CricDigs Blogs

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….

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.

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.

I found this Marathi Poem on Sachin in a thread in Sachin’s orkut community. I am very impressed by it and hence thought of posting it here for the pleasure of Sachin fans here It is written by Suresh Shirodkar a Sachin fan. The English translation which follows the Marathi version is done by another person in the community who calls himself: Still Rocking. Nice piece of work! To read the poem in its original form and Devnagri script you can visit the poet’s blog: http://skarsuresh.blogspot.com/2008/02/blog-post_14.html He also has other interesting poetry in Marathi.

Veeranchi hi virat nagari
Shuranchi hi ranbhoomi
Jithe tyanchch gatat kirti
Tithe ek janmali lahan murty

Ranangani ya chendufalichya
Thikrya udavuni golandajanchya
Vikaram modnarya ya vikramaditylalch
Sosava lagto aaj tikecha maar

Khelala tar mhantat tyaat kai vishesh
Nahitar kartat tikecha abhishek
Marava shatak tar mhantat swarthy
Nahitar padtat dharatirthy

Chehara tyacha pahuni gonads
Miyan mhanala batli dya tondat
Pan hantach shatkar quadirla
Vishvachi sara hadarla

Moothmati deuni swatchya pityla
Gela rananganat punha ladhayla
Pan kase mhantat khulchatpatu
Miltat nota mhanun ladhto beta

Don hi vadle bolavuni ghara
Mazyasama hach khara
Pan mahabhaganchya aklecha tora
Hyachyapeksha dhobi bara

Sharajat hota prasanga baka
Tyat aankhi aala vadalacha dhoka
Pan jiddine ladhla khandaveer
Nahi rokhu shakle kangarooche teer

Match fixing ghdale tyachyach kalat
Pan kadhi nahi govala bookinchya galat
Garvane khelela deshasathi sada
Nahi kadhi aanli desh-hitavar gada

Gurujini hi sodla fusaka ban
Ki nahi urla yachyat ram
Pan gurujich gele vanvasi
Aani hyane galala khara gham

Ek karma ani ekach arjun
Ek bhishma ani ek abhimanyu
Yugamaguni yuge geli
Nahi janmale dusare ajun

Mag dhyani theva ananyano
Itihasachi hi parampara
Zale bahu hotilahi bahu
Pan yasam hach khara

English translation by another Orkut user: Still Rocking

In the great city (or battlefield) of great warriors
And in the land of warriors
And where He always get worshiped by people
There born a short man (but only by height)

On the battleground of cricket
He always used to bang opposition bowlers
But Alas! That record king is always get targeted by critics

If he plays then critics says, what’s great in that?
Otherwise they (critics) scold him with curse
if he hits century critics says, he is selfish
otherwise they used to scold him regularly

By seeing his gorgeous face
Miandad barks “give him nipple “
But when he banged Quadir
Whole world get stunned

After buried his father
He goes to battlefield with big heart
But mad pupils said that
“He is playing for money”

Even Don Bradman invites him to his house
And tell that “You’re really like me”
But, what to say about those peoples?
Who said that washer man, is better than him

In Sharjah when we were in critical phase
And when twister is in front of us
But he played like warriors
And even kangaroos were failed to stop him

Match-fixing also happened in his time
But he never forgot his ethics and not falls upon bookies offer
He always plays for nation’s pride
And always looks for nation’s interest

Guruji(Greg chappel) fires useless bullet (i.e make nonsense comment)
That now his time is over
But guruji got kicked-out
And Sachin remains untouched

There was only one Karna and one Arjun
Only one Bhishma and one Abhimanyu
Even after years and years
They would not born again

Then keep this in mind anonyms
One thing never change
There was many, there will born many
But He is ultimate