CricDigs Blogs

It’s Sydney Cricket ground again, same venue where there was this big Drama that took place the last time India played Australia. In the end the Australians (with tremendous help from Steve Buckner and some unsportsmanlike behavior from the Aussie Captain) managed to beat India.

Now Pakistan have them in situation from where the Pakistanis can surely dictate the terms and delivery a series leveling blow. The question is whether they will keep the control they have or lose the plot??

We will find out today…The first session belonged to the Aussies but with a very potent bowling attack from Pakistan one would never know…

If they beat Sri Lanka in the Third Test that has started in Mumbai then India will become the #1 Test side in the World. It has never achieved that position before. It would be terrific if they accomplish that after securing their 100th Test win in the last Test at Kanpur…

Will Team India do this? and Is it truly the #1 Test side in the World? As there is no set rotation or tournament schedule that manages Test Cricket, it is hard to objectively comment on whether any side is the #1 or not, but one thing is for sure, over the past few years Team India has shown ability to win “on the road” and has demonstrated that a few times. It has won Series in England, West Indies, New Zealand and has fought very hard against Australia in Australia. It has also consistently won at Home. It probably has the best batting line-up and has a good variety in bowling attack..

So I really wish that India wins this test and claims the top spot!!

It’s been a roller-coaster kind of a Test Match so far. On the opening day/session it looked like India would get bundled out for a small total, but ended the day very strongly, only be bowled out relatively cheaply during the first hour on Day 2. Sri Lankans have posted an enormous total so far and would surely add a lot more to it, from where they almost can not lose this test.

Now the question is would India be able to save this test match? They surely have the batting line up that can play for days but it has also collapsed unceremoniously a few times. As seen many times in the past, Indian team somehow starts almost every test series badly and then tries to come back.

Would that trend repeat itself in Ahmadabad between today and tomorrow?

This morning while driving to work, I was lazily scanning through the FM channels and finally got back to the one I end up listening to most of the time even though I don’t like that particular program. It consists of the RJ putting a question/recent news item/fact and asking the listeners to send their opinion on it. Usually the question is about some stupid Bollywood gossip or some irritating piece of sensational new item … hence my aversion to the program. But today’s question was … “India will not be playing any Test Cricket this year… Is this the end of Test Cricket?”

It got my attention. Surely, it can’t be true! The Test Series win in New Zealand was still fresh in my mind. But now that I think of it… it sure was quite some time back. Reaching office, I checked to confirm that the last time we played a test match was in March this year. After that there was the T20 World Cup and the ODI series in West Indies. Of course, if you are an Indian, the IPL that happened in April-May would have attracted your attention as well. So if the claims of the RJ are true, India will not be playing another Test Series until at least March 2010. I further checked the ICC Future Tours program and it showed that India are scheduled to play a Test series against SL at home in Nov-Dec 2009 and another one against SA in Feb-Mar 2010. This gave me some relief, but, can the Futures Program be trusted?

Even if the RJ’s claims were not entirely correct, the fact did come as a surprise to me. So has Test Cricket finally started dying? If a cricket crazy country like India, which produces the most amount of money in World Cricket, does not play even one test match for almost a year, then it definitely is a cause for concern. Agreed that the recently completed Ashes Test series generated a lot of interest, but if you look at the other test series that were being played around the same time (SL Vs. Pak, Zim Vs. Ban, SL Vs. NZ), none of them generated any significant interest. And even the Ashes were hyped so much only because for a change, England were the favourites and finally won the series against the mighty Aussies.

Whether the Aussie reign has come to an end is a topic of discussion for another day. A bigger and more scary question is the future of test cricket. As an ardent fan of the format, I am really concerned about the beginning of the end. My fear increases even more when I meet today’s youngsters (a couple of my younger cousins actually) who were hooked on to the T20 World Cup but could not remember anything nor care less about India’s spectacular win in the Perth Test or even the series win against NZ.

One of the respondents to the radio show summarized my fear aptly - “Who has the time these days to watch one game for 5 days? As for me, I wouldn’t spend even one full day for one game”. The lad did not sound more than 20!

To rub salt into the wound, that respondent won the prize for the best response for the question!

Watch Sri Lanka vs New Zealand Live Streaming Score, 2nd Test, Colombo (SSC). New Zealand are slated to play two test matches and two Twenty20 Internationals against Sri Lanka.

http://www.clbuzz.com/sri-lanka-vs-new-zealand-2nd-test-live-cricket-score-2009/

If it wasn’t upto a heroic batting effort by Graeme Swann and an in-your-face kind of a half-century from Stuart Broad, England would have packed-up on the morning of the 3rd day itself. However, as it turned out, England added more than 150+ runs in the first session, scoring at a run-rate of nearly 6 runs per over, until the lunch break broke their momentum. Swann is still playing, while Broad got out after playing some swashbucling shots. What is heartening to see is English lower order trying to ensure that Australia don’t walk away with the victory and all the positives from this match. One thing is certain, England will lose this test match but if the players are crushed by Australia from a mental perspective then there is no chance of them competing strongly in the last and the decisive, Fifth Test Match. The one thing England can still do is bat and frustrate Australia a bit longer. This way the lower-order batsmen would have gained some confidence of batting and you never know, this may prove to be handy as both teams head for the final game.

It had to happen at some point during the Ashes 2009 - the England batsmen had been guilty of trying to be too flashy outside the off-stump and for some reason, or just plain luck, their edges had managed to seep through between the close-in fielders on just too many ocassions. As it turned out in the fourth Ashes 2009 test, the English batsmen pushed their luck too far, again and this they paid for it. England was dismissed for under 110. Some would say that it was Siddle and Clark who did the damage. However, if you look at most of the dismissals it is just poor technique against disciplined bowling. The ball wasn’t moving around too much but the batsmen kept playing away from their body and kept getting out. What must be bothering England is that Australia look set to take a good lead and the pitch won’t be very conducive to swing bowling on the second day when most Aussies would look to get stuck to the crease and make it count. Further, Australia doesn’t have a spinner this time around and an all-pace attack would come back to haunt the English batsmen in the second innings wherein they would be expected to score somewhere around the 450-500 region.

There have been widespread reports about the Indian cricket captain and the players having meetings with BCCI officials and now even a special team has been convened to make the international authorities understand that why the Indian cricketers are apprehensive about the random dope testing regimen. However, it would be fair to say that the BCCI may find itself cornered in this argument. For starters, this clause is being slowly spread across the entire globe and nearly all sporting franchises are slowly warming-up to the idea that random testing is indeed the only solution. However, I would like to say that if the international agencies don’t think of cricket as a game good enough to be included in the Olympics, then why this obsession with making our players comply with international regulatory benchmarks??

You can always bank upon Pakistan to be what no cricket fan wants them to be — hopelessly unpredictable and judgemental. The team just won the T20 World Cup and just when it looked like things were getting back to normal, the tests and ODI series loss to Sri Lanka has come to the fore. What is more disturbing is how comprehensively Pakistan was defeated in every aspect of their game. Further, the ODI loss has evoked negative reactions like match-fixing and news of supposed bookies in the Pakistan team’s hotel lobby is sure to fire-up this issue beyond control. These are self-destructive habits that have always haunted Pakistani cricket and it is about time that the PCB shed its image of being some sort of a colonial powerhouse and started acting like a sports regulatory body and took responsibility for its actions.

Michael Clarke is continuously building upon the reputation of being Australia’s next Steve Waugh as he delivered once again when the team needed it the most. Had it not been for his partnership with Marcus North, Australia would have surely gone down by 2-0 in the Ashes. As things stand now, the momentum seems to be with England as they are already one-up in the series and it is up to Australia to make all the right moves. However, if the England team does sit back and think that they can be passive and let Australia do all the hard work, then things could go horribly wrong. Australia would strike back with vengeance in the fourth test and if England cannot continue with the sustained intensity they have shown till now, it could soon be one all.