I might be wrong but it seems as if the Indian Cricket team always starts a new series (home or abroad) very poorly and then tries to catch and make amends. Barring a much superlative batting effort or even more importantly, some washed-out day (s), India would lose the first test against Sri Lanka. If you look at India’s 2007-2008 away Test series against England & Australia and home series against South Africa, you can see that the Indian team started badly and did better as these series progressed.
In the England Series, but for the bad weather and some rear-guard action by Dhoni, India would have lost their first test at Lords. They managed to win the series 1-0 in the end. Even in Australia they lost the first Test at MCG, could have pulled off a win or at least a draw at SCG and ended up beating the Aussies at Perth. Even against SA at home after a drawn first test, India lost the second test and pulled off a win in the third to level the series.
Why is that the case? Does the team has a lot of inertia or need a lot of time to acclimatize? In any case it needs to pull-up its socks and demonstrate some guts and fighting spirit if it wants to survive this very precarious situation in the first test against SL.
I have not been able to see a lot of these matches (being on vacation for about 10 days with limited internet access) but quite honestly I just love to see all these teams with a fantastic mixture of international stars playing against each other. No one team seems to have lob-sided advantage. They all have reasonable fire power in batting as well as bowling and we should see a very tight finish for semi-final births towards the end.
It is fun and great site to see Dhoni and Michael Hussey batting together, Ponting and Ishant Sharma playing for the same team, Symonds and Afridi representing the same team, Shane Warne and Graem Smith in a huddle and many many more interesting combinations (including Bhajji smacking Sreesanth ).
I hope to catch more of those matches (may be some live ) and hope that IPL continues to flourish.
To my eyes, this pitch looks like a minefield. India currently has a lead of 23 runs which realistically is all they would be able to put together. I can not imagine SS and IS sticking around too long to make any substantial difference. South Africa should not have much difficulty wiping that deficit without losing too many wickets (if any).
So, the most probable scenario is that SA will put up a sizable second innings total setting India a big enough total to chase. Looking at the present condition of the pitch and the South African attacks’ power, it would be very difficult for India to bat 4th and that too while chasing a large enough total.
So the most probable scenario is South Africa winning this test and the series very comfortably. The only scenario that I can see for India to pull off a victory here is to repeat their performance at Johannesburg in 2006. India would need to bowl out SA very very cheaply. Any total of 200+ to chase on this pitch in the 4th innings would be extremely difficult. Then again stranger things have happened
Viru Rocks!!! The visitors’ mouth was left wide open just gazing the amazing shots played by Viru. He showed to the world what he is made of, with his mind boggling knock of 318. Hats off to Sehwag, with what an ease he lead the ball across the boundary rope is really commendable. He has even set a record for scoring the fastest triple hundred in test cricket. Unfortunately his claim of breaking Brian Lara’s record was not accomplished but his score of 319 spoke volumes about his talent, fitness and commitment. This was enough to shut the mouths of his critics including mine. The visitors were helpless in front of this legend just left every spectator of the game spellbound. This was a much needed knock for Sehwag and of course marks a fresh beginning to Sehwag in world cricket.
Any comments on the ongoing cricket test match between India & SouthAfrica ? I’m mighty pleased that i din’t actually buy tickets to watch this match live @ chepauk. The first thing that i seem to hate about this test match is the lifeless, ruthless pitch that has been set. It looks like even my grand dad would score a double hundred on this track. There’s hardly anything for the bowlers, and least should i mention about the burning hot climate here at Chennai. Yeah i do agree 20 wickets have fallen in 3.5 days. But would anyone object if i rather say, it was the batsman who lost their wickets out of exhaustion rather than the bowlers claiming it
Oflate there’s been too much for the batsman’s on offer. Bowlers are not taken into account whatsoever. Should the ICC rise to the occassion, and make sure pitches are prepared in such a manner that there’s something in for the bowlers aswell. I feel sorry for each and every bowler who were asked to bowl on this DEAD FLAT BATTING TRACK. One helluva boring test match, and im surprised to see people smiling and dancing on the isles.
Pitches in India have always been this way. There’s hardly anything in there for the bowlers. Well this to me doesnt looks a best practise to nurture budding bowlers. Its time the Indian cricket board have a serious look at this aspect of the game and do the needful to ensure quality pitches in place. Quality pitches not only makes the contest fascinating, but also gives a fair chance to both of the teams to compete. I am not sure how many of you guys out here would agree to me, Well to me i do feel this is not how Cricket should be played
Who would get the nod for the 11th spot? Bhajji or Chawla or RP? Or will Pathan open with Sehwag again and allow for 5 bowler attack of Pathan, Sreesanth, RP, Kumble & Bhajji (Chawla)?
If Jafar plays then considering it is Chennai, India will play 2 seamers, 2 spinners attack, so one of RP or Sreesanth will miss out.
On the field Andrew Nel is a repugnant person. With his myriad meaningless/unwanted facial expressions and sledgings, he draws attention of the viewers and other players. His bowling is good, but his dramatics on the field are more noticeable. Such actions earn him a lot of disapproval.
Nel is a good bowler, but not very impressive. His test bowling figures are somewhat appreciable. His one day bowling figures are not something that can be rated as top notch. However, his on field antics keep him in news and make up for his sometimes unimpressive bowling.
We all remember him provoking Sree Santh with thumping his own chest and challenging Sree Santh to play his deliveries. And there are many such occasions besides the incident. It’s Andrew Nel’s trademark on-field behaviour. And it has the endorsement of his captain Graeme Smith. That’s why he overdoes it sometimes making it quite disgusting.
But off the field Andrew Nel is a completely different person. An accountant by profession, Nel is a very calm and peaceful person. In fact he is the first person to go to the opposition dressing room after a match with a beer in hand. Well, that’s what a section of the media wants us to believe.
In reality Andre Nel seems like a person lacking discipline. His driving under the influence of alcohol in Australia, smoking marijuana in the West Indies, making faces at Chris Gayle, a verbal duel with Gilchrist after being hit for 22 runs in an over, and the unnecessary provocation of Sree Santh are all exmaples of his lack of discipline. It’s a laudable thing that he tries to remain calm and peaceful off the field. But It’s hard to believe that he is actually a very calm and peaceful person off the field as a section of the media would like to project.
Indeed South Africa was not able to put their past behind themselves and caved in abysmally under the pressure of the semi finals. A score of 149??? Runs mostly contributed by the tail enders and only one or two double figures in the top order? It looked more like a match between Australia and Ireland. In a previous blog of mine I had mentioned SA’s former paceman Alan Donald’s comments on the team’s Aussie dread and that has proved right yet again!
No matter how boring we might call their kind of cricket but the team was definitely a solid one. It is the team that demolished England, I can’t fathom what happened to AB. de. Villiers? He couldn’t even manage double figures!!! All I feel is that somehow the presence of Australia in the tournament is a jinx to one and all and to say precisely none of the teams have performed brilliantly, matches have been won but they have been won decisively with a lot of mind games and hard work but a brilliant performance that of the nature of the Aussies has not been seen in any team which is pretty worrying.
Does the Aussie team have everything perfect that it is on top? Do they have the best coach, the best facilities, the best players above all? All players have some or the other shortcomings but how come the Aussie players dont appear dwindling ever?
The standards of cricket have gone down generally and as said also that this world cup was the most boring from amongst a few in the past, its been a literal joy ride for the Aussies but a dismal outing for most of the other teams. Now that the final stage is set and the Lankans are going to take on the might warriors lets hope they dont cave in too and can give a tough fight to them and here is hoping against hope lift the trophy as well!!!!! Best of luck Sri Lanka!
Everyone, including the Australian team is expecting South African Cricket Team to cave in to the pressure of playing semi-final and complete another disappointing World Cup campaign. But would they succeed against the odds? I really think so. Their talent and cricketing power was never in question, but it is their ability to play clutch games and uncanny knack of self-destruction is what they are more famous (?) for. How else do you explain, Herschelle Gibbs “dropping” the most crucial of catches and then Alan Donald committing the run-out error twice. Even in this WC they almost managed to lose their match against SL and choked against Bangladesh for no reason whatsoever. So, though everything points to SA losing to Aus in the second semi-final, here is why I think they will win it.
1. The fact that they managed to hang on to a win against SL shows that may be the luck is on their side this time around.
2. The hammering they gave to England showed that they are quite capable winning must-win games, even though it was their loss to Bangladesh that put them in that situation to begin with.
3. In their Group Match against Australia they started quite well and continued until 25 overs on-pace to reach the required target.
And last but not the least…
4. The current Australian bowling attack can be taken to the cleaners. Ricky Ponting is talking about Shaun Tait’s pace etc, but we all know that Tait can be completely off-target and hammered for a lot of runs. Even Bangladesh was targeting him for a little while in their super 8 match.
So, I am rooting for South Africa to take on the Australians and take care of them for good. To draw a Baseball analogy, that is what the Boston Red Sox did to the NY Yankees in the year 2004 after taking 86 years since winning their previous Championship. The Red Sox were said have a curse on them….Now the question is would SA need those many years or would 8.6 years since 1999 disaster be enough?
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