-4 and the openers in Sehwag and Gambhir are fit and certain to play in the test. If any one of the fab-4 gets hurt and not fit for the 2nd test there will be a chance for him to play the match, if that does not happen i think this is the end of his international carrier and has to slog in the domestic cricket for rest of his cricketing life.
Badri is not alone and he has many many cricketers from TamilNadu in the past who have wasted the chances that has come their way. S.Sriram,Dinesh Karthick,L.Balaji,W.V.Raman,B.Arun,Sharath (has never scored runs against the visiting teams, even though he has scored tons and tons of runs in domestic cricket) the list is just endless.
M.Vijay has been exceptional in the past couple of seasons and has been good in performing in the A matches and he is the next in line to make an impression and the only hope from TN to make it into Team India. I just pray and wish the people who are involved in running the sport in tamil nadu needs to do something to make sure he also does not go the way the past cricketers from TN have gone.
Chances of playing in the XI in the first test is very bleak with fab-4 and the openers in Sehwag and Gambhir are fit and certain to play in the test. If any one of the fab-4 gets hurt and not fit for the 2nd test there will be a chance for him to play the match, if that does not happen i think this is the end of his international carrier and has to slog in the domestic cricket for rest of his cricketing life.
Badri is not alone and he has many many cricketers from TamilNadu in the past who have wasted the chances that has come their way. S.Sriram,Dinesh Karthick,L.Balaji,W.V.Raman,B.Arun,Sharath (has never scored runs against the visiting teams, even though he has scored tons and tons of runs in domestic cricket) the list is just endless.
M.Vijay has been exceptional in the past couple of seasons and has been good in performing in the A matches and he is the next in line to make an impression and the only hope from TN to make it into Team India. I just pray and wish the people who are involved in running the sport in tamil nadu needs to do something to make sure he also does not go the way the past cricketers from TN have gone.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Why Fab -4 is Targeted ??
Its been written in all possible manner that the Fab-4 will have to retire with grace and in fact i am also one among the other writers who have gone for the kill of players like Gangully,Kumble etc. After looking at the so called young replacements for the fab-4 , S.Badrinath,MdKaif,R.D.Sharma,Youraj none of them can claim a place with performance but for being considered as they have the age on their side, it is a pity that the seniors have to go out just b'cas age is not on their side and in spite of better performance compared to the youngsters.
Take the instance of S.Badrinath and Kaif, both of them had the chance of their life to prove that they are good enough to replace the fab-4 but failed so badly in the Irani trophy. Ishant Sharma had just one good spell to wipe out the youngsters and that too in a not so helpful wicket. Both of them will get yet another chance against the Aussies in the 3 day warm up game and if they don't get to perform, they have only them self to blame rather than to cry out in the media for chances.
I am also little lost on why Gangully is being targeted so badly when all the senior players failed to perform in the Srilankan series. Gangully was the man of the series against Pakistan and played a match winning innings against SA in the home series. The only aspect that is against him is his fitness and age, i don't remember Gangully dropping catches and that costing the match or his slow running costing the game. Its a non issue when other seniors also have the same problems.
Yet another player who was treated badly over the years is Murali Karthick, when ever he had a chance to play for India he has performed well. He was the Man of the Match in the last test match he played against Australia a year ago.He has been very successful in playing county cricket and has been regarded very high by the english legends David Gower,Artheton,Nasser Hussein and many others but he has not been included in the India A or the Boards Presidents XI game against the Aussies. The sad part is selector after selector mentions his name says that he is a great talent and will get his chances but he is already 30+ and if he does not get a chance now, i think its the end for his international carrier aspirations.
I am also surprised on why Dravid and Laxman should be given B grade contracts when Kumble is given A grade even though he also does not figure in the ODI scheme of things. I feel all those who are regulars in ODI and Tests should be in the A grade and others including Sachin should be in the B grade, he has not played many games in the last year with fitness issues. After all these fab-4 had made lots and lots of money in their colorful carriers and they don't need the BCCI contract money (A- 60 L,B-40 L & C - 20 L) its only matter of pride being in the top grade and these guys don't have to prove any one that they are great players.
IMO i feel that the Fab-4 has another 2 good years and all the 4 including Sachin should be picked to play only Tests and BCCI should provide a graceful exit from the ODI.
(Fabulous - 4 (Sachin,Dravid,Laxman & Gangully))
Take the instance of S.Badrinath and Kaif, both of them had the chance of their life to prove that they are good enough to replace the fab-4 but failed so badly in the Irani trophy. Ishant Sharma had just one good spell to wipe out the youngsters and that too in a not so helpful wicket. Both of them will get yet another chance against the Aussies in the 3 day warm up game and if they don't get to perform, they have only them self to blame rather than to cry out in the media for chances.
I am also little lost on why Gangully is being targeted so badly when all the senior players failed to perform in the Srilankan series. Gangully was the man of the series against Pakistan and played a match winning innings against SA in the home series. The only aspect that is against him is his fitness and age, i don't remember Gangully dropping catches and that costing the match or his slow running costing the game. Its a non issue when other seniors also have the same problems.
Yet another player who was treated badly over the years is Murali Karthick, when ever he had a chance to play for India he has performed well. He was the Man of the Match in the last test match he played against Australia a year ago.He has been very successful in playing county cricket and has been regarded very high by the english legends David Gower,Artheton,Nasser Hussein and many others but he has not been included in the India A or the Boards Presidents XI game against the Aussies. The sad part is selector after selector mentions his name says that he is a great talent and will get his chances but he is already 30+ and if he does not get a chance now, i think its the end for his international carrier aspirations.
I am also surprised on why Dravid and Laxman should be given B grade contracts when Kumble is given A grade even though he also does not figure in the ODI scheme of things. I feel all those who are regulars in ODI and Tests should be in the A grade and others including Sachin should be in the B grade, he has not played many games in the last year with fitness issues. After all these fab-4 had made lots and lots of money in their colorful carriers and they don't need the BCCI contract money (A- 60 L,B-40 L & C - 20 L) its only matter of pride being in the top grade and these guys don't have to prove any one that they are great players.
IMO i feel that the Fab-4 has another 2 good years and all the 4 including Sachin should be picked to play only Tests and BCCI should provide a graceful exit from the ODI.
(Fabulous - 4 (Sachin,Dravid,Laxman & Gangully))
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