CricDigs Blogs

The Australians really can’t be surprised at being dethroned from their customary numero uno position in one-day cricket. The reason is simple — this was very evident for the last five-six months as other teams were quickly beginning to size-up and catch-up with the Australian team. Although, I do say it, this view in itself is a big question mark.

Is it really the Aussies on the decline or the other teams really beginning to play good? I guess it has to be combination of both. The Oz haven’t been able to find good replacements for their players who retired recently and teams like SA and India have begun to exhibit some real spunk, especially the Indians. There is still no clear favourite among the three — SA, India and Australia, as all three of them can beat each other on any given day. What would matter in the end is the ability of these teams to sustain their dominance in the near future, something that the Aussies did very well for more than a decade.

Can the Indians really maintain a winning percentage of nearly 75% in a calendar year, again something that the Aussies have done? Is SA’s batting good enough to win consistently and actually bat out the opposition if on a given day their bowling fails to deliver?

Most of these questions would sort out themselves in the coming days. I guess the Lankans too could prove quite a handful but their team is bound to struggle if either Murali or Jayasuriya don’t deliver and they already have a captain who has been averaging less than 26 runs per match for nearly a season. This is where the Indians gain advantage — they are no longer dependent on a Tendulkar (though his very presence seems so assuring and his contribution is undoubted) or Dravid to win. The team is moving ahead like a cohesive unit and gaining momentum with every series win.

The quickly put together ODI series between India and Sri Lanka is underway. India won the first one relatively easily by 6 wickets. There were quite a few “interesting” moments in the match, but the end was quite anti-climactic.

India won the toss and asked Sri Lanka to bat first. SL innings started sensationally with Dilshan getting run-out in the first over. Jayasuriya played a very characteristic innings (may be not exactly….) but got out during SL’s batting power play. That could be considered as the biggest turning point of the game.

In the end, Sri Lanka managed to post a very competitive total (246) and India started almost in the same fashion as Sri Lanka. Sachin was given out LBW by an inexperienced umpire even though the ball pitched outside off-stump. It was almost a no-brainer of a decision. The bowler was bowling left-arm over-the-wicket and the only way a slanting delivery could hit the stumps was if it was pitched outside leg-stump. In which case, LBW is out of question. But it is Sachin and even umpires like to be part of his dismissal. Then there was a controversial appeal for a caught-and-bowled against Gambhir, but here the Third-umpire gave Gambhir the benefit of the doubt. Soon after that Suresh Raina got a life when he was dropped at point (by Dilshan??).

After all these crazy moments, Gambhir and Raina settled down and it looked as if India would make all these runs with just 2 wickets down. But then, this is cricket….

Gambhir gifted his wicket and then Raina got involved in a very ugly run-out. I think it was Yuvraj’s fault because first of all it was Raina’s call and most importantly Raina was running to the danger-end. Anyways, in came Dhoni and took charge of the proceedings. He and Yuvraj batted very sensibly before Yuvraj threw his wicket as well. At that point there was a semblance of chance for Sri Lanka and Jayawardhane tried very hard by making a lot of bowling changes, to break the partnership between Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. But that pair saw India through.

So after all these ups and downs, the match ended with India winning the match pretty comfortably. One point to note, Ajantha Mendis did not get a single wicket. The Sri Lankan captain tried to use him in ultra-short spells ( I guess he wanted to hide him from the Indian batsman as well), sort of like he wanted to have the cake and eat it too. That strategy did not work out and India has taken a very vital 1-0 lead in the 5 match ODI series.

The Second ODI is scheduled for coming Saturday…Stay tuned…..Go India Go!!

The first one-dayer between India and Sri Lanka was supposed to be essentially a battle between our batsmen and Lanka’s spin duo of Murali & Mendis. As it turned out, Mendis was very effectively played out by the Indian batsmen and they went beyond just playing safely against him — Mendis ended up giving quite a few runs from his quota of ten overs. What was soothing to see was the purpose shown by young guns, Raina and Gambhir, as they made sure that the Lankan spin duo didn’t make early inroads during the start of their respective bowling spells.

Both the left-handers were quick to step out and just push the ball along the ground to collect their singles and make sure that Mendis/Murali couldn’t dictate terms to them. What was different this time was the fact that our batsmen weren’t just rooted to the backfoot when facing Murali & Mendis. They used their straight bat instead of their pads and didn’t look silly unintentionally padding up to the off-spinning balls that dipped towards the stumps. Murali did manage to pick a wicket, but between themselves Murali & Mendis ended up giving quite a few runs and claimed just that lone wicket — yeah, Mendis went wicketless!!

That was indeed the highlight of the application shown by the Indian batsmen, including the man in-charge, Dhoni who remained not out till the end to ensure an easy victory for India.
Nearly all the batsmen excluding Tendulkar got some good batting practice. Three of our batsmen — Gambhir, Raina and Dhoni, scored half-centuries even though the humidity left them gasping for breath. Rohit Sharma has got another chance to prove his credentials. Hopefully, he wouldn’t end up scoring a string of 20s and 30s in this series too. Yousuf Pathan still remains a dicey selection as Dhoni doesn’t seem to trust his bowling abilities. With him not bowling much and Sehewag not playing, the Indians were lucky not to be attacked more during the middle overs of their bowling against the Lankans.

When Greg Chappel was made coach of the Indian team it was pretty obvious that it would be a “sensational” relationship. One way or the other. Greg Chappel did not disappoint in that sense. There was this incident with Ganguly, all these changes in the batting order and changes in the personnel.

From all that is being said recently it seems that the match was hardly made in the heaven. It was in-fact destined to fail.

Chappel left (or was asked to leave) after a complete debacle in the World Cup and ever since there has been a lot that has been said about this perceived love-hate relationship.

Now being an Aussie was Chappel here to create this chaos? I am sure most people would find this thought ridiculous, but remember he was the same guy who asked his brother to bowl an underarm delivery just to make sure that Australia did not lose the match. You can never tell how an Aussie thinks or what he will do.

So do anyone of you think that it was all part of an Aussie plan to de-rail Indian cricket ??

This was coming for some time now. Aussies have been reeling under a really bad patch that has seen some of their best players retire, too many injured at the same or some just unfit to do international duty (i.e. Andrew Symonds). Their team has been forced to include players that weren’t even considered for their A team last season.

Ponting has found it hard to motivate his resources and may be he will now understand that all those record-breaking and glorious victories that seemed to come so naturally to Australia was the courtesy of some world-class performers that were a part of the squad at that time and his captaincy had nothing to do with it. If he really is that great a leader of men, how come he is repeatedly setting one-dimensional fields or failing to ring in the more suitable bowling changes? I guess, when you are under the hammer, an individual’s common sense is the first thing that makes a hasty exit.

Proteas have won the ongoing one-day series 3-1 and had it not been for some casual shots by Kallis and the hero of yesterday’s victory — ABe DeVilliers, SA would have won the second one-dayer too. They have constantly chased down targets set by Australia in this series and this leaves a serious question mark over the back-up bowling resources of the Baggy Greens.

Not too distant in the recent past it was Ponting who had commented that a team can’t use the ‘excuse’ of having too many injured players as a reason for losing a match — so this time why did he mention the names of the missing bowlers in the post-match conference?

SA on the other hand have benefited tremendously from this series win. In the absence of Smith, Botha has led the team superbly and comes across as a pretty useful off-spinner too. DeVilliers’ stock has gone through the roof as he lends more stability to the previously-fragile SA middle-order. Kallis appears to have found his old bowling rhythm and is happy to shoulder responsibility batting at his customary number three position.

God knows what has happened to Andrew Symonds of Australia. The guy was a match-winner and a crowd favourite till very recently and now every other day there are reports of his drunken brawls or misbehaving with the team support staff or something else that shouldn’t be associated with a senior member of the team. With the exit of some big names from the Aussie squad, Symmo was probably a guiding force for the Australian middle-order and an important member for maintaining the team’s balance by performing as a credible all-rounder.

Somewhere near that racism-linked verbal duel with Harbhajan Singh that happened last season, Symonds seems to have lost that tenacity and self-assurance that came so naturally to him. Ponting has always backed him and it was the captain’s vote alone that had pushed Symonds in the test matches against the Kiwis. Even then, Symonds just fails to live up to his skipper’s and the people’s expectation.

Now, there are reports of him having passed some really abusive remarks against a Kiwi player for no apparent reason. Disciplinary actions are becoming more regular than his match-winning performances. This is when the Aussie team seriously need him to shoulder responsibility with Hayden and Gilchrist no longer playing. There were reports that even his domestic state side’s coach isn’t very pleased about including him in the playing XI and the national selectors don’t want him on the upcoming tour to SA.

Yet again, it is Ponting who could push Symonds’ name in the 15/16 member squad for SA but one has to wonder what sort of an example Ponting is setting by clearly favouring a player despite his repeated failure to react positively to any sort of faith that is shown in him.

As far as team’s balance goes, David Hussey is doing a pretty good job of bowling tight-lined off-spinners like Symonds and batting decently lower down the order. Yes, he doesn’t have the audacious strength and brutal hitting prowess of Symonds but should a player be included in the playing XI when he continues to openly confess having made a series blunders under the influence of alcohol?

This does have an air of doing the Aussie thing — a batsman verbally targeting the bowler before the series actually begins. This time it is Virender Sehewag who has sent out a feeler to Mendis — the ace off-spinner from Sri Lanka and the team’s trump card along with Murali. Sehewag has clearly stated that he would be looking to attack the talented but still somewhat inexperienced Mendis and make sure that the bowler doesn’t get into an early rhythm.

As it is, the upcoming five ODI series is due to be engaging with both the teams almost parallel to each other in terms of talent and on-field performance. Well, one big differentiating factor as compared to India’s last tour of SL would be the presence of Sehewag and Tendulkar for the ODIs. Both of them are awesome against spinners and it would be interesting to see if Mendis can weave the same sort of magic he did just about a season ago.

Another crucial thing is the performance of the players who can contribute both with the ball and bat. India have Dhoni, Sehewag, Yuvraj, Pathans and Jadeja (if he does play) performing double roles. Similarly, Lankans benefit from Dilshan, Jayasuriya, Sangakarra and that Maharoof guy. The performance of these players and how seriously they take up their additional duties could be the ultimate deciding feature of the series.

India still doesn’t boast of a very good batting record when facing the slowish Lankan bowlers in the middle overs and this is where Dhoni and Yuvraj become crucial to the team’s cause. Both of them have that amazing sensibility to make sure that the run-rate keeps up, no matter how it is achieved — via running tight singles or taking chances for clearing the field. They have the responsibility of making sure that India’s middle-order batting doesn’t crumble against the Murali-Mendis combination and the batsmen to follow don’t feel choked with the asking run-rate.

Sri Lanka’s overwhelming victory in the third and decider of the three-match ODI series just about summed up the way the Pakistanis have played throughout this series. People would have thought that a team which was trying to fight for its place in the international cricketing scene and players who have been hit hard by a self-inflicted economic crisis would be desperate to showcase their talent and would be at their most tenacious and the Pakistani players usually are when they are pushed towards the edge.

However, it was a disappointing performance by the home team. In fact, most of its players looked reluctant to perform anywhere near their best for some baffling reason. May be the financial situation within is much more serious than what has been told to the media.

Shoaib Akhtar was on a comeback trail but looked extremely unfit. At times, he was struggling to run in and bowl as early as in the second over of his bowling spell!! No wonder Malik, the Pakistani Captain, was reportedly furious with Shoaib’s performance. Shoaib was supposed to have lifted the spirits of the team but he managed to do just the contrary. Their batting too didn’t really click except for the first one-dayer but in that match it was the Lankans who were guilty of not being serious about their business as they literally handed out a win to Pakistan.

Pakistan look like a team in some severe need of inspiration and where that would come from is anybody’s guess. One really can’t expect their captain to be the motivating factor. His body language and approach is just to laidback.

The Lankans got their act together from the second one-dayer onwards and have found an opening replacement in the form of Dilshan. He has been in pretty good batting form and could upset the likes of Zaheer/Ishant in the upcoming five-match ODI series. To sum it up, this was an absolutely boring cricket series and for most part, it looked as if the two teams had been hustled to participate and their unwillingness to do so was very evident.

On one of my recent plane rides I was able to watch a sports show where Sachin Tendulkar & Sunil Gavaskar were interviewed by Rajdeep Sardesai. It was a very unique experience to see these two mega-stars of Indian Cricket together. There were some interesting questions and some interesting answers.

At one point Rajdeep asked Sunil Gavaskar whether it was true that he (Gavaskar) did not know what score he was on at any given point. To that Sunny answered that “it was true”. His logic was that if one knew that he was on 46 or 96 then it might influence the next shot selection. Sachin said that he knew what his score was but now understood what he was supposed to do

Sunil has given his best performance against the West Indies and Sachin against the Aussies. When asked if he raised his game against a “bigger” opponent, Sachin’s reply was “I wish I could do that”

Gavaskar’s most memorable moment was India’s WC win in 1983 and Sachin’s sounded really disappointed when he said that they had come so close in 2003

All in all it a very well conducted interview with a combination of some light hearted moments and some serious stuff….

Albie Morkel is fast turning out to be South Africa’s new version of Lance Klusener. ‘Zulu’ as Klusener was famously called had a notorious reputation for blasting off the opposition in the dying stages of the game and winning matches for his team with his lethal batting. Now, Morkel is emerging as another great finisher for the Proteas and he did the same thing during the third of ODI series between Aus and SA.

Of course, it was Kallis who was the architect of the win again, as he held the middle order together at a time when SA was losing wickets by the bunch. His 60 was priceless and had it not been for his presence at the crease, SA with or without Morkel could not have even dared to challenge Australia’s 269. South Africa hasn’t been getting good starts in this series and the pattern continued with Amla again failing to make any impression. Kallis has been restored his much-favoured no. three position and it seems to work best for him. He had nearly won the game for SA in the second one-dayer too.

The Aussies did have a pretty good start to their batting with the new-sensation Warner slogging the bowling just like Gilchrist used to do. It might be too early to make comparisons but he hits the ball as savagely as Gilly. The SCG is Warner’s home ground and he enjoyed batting in front of his home crowd, giving the spectators ample opportunities to cheer with his hard-hitting drives and cuts. However, the Aussie middle-order failed to score against the South African spinners and instead of reaching a very-possible score of 300, they folded up short of even 270.

Besides Albie Morkel destroying Australia, it was again the use of power plays that continues to confuse Ponting. Tait did bowl pretty well during the middle-overs of the Proteas’ innings but no bowler could survive Morkel’s assault. What impresses most about his batting is that, just like Klusener, he is sent in when the team is on the brink of losing the match. It is then left to him to do whatever he can to try and win if from there. With so much pressure on still a pretty inexperienced cricketer, one would have imagined that the expectations would get to him but he has now delivered in two out of the three matches played so far.