CricDigs Blogs

1. All other Cricket playing nations should lobby to make a rule that a bowler (specially the kind Mendis is) needs to announce what kind of a delivery he is going to bowl. Just like the bowlers have to tell the Umpire that he is going to bowl right-arm or left-arm and over-the-wicket or round.

2. Change the ball so that somehow the Batsman gets to see clearly the rotations. Of course this changed ball is to be used by Mendis only…

3. Somehow find issues with his bowling action and declare him a chuck(er)

4. As one of the Commentators was saying (and I do not agree with this at all) somehow get him out of the game (hitting the ball hard at him etc etc.)

5. Offer him an early retirement package

6. Offer him Nationality with free health care insurance

7. Take him for some spiritual discourse and get in his head that it is all a waste of time to play Cricket….

8. or Just simply give up and hope that he loses his skills miraculously.

Any other suggestions??????

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.

You can say that Dhoni is arguably the biggest “thing” happened to Indian Cricket after Sachin Tendulkar. Though they represent totally different styles (including hair) of personalities, they both have moved the Indian fans big time…

Dhoni came with a bang with his skyrocketing shots and huge sixes, and over the past year+ has established himself as a successful captain for India in all forms of Cricket (including T20, ODIs and a Test win against SA). He also got a million dollar contract for himself while leading the Chennai Super Kings in IPL.

Now during his journey has he changed as a player/person? He is still as confident as he used to, still enjoys while playing the game, still shows ability to take decisions and seem to handle to stress pretty well.

What has changed then? One thing that I noticed while watching his interview after India’s Test win against SA in Kanpur was the fact that he took credit for all the changes he made and went on to say that his “eight changes provided eight wickets”. So what is the big deal about this comment you will say. Well in previous similar situations (in CB series in Australia e.g.) he would answer this type of question by saying that it is the players who perform when put in a situation by a captain. So the credit goes to the players. Small change this might be, but many a times it is this type of small change in attitude that can bring on BIG changes in the future. Interesting to see how the Dhoni era progresses…..

I am not sure how many of you watched or followed the first IPL encounter between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers, but to me the most astonishing site was not the batting of Brendon McCullum. Now that is quite strange when you consider that McCullum posted the highest individual score in T20 at the strike rate of 200+.

For me the most amazing site was seeing Rahul Dravid and Wasim Jafar walk out to open the innings for the Royal Challengers. These two don’t even feature in India’s ODI squad let alone T20 and are more known for their ability to stick around rather than setting the fireworks with their stroke-play.

So why? I can understand Bangalore choosing Dravid to be their captain and franchise player, but having him open the innings and that with Jafar is like guaranteeing suicide by hanging oneself and taking some poison just before doing that, just in case……..

It is then no surprise to me that the Bangalore Royal Challengers were Royally destroyed by the Knight Riders. And any Twenty20 team that sends Dravid and Jafar to open their innings chasing 220+ total in 20 overs deserves all that beating.

Thoughts????

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

Go India!!

I think the Indian Cricket Selectors for the Test team need to adopt the same strategy they did for the ODI team. House Cleaning. Got to get rid of the Dravids and Gangulys and even Jafars and get some fresh blood (Kaif

When it was required to hold his ground and stop the bleeding Dravid could not do it. I think Ganguly has lost all motivation and Jafar looks too lazy and lost. On the bowling front kick out Sreesanth. I am sick of his antics and his bowling today was poor. It is sad but Kumble might also be playing his last series.

It is pretty obvious that India is going to lose this test and lose it by an Innings. Use this as an opportunity and get new players in.

I saw this article on Time.com. Wanted to Share. Here is the link.

Sixty Years Of Asian Heroes

Enjoy reading….

It does not get any better than this as far as close & exciting ODI finishes are concerned. Sri Lanka made 235/7 in their allotted 50 overs and West Indies made 236/9 in 50. That is not all though. Chanderpaul hit a Six off the last ball of the match with those many runs required for WI to win. Vass was the bowler, who will remember this for the rest of his life. I guess he can seek Chetan Sharma and form a club.

Chanderpaul has this uncanny talent in him to keep his team in the match and threaten to make impossible things possible. When WI visited India last year, it was Chanderpaul who played a few gutsy knocks to almost create a couple of upsets.

It is matches like these that makes ODI form of Cricket such an exciting thing to follow.

I am sure most of you would agree that Dravid probably is the most technically correct batsman India has produced in recent times (I am not considering Gavaskar & earlier). What has happened to him? Ever since touring West Indies in 2006 and especially during India’s tour of England under his captaincy and Australia under Kumble, Dravid is getting more and more into his defensive shell and at times potentially messing up team goals. His knock of 12 in 98 balls in the 3rd Test against England when India was on the top is an impossible thing to understand or explain. One can disagree with his decision of not enforcing the follow-on but can understand it, but playing that slowly (12 from 98 balls is ultra-slow by any standards) at such a strong position is not only impossible to agree with but impossible to understand.

That was not an isolated incident. His ultra-defensive approach and lack of interest in doing any sort of effort to make runs or at least rotate the strike, is fast becoming annoying to watch. Even in the current test against SA, when Sehwag was batting with such an attacking way, Dravid “did” all he could to take the momentum away from India and presented it to SA.

Now that he has 2 more landmarks under his belt, one for exceeding 10,000 runs in Tests and second by scoring 25 Test Centuries, where will he go from here?

Though I might be coming across as someone who dislikes Dravid, I really hope that this great Indian batsman does not finish his extremely successful test career at such a low note.