Payback Series: Game 3 - Thoughts

The Payback Series moved on to Mohali after a crushing win in Delhi. And though the margin was much closer, the end result was still the same. here are the thoughts  for the day.

• Team selections. I am bored of saying it. Bell should be playing. Given Kieswetter's Kamran Akmalese  performance today behind the stumps, it would be wise to give the gloves to Bairstow and bring Bell in as the opener.
• Team wins toss. Bats first. Bats well. Posts a big total. Total gets chased down easily due to some unimaginative bowling and shoddy fielding. This was the basic template for India's ODI losses in England (except for the toss part). Today it was just the other way round.
• The Indian bowling lineup with Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar & Virat Kohli looks straight out of the Kiwi dibbly-dobbly-wibbly-wobbly template
• The game was close. But somehow the result wasn't ever in doubt. Maybe its the T20 effect. Any total seems chaseable with 2 decent batsman in the crease.
• The fist pump by Ravindra Jadeja after edging a boundary as a gesture must be unparalleled.
• Dhoni's lost luck seems to have been found (:D) as he provides the finishing touch to an almost perfect team chase. 
• Rahane & Trott missed out on well deserved 100s, as Mr. Gavaskar would have said. maybe it was this obsession with centuries that made Sunil Gavaskar one of the greatest run accumulators of all time.

The series has been won. But the Payback is not done yet. 

The Pataudi Trophy - Review

I remember with how much eagerness and anticipation I had written this preview. And how wrong was I? There was a section with a man-for-man comparison stating how equally matched the 2 teams were on paper (Alas as it turned out, it was only on paper). In fact we got hammered man-for-man.

In the end it turned out to be a contest between England against Rahul Dravid & Praveen Kumar. England were an efficient machine, with even the replacements also slotting in seamlessly. India on the other hand hand key components falling apart, getting damaged and replaced by Chinese made imitations. Rahul Dravid did build his Wall, but the other batsmen built tunnels under it. Praveen Kumar ran in all the time, holding one end as a stock bowler while there was no one at the other end to strike through. India just fell apart. There have been debacles in the past, England getting whitewashed in Ashes of 2006-07. But never before has such a long-anticipated top of the table clash turned so one-sided.

For England, there was someone or the other to keep knocking down the Indians if they even thought off getting up. It was simple, Excellent no-nonsense batting, sustained bowling and some decent all-round fielding. They executed it beautifully and ran India ragged.

For India, there were patches of brilliance like Dravid's batting, Ishant's spell at Lords, opening 2 days at Trent Bridge. Otherwise it was an abject surrender. There were cries heard that the team was under-prepared and needed more warm-up games. This may have been true but the way the English victory margins kept increasing through the series, it would have seemed England were the ones under-prepared at Lords.

Key moments for the series. Zaheer pulling his hamstring on Day 1 at Lords, Prior & Broad's counterattack when they were in trouble in the 2nd innings at Lords again. In Trent Bridge, India had England down for the count at Tea on the first 2 days and they managed to recover ground through Broad with both bat and ball. After that it was just a one-way road. Gautam Gambhir's on-field injuries meant a random batting order every time.

Other aspect highlighted has been the failings of the Hotspot. Technology certainly isn't fool-proof. But in trying to make technology fool-proof, the governing bodies have lost sight of the original idea of DRS, which was to remove umpiring howlers like Harbhajan given out lbw of a inside edge at Trent Bridge and not the marginal too-close-to-call situations like Dravid's at The Oval. Here due to some sheer pigheadedness of BCCI, ICC and other governing bodies, we have got such farcial scenario of different rules applicable in different places for the same game.

In the end, all I can say is England were bloody good, like they were in Australia earlier this year. I was cheering for them during the Ashes but couldn't watch them pummel my Indian team like this. Michael Vaughan's jokes which I enjoyed with relish during the Ashes were now too painful to even read.

India were under-prepared, exhausted, injured unit. Players were hopeless in the English conditions against an efficient English cricketing machine. And simply outmatched and outclassed.

Only good thing which came out was that the Indian fan learned to appreciate Rahul Dravid once again.

Also spare a thought for Duncan Fletcher, England coach for seven years and current Indian coach. His long term aim of making England the world's best test side has finally come true but at his own expense.

P.S. At least we did something about the Cricket Spirit while recalling Ian Bell, the Sledgehammer of Eternal Justice.

Pataudi Trophy - Test 2 - Day 1 Thoughts

Trent Bridge Play Summary - India win toss, bowl first, after a tight first session have England in deep trouble at 124/8 at tea; Broad & Swann smash their way out of trouble, Anderson takes out Mukund first ball. And test match in balance at end of Day1. Now my views on the day's play.

• Sreesanth - He is something else, gets abused by the crowd, runs into trouble with the opposition, maddens his own captain, irritates the viewers, basically drives everyone nuts. And then when you are almost on the verge of counting him out comes back and takes wickets. And then goes away again. Could be a great bowler - bowls at a decent pace, can move the ball, now only if he keeps his craziness in check. But then he wouldn't be Sreesanth.
• Swann's dismissal - It came out of the blue when Dhoni was running out of ideas to break the 9th wicket partnership. A dismissal caused by the pitch with Praveen Kumar's medium pace rearing up from nowhere, taking Swann's glove and lobbing up to Abhinav Mukund at 3rd slip. The shocked expression on Mukund's face as he caught the ball said it all. Swann's left hand was injured and he did not take the field. But the pitch could be really troublesome for batting.
• Saurav Ganguly's commentary - I simply loved Dada's commentary. Speaking in a soft voice, witty, sharing anecdotes and so far cliche free. Simply loved the way he wondered about how long Ponting was going to play with Greg Chappel around during the end of the day analysis.

Now Day 2 beckons. India survived Day 1 without too much damage (and saved the follow on as well :P). Lets just sit back and wait and watch.

The 2000th Test - Day 2 Thoughts

Some weird scenes, quite a bit of struggle and some pretty good cricket. These are the thoughts which come into mind after the second day's play at Lords.

• First up the man who scored a double hundred. Kevin Pietersen just about survived thorugh his first few runs on Day 1, then struggled through to his hundred, may or may not have been out caught by Dravid at leg slip but in the end not just stayed on but hammered his way through to an unbeaten double hundred.
• Praveen Kumar was not even considered as Test material till lots of injuries and rests got him selected against the West Indies. And today with Zaheer injured, Ishant and Harbhajan totally clueless about how to take a wicket he led the attack, took a five-for and got his name put on the Lord's honours board. And more importantly bowled almost throughout the dayl.
• Dhoni and Dravid. Given the way his attack was performing, Dhoni himself came onto bowl and didnt do a bad job either. While in his place Dravid came up behind the stumps after many years and again didn't do too bad a job there. Kapil Dev has called this act a mockery of Test cricket. With all due respect to him I dont see how this is the case. Its not as if they started the day with Dhoni bowling. He came only after one full session had been played. A team is struggling and is going about with different options about taking a wicket. In fact to me it showed that like true champion sides, the current Indian team is willing to adjust and adapt to difficult situations.
• Ishant & Harbhajan. Totally ineffective. Combined figures of none for 280 from 67 overs is certainly not a good sign.
• Eoin Morgan's dismissal. On first glance everybody says its out. Morgan himself walks off. Then the Hotspot pictures come in and say the ball brushed the pad but no mark on the bat. If the decision had been challenged it would certainly had been reversed. Only issue Morgan walked off and did not review it because he thought he had edged it. So the incident pretty much opens up the DRS debate again. Technology is certainly not perfect.
• Zaheer's injury just showed how much off a difference he makes to the attack. England can call up Bresnana, Finn, Shahzad if any of their fast bowlers get injured. Whom do we call up Sreesanth, Munaf, Mithun? Hoping he gets fit soon enough. Otherwise its Advantage England for winning the series.
• In the slipstream of Pieteresen's knock, the sledgehammer of eternal justice and this blog's mascot Ian Bell scored an elegant 46 laced with 6 hits to the fence (more on that in a later post).
• Indian openers survived the day. Lets see what they can achieve today.

A Fast Bowling Tale

An India Test tour of the West Indies.

And a tall, fast bowler is battering the batsman with pace and bounce and some swing in

Pretty familiar scene except that this time around its the West Indies batsmen who are at the receiving end. The sight must have definetely gladdened the hearts of the former Indian players who had been at the receing end from the West Indian fast bowling greats all these years.

The sight of Ishant Sharma running through the lineup did make for very good watching from an Indian fan's perspective too. A fast pitch is certainly no more a threat to the Indian teams. Our fast bowlers have begun returning in kind, and in fact performed better than the home ones. Examples like Perth (2007) and Durban (2010) immediately come to mind.

The reurgence of Ishant, the likely return of Zaheer, the newly disocevered test bowling of Praveen and well the craziness of Sreesanth and English conditions. Already anticipating a great series in England.

P.S. Ishant's performance brought back thoughts of "that" ball from Sreesanth.

World Cup Thoughts - March 9th

It was an India match day, so a post has to come. Missed most of the game due to being at work. Only saw the end bits. Here are the thoughts for the day.

• First, Piyush Chawla - From the reactions on the internet, he is fast replacing Ravindra Jadeja as the most abused Indian cricketer.
• It seems to be a new strategy. Zaheer opens the innings, the other pacer opens from the other and after one over Yusuf starts over. Not a bad move given that except Praveen Kumar (and he is not playing), the other Indian pacers seem to prefer bowling with the older ball.
• 4 in 4 for Sehwag. 4th innings in the World Cup and he starts with a boundary of the first ball. Thats a nice little habit to have. Had read somewhere that Sir Jack Hobbs (the greatest run accumulator in 1st Class cricket) liked to take a single off the first ball he faced. So Sehwag should be doing well.
• Yuvraj Singh had another good day in the office. But the rest of the team seemed to be taking it easy. Still the Seven Samurai managed to get the job done in the end.
• I thought India had made it to the Quarters by now. But it seems I was wrong. There is an odd chance that we have not. If WI beat Eng, Eng beat Ban, WI beat Ind, Ire beat WI, SA beat Ind, Ire beat SA, SA beat Ban & Ire beat Neth, Ind could still miss out. (Source - @espncricinfo)
• And to end with some new titles for Kamran Akmal - Here is what he has been described as by the master of Awesome cricket writing Andy Zaltzman -  the Maharajah of Missed Chances, the Don Corleone of Dropped Catches, the Earl of Err, the Pharaoh of Fumble, Lance Corporal Granite Hands