CricDigs Blogs

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.

Just as the World Cup T20 is about to get underway, there have been lots of opinion from players who had participated in the just-concluded IPL2. Most of them are of the opinion that the telecast of the IPL merely days before the World Cup would not make a significant impact on the viewership and cricket was bound to cut across any sort of TV boredom. However, among all these opinions, the best was the one expressed by Jacques Kallis of South Africa when he compared the IPL to a marathon and the World Cup T20 as a ‘sprint’.

I guess that is the best way to compare and differentiate between the two tournaments. The IPL meant that the teams had to be consistent for 14 games or so while the World Cup in England is much less accommodating and there is no time to get into the gear or get used to the conditions except for the initial matches against the non test-playing nations like Ireland and Scotland.

Ponting was all praise for his team, as they beat the South Africans in the test series that was supposed to be a revenge tour for the Kangaroos after they were recently humiliated at home. Agreed, that his team did a great job of winning the series 2-1 but did he have to go on claim that this side was probably the best ‘young’ team in the world of cricket and it would be hard for any teams to ‘catch-up’ with them. Just a few days after these post-match comments, the T20 series began and behold the great Ponting, what happened?

He lost it 2-0 to the South Africans. Well, it is not just the defeat but the fact that the team was playing a 35-yr old bowler (Harwood) who was making a national debut for the T20s. So what happened to the theory of his team being the ‘young’ force to reckon with? After the first T20 match, Ponting said that he was playing bowlers best suited for the conditions and age had nothing to do with it. Okay, so he changed, rather twisted his own comments to his advantage. Then, the second T20 game happened and the Aussies lost again. What did Ponting do now?

Well, he simply didn’t make any more excuses and meekly wizened up to the fact that T20s are a serious affair now and losing T20 series does raise a question about the team in question. However, he was quick to add that the team was searching for newer (I hope he actually meant ‘younger’ this time) players who could be part of the one-day squad. So, we all believed that Ponting would be leaving behind his own set of excuses and stories and move on to the ODIs. The series hasn’t even begun yet and he has already passed comments that how Watson and Symonds are being missed and that the ‘younger’ guys are failing to match-up to the expectations. Well, if that is the way he really thinks, then why did he gloat about his charge of young world-beaters to begin with? I don’t recall the man being hammered on the head by too many bouncers, so what is really going on with him? Plz stick to one set of theory Skippy…

India has just started following-on in the second test match against New Zealand. While looking at their batting on the second day this doesn’t come as a real surprise but what is amazing is that this match is one of the few occasions where their man-in-charge, Dhoni, wasn’t present. And just look how the entire unit has just fallen apart. Everything including the captaincy, the fielding, one-dimensional unimaginative bowling and the listless batting performance. This has happened despite the presence of senior pros like Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman in the team. How this happened is a bit baffling. When Sehewag was calling all the wrong shots on the filed, couldn’t the coach and the senior players have intervened?

The pitch is easy to bat on, but not really a 600+ runs sort of a patch. The Indians have been over-confident and this was exemplified by the fact that now reports have started coming saying that the entire squad didn’t have a single net session in the 24 hours preceding the match!! They are trying to compete with South Africa and Australia as the new world champion of the game. However, if this is the way they are going to about doing things then I am really not sure for how long would they be called world championship material.

The most embarrassing aspect for them should be the way all the senior members have just folded-up in the first innings. Tendulkar was very submissive, Dravid played a horrible shot, Bhajji bowled hideously and Sehewag sent a very wrong signal being the emergency skipper by getting out in the way he did. They are trailing by more than 300 runs which is more than a substantial volume of runs. The only way to redemption — bat so long, so good that the Kiwis lose every feasible hope of evening challenging them from here on. Will they be able to do it? Tomorrow we will come to know.

Looks like the coming India/England ODI series (which starts on Nov, 13 in Rajkot) will test out a new Power-Play format, which will allow the batting side to choose the timing for one of those PPs.

Why do we need to make any such changes to the current power-play format? The reason for Power-Plays itself is to offer the batting side some advantage by enforcing fielding restrictions. Now the batting side can decide when those fielding restrictions are employed.

Over the past couple of years we have seen things such as “free-hit” added to the ODI rules and before you know more rules could be added/modified which will give the batting side the ability to call the shots on fielding arrangements

I guess the pressure from the T20 format is really showing up on the ODIs….

This is what most cricketing experts are saying about the fielding efforts of the Indians on the first day of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2008. To state that the Indians were sloppy in the field would be an understatement. Most of the Indian fielders didn’t weren’t keen on sliding on a surprisingly green Bangalore cricket ground. Many boundaries were saved during the first hour of the first session but after that it seemed that the Indian fielders weren’t very interested in making efforts to cut down on the boundaries that could have been easily avoided had they decided to test their physical stamina a bit.

This is not something new among the Indians. They are infamous for being slow starters in every test series but everyone believed that in a series so seriously contested they would be making an honest attempt to save every possible run. Leave alone saving the runs, some close chances were also weren’t converted into vital dismissals. Hussey should have been out on a duck had Dhoni not messed it up. Ponting had one very close call for a caught and bowled by Anil Kumble but it seemed that none of the slip fielders or close-in fielders were tuned in the happenings on the pitch and didn’t even care to apply some pressure on the umpire by appealing.

The hot and humid conditions are something that the Indians are used to, after all this is their home ground isn’t it? On the other hand, the Aussies were stealing quick singles right under the nose of the Indian fielders. Ponting had stated before the start of the series that he and his team-mates were looking forward to test the fielding abilities of the Indian fielders and true to his word that is exactly what happened on Day One of the test match. This is something that the Indians would have to prepare for if they have to compete with the Aussies in the field. In such a competitive series, fielding cannot be neglected no matter how many runs our batting legends score.

I really feel that something about Yuvraj has changed ever since he has hit those 6 sixes in an over in the T20 WC. It almost seems to be that the T20 success followed by the success against Pakistan (at home) has gone to his head. I could be wrong here but my thoughts are genuine.

There is not doubt that Yuvraj is extremely talented and powerful cricketer, but I am not sure if I would call him an intelligent one. As the time goes by the bowlers would figure out how to bowl to him and get him out cheaply. e.g. exploiting his HUGE back-lift and at times uncontrollable aggression. If on-song he can be an absolute match winner and can change the course of any match single handedly, but figuratively speaking he has been more off-chord recently than on-song. This argument of mine might sound odd following his aggressive knock against SL that helped India win the match. But quite honestly, I think India won the match mostly because of Dhoni than anyone else. If Sangakara was not adjudged Man Of The Match (which he thoroughly deserved) Dhoni would have been my choice.

Now coming back to Yuvraj, I read somewhere that when asked about his position in the team, he replied by saying that his position in the team was never in question. Now if that statement came from the captain then it could be considered as “showing confidence/faith” in a player, but coming from the player himself seems a bit over-confident (but then I am a little old-fashioned) and pompous. I have no doubt that if India had lost the match and Yuvraj would have been out without playing according to the situation (like he did against Australia) he might not have gone to the press making such statements.

One other peculiar thing I have noticed about UV in the recent ODI series is his fielding position. From what I remember, Yuvraj has always fielded at Point (unless there is no one at Point), but these days I see him fielding either at Mid-Off, Mid-On or in the deep. Why? Is he carrying an injury or losing his confidence in fielding in such a crucial position?

I can totally understand and expect that there is not much respect for Greg Chappell within Indian Cricket fans, but the way he summarized Yuvraj makes a lot of sense to me. Greg C had categorized Yuvraj as someone who had too much talent for his own good. Interesting way to put it.

Yuvraj in the icon player for Mohali’s IPL franchise and would make a ton of money and fame in the recent future, but I am not sure what his long term future would be holding for him.

Am I totally off on this one?

I watched the match almost in entirety and here are my thoughts.

1. Terrible Umpiring: I know we have discussed this a lot at CricDigs like how it all evens out etc. etc., but the fact is some bad decisions have more impact than others. Symonds being not given out in the Aussie first innings and Dravid & Ganguly given out in India’s second innings made a difference in the outcome. No doubt in my mind about that.

2. Opening Partnerships: In the all important second innings Hayden and Jaques were able to thwart the Indian attack and get Australia to a good start. India failed to do that in both the innings.

3. Spin bowling and batting against it: Though it is claimed Indians have a better spin attack and their batsmen play spin comfortably, it was the Aussies that scored high in both the departments. Both the Hussey/Hayden & Hussey/Symods partnerships in the second innings florished in conditions that favored the spinners. That allowed Australia to build a lead that was out of India’s reach.

4. Better bowling attack overall: Ponting could make the decision to build a big enough lead to make it impossible for India to get and was still confident that he had given enough overs to his bowlers to get India out. The attack of Lee, Johnson, S Clark, Symods, Hogg & last but not the least, Michael Clarke was far superior to India’s

5. General Match Preparedness: The Australians are a tuned squad, whereas India has tried to put together a playing 11. Australians always seem to be on their game whereas Indians look completely lost every now and then. The running between wickets, ground fielding, catching, fielding arrangements, being aware of the match situation and playing accordingly.

It all added up for India to lose a close match. It is sheer superlative performances by a few individuals that made the match this close, otherwise the overall gap in these two teams is as wide as the British Channel.