Cricket India

Ashes 2005 continues to surprise you. It digs deeper into its reserves to produce cricket of even greater beauty and results which would take some beating to improve upon. The Lord’s test showed sparks of what was in store before petering out into a draw. But a rejuvenated England came back strongly at Edgbaston and controlled play almost throughout the test. Only a spirited fight back by the Aussie tail created a cliffhanger out of a test which had England written all over it. The English superiority continued at Old Trafford too. But what the Australian batting frontline could not do was achieved by Warne and company in the first innings and captain Ponting with the spirited help of the same tail. It was this spirit which snatched the match away from the eager hands of Vaughan. He tried all the tricks at his command and he had many. But the indomitable spirit did not allow him to succeed. They were determined not to lose.

England is on a high, no doubt. It never had it so good in an Ashes series in the last two decades. Their batting has done exceptionally well against the strong Aussie bowling. The only bowler they have not been able to handle satisfactorily is Shane Warne. McGrath who did exceedingly well in the first test, was a shadow of himself at Manchester, after the injury. English fast bowling proved that they have the firepower to dismiss the Australians twice in five days, the first requisite in a test match. That they could just manage it at Lord’s and just failed to do so in the last test shows that their rivals are just down but not out.

Australians are never out. They will get back into the game if an iota of doubt creeps into the minds of the opposition. Or they would create that doubt. Look at the last day’s play of the third test. Australia was primarily trying to save the test. But never on England’s terms. They left more balls that usual, blocked a few more, but the scorer never was threatened with unemployment. He was kept busy by the Aussies who simply refused to surrender. Remember, they scored about 350 runs on a fifth day’s pitch which showed signs of treachery. And when the most patriotic would have given his right hand for an honorable draw! But look at the way the Aussie tail responded to the vagaries of the pitch! Warne got a snorter from Harmison. He just wiggled out of harm’s way, just. Then came a Yorker length ball and Warne simply put his front foot forward and went the ball like a bullet to the square cover ropes!
Though the dominant theme of Australian batting was saving the test, I suspect they never had thrown the hopes of a victory out of the window. They fondly, if perhaps with a childlike sense of security, nursed the dream of pulling the chestnuts out of fire first and counter attacking when they thought the door was ajar ever so slightly. And never for once was a spell which told you they had thrown in the towel. They never did even when all pundits were thinking in terms of wickets to fall and number of overs. Whenever they recovered from the fall of a wicket-they seldom allowed two wickets to fall quickly- they upped the tempo without appearing to do so. On two occasions when Ponting had Clarke and Warne for company, there were hints of a third possibility. That is cricket all about. Great skills and grit making anything possible.

England is certainly more balanced than Australia. And the man who makes all the difference is Flintoff. He gives Vaughan the comfort of batting deep up to number seven without sacrificing the rare advantage of deploying five frontline bowlers. Which is a privilege that very few captains get. What an advantage it is to have a player who throws the ball away after ripping the batting apart and puts on the pads to hammer a quick fifty to put his team ahead and to give it extra time to run through the opposition a second time!

So the odds are slightly in England’s favor. All that they have to do is to keep up the level of intensity. But even after three tests and even under the threat of being labeled a Kangaroo-fan, I feel the series is not yet over. Two more tests and we may be in for some more unexpected twists and turns.

After a none-too-happy tour of Sri Lanka, the Indian cricket team for the Zimbabwe tour has been recast marginally. In a previous post, I had pointed to India's almost non-existent bench strength.
So all that a selection committee can do is a little jiggling. And after a couple of hours' of jiggling, they have decided to drop Lakshman, Zaheer, Balaji and Kumble from the ODI squad. Ajit Agarkar
comes back and Rudra Prasad Singh of UP gets the nod. So Ganguly and Sehwag may open, followed by Dravid, Yuvraj, Kaif, Dhoni and either Raina or Rao. Irfan Pathan, Nehra, Agarkar and RP Singh will use the new ball. Harbhajan and Murali Karthik are the spinners. Look at the team. Do you think this team is in any way more effective than the last one? If they can bat, bowl and field well, better results await them. That was the case with the last team also. They lacked consistency in batting, sharpness in bowling and commitment in fielding. This team just because it does not have Lakshman or Kumble in it is not expected to do these things better. So let us ignore these cosmetic changes and wait for the changes Chappell is trying to implement. They may take some time. All we can do is to wait for them. But if the present lot does things in style, be happy.
All the dropped players, Lakshman,Kumble, Balaji and Zaheer along with Gautham Gambhir come back into the test squad. And not surprisingly Dinesh Karthik walks in replacing Dhoni who did not impress with his keeping. Dhoni was like another Dravid. A good bat with mediocre keeping skills. Since Dhoni was selected as a keeper who can bat, his keeping errors were more glaring. Karthik, a good keeper and a steady batsman deserves the selection. Murali Karthik,
R.P. Singh, Raina, Rao and Agarkar go out.
On the seaming tracks in Zimbabwe, India is likely to play three pacemen and Harbhajan. So the absence of Kumble may not be felt there. But in the tri-series, India might find the going difficult
against the strong New Zealand pace and may repeat the Indian Oil Cup performance. Beating Zimbabwe and succumbing to New Zealand.
The return of Sachin Tendulkar is the only exciting thing in this tour. If he passes the fitness test and does well in the test series, then India may show great comfort in snuffing out the feeble
Zimbabwe challenge.

The king is back to claim his throne. After a few tentative weeks of poor form and a disciplinary action, Sourav Ganguly, aided by a lenient decision by the ICC official, got his captaincy back today. He is taking the Indian team to Zimbabwe. But it was by no means an unexpected decision. Ganguly never was a bad captain and he as yet cannot be removed from the hot seat on account of his deficiencies as a leader. Yes, his batting form was causing a lot of concern. Things even got to a stage when people began to question his place in the team as a batsman. His string of poor scores was getting a bit too long for comfort. The break forced on him by the ban perhaps
proved to a blessing in disguise. Though an appeal was made to the I.C.C, none was sure of the final decision. So the selectors appointed Rahul Dravid as the stopgap captain who was expected to hold the fort till Ganguly came back. But Ganguly's batting form must have been a worry to the selectors also. When the ban was reduced to four, Ganguly got the chance to play three matches in Sri Lanka and without doing anything brilliant, he convinced the selectors that he might be getting out of the trough.
The injury against West Indies was also helped his cause. A big innings by him would have made a big-margin win certain for India. That would have earned points for Dravid. But an early dismissal would have pointed to his continuing lack of form. The injury worked as an excuse for his lack of opportunity to score and also worked as a reminder of his skills as a leader. I am in no way casting aspersions on any one. I was trying to say that Ganguly got the lucky breaks which made his reselection easier. Certainly he deserved the breaks. He is a good skipper and hopefully is worth a few more runs also.
India did not win the tri-series not because Dravid did not lead India well. That statement is far from the truth. Most probably India would have lost the final and the other two league matches even if India was being led by Ganguly. We should not look at it as test of captaincy skills. Dravid basically was a stand-in captain and gave back the crown to the regular captain when he came back. Remember, Dravid never replaced Ganguly as the captain. He had donned the garb of the captain on several occasions when Ganguly could not play. This time Ganguly's absence was stretched to a series and since his availablity was certain only for the final, Dravid was asked to take charge for the series. Ganguly's coming back does not mean much in cricketing terms. It is the same old batch with which he has to attempt miracles. And miracles don't come that easily: they have not come easily during Ganguly's sojourn as well. But the present lot in Zimbabwe may not pose much of a problem to the Indian batsmen and bowlers. Especially if India is strengthened by Tendulkar also.
Indian memories are short. A successful tour of Zimbabwe with a few exotic individual performances would definitely make Sri Lanka a distant nightmare, highly forgettable.

A new season, a new coach, great expectations but the same old results. Indian cricket back to square one! Well, was this totally unexpected? India had as its opponents a team almost unbeatable on home turf and another team which though weak comparatively, might do well on its day. The results went according to the script. Sri Lanka demonstrated its superiority over India on its pitches and West Indies showed that it was capable of a fight or two but nothing more.
More than losing yet another final, India has demonstated its inability to rise above its consistency in mediocrity. India, everybody believes, has a strong batting lineup. And lives up to that expectation so rarely that one almost forgets that Indian batting is worldclass. Indian bowling despite having two of the best spinners in business, looks ordinary . The pace attack which recently acquired some respect. has flattened out of late. And pace or spin, India consistently falters against the lower half of the rival batting order. Its fielding despite the coaching camps continues to bring up the tail in international cricket.
And there is another factor which has to seen with some concern. India practically has no bench strength. Can you suggest two or three names to replace the current toppers in the failed list. In either department! So, the immensity of the problem has to be understood in its totality. It is quite legitimate to expect a good showing by one's team regardless of the result. But even that reasonable right also is being denied to us Indians by our national team.
It is quite unrealistic to expect a magical transformation in the fortunes of the team just because it has a new coach, howsoever great he may be. Greg Chappell with all his experience would need some time to work out solutions and implement them effectively. For short and medium term results , he has to work on the available resources at his command. Let the Cricket Academy start producing quality players, the effectiveness of the coach would increase dramatically. Till then, Chappel has to work with 15 or 16 available to him. The only thing he can do is to bring out the best in them consistently. The batsmen have to believe in themselves a little more, a sensible approach to the various stages of batting has to drilled into them. None can blame them for failing against great bowlers in hostile conditions. But let them fail after making the best effort possible.
The same goes for the bowlers also. If quality batsmen score off them, you can't blame them. But the only thing they should ensure is that such scoring is done against balls of good line and length. That is what a bowler can do. Good line and length. If the a batsman overcomes that with his genius, hats off to him. But loose stuff without any clearcut plan in operation is criminal, especially when these men are called professionals and are enabled to make sackfuls of money. A little discipline is what is called for. The players should be given the opportunity( or should be asked) to put in long hours of practice at the end of which they will bowl at the stumps even when pulled out of ther beds.
About our fielding, the less said the better. I am sure great efforts are taken to raise the fielding standards of the Indian team. But possibly because of their low general fitness levels, the enthusiasm wanes quickly and soon singles are given, extra runs are allowed to be created, boundaries are yielded and catches at vital stages of play are dropped. Since most are culprits, there may even be a collective sense of persecution when harsh cries of protest are made by the critics and the public.
Mindset. That is the area which requires immediate attention. That has to change. And that should happen to the present lot itself. It is ridiculous to wait for the factory to churn out better players. A concerted effort has to be made to raise the level of commitment to the cause of better performance. Individual brilliance has been given the pride of place in India for long. Let the victories be a little less thrilling. More of a workmanlike approch with sensible exemptions to style of play, may go a long way in improving the conversion rate.

Now you can imagine the tension and nerves-turning-into-jelly sensation when forced to be glued to a chair watching the rivetting drama unfolding before you at a cricket ground. Those who could not see live the tie tests- Adelaide and Chennai- have certainly gone through an experience which they will not forget so easily, even if lack of patriotic considerations may have conspired to reduce the impact of the sledge-hammer blow on Edgbaston's final day. What a test it was! Cricket always,it seems, is taken to a higher level when the Aussies are involved. Now that England also can claim a place in that one-team league, clashes between these two can mean a lot of fire and brimstone. Both teams have good attacking batsmen and fire-spitting bowling dragons. And fielding is always taken to the next level by the Australians and an extra effort is thrust on their rivals to raise their fielding sharpness too.
Look at this test. It began with an error on the Aussies' part. They gave away an excellent opportunity to make first use of a pitch which on the opening day was playing true. Ponting literally gave the test on a salver to the English. England piled up a match-saving score at a blistering pace, often putting to shame several one-day sagas. Four hundred-plus in less than a day was exhilerating stuff. Australia batted with much less effect and yielded almost a 100-run
lead to England. Which at that time itself looked like a crucial one. But when the men from Down Under began to counterattack, Lee proving to be a handful and then Warne almost running through the middle, it looked like England might have met their match. But Flintoff, that giant of a cricketer, carried the fight into the rival's camp and made it certain that the Aussies had a match
on hand.
And though the stats leaned on England's side, the target looked reachable especially for the starstudded Australian lineup. But the fearsome pace battery of England put the fear of god in the Aussies' minds and for a change made them look mortal. The Australians ducked, hopped and dropped the bat like a hot potato when hit on the hand, a sight one would not have hoped to see these days. Harmison with his in-curving and kicking missiles and Flintoff tossing the bat aside and bowling those wicked extra-bouncing and jagging-in monstrosities made the target look much bigger than it actually was. They were great in tandem, a continuation of the great fast bowling
attacks of the begone eras.
And with Harmisson at the end of a horrid spell, bowling Clarke with a slow beauty and Flintoff firing on all four- a sustained display of scorching pace- it looked all over for the Australians. When Warne came out with Lee on the fourth morning, it looked like early celebratory drinks for the English. But in a show of defiance only the Australians could manage, Warne and Lee knocked off another 47 runs off the target when Warne trod on his wicket. What a way to go at that time! But it was not all over by any means. Kasprowitch, demoted to number eleven only because of better batting prowess shown by his bowling mates, decided to show them what he was capable of doing with the willow. And he and Lee who on several occasions got hit on his hand, elbow and thigh and did not allow the pain to lessen his determination to see his team to glory, almost reached the pinnacle. Just two more runs and they would have played the third tie test in test history! And a run more, it would have been the greatest, most thrilling, historic moment in test history! All was swatted away by a sharp-rising brute of a ball by Harmisson
which glanced off Kasper's glove and ended up in a diving Jones' gloves. The entire country erupted in uncontrollable ecstacy after being forced to endure overs of excruciating agony! But none noticed it until all was over that it was such an anti-climax that this reat match had to come to an end with a erroneous umpiring decision. The hand when hit by the ball was not holding the bat and thus the batsman was not out! What a disappointment it must be for Australia
to lose a test for no mistake of their own?
The 2005 Ashes series is on fire. The next three tests, you just can't wait for them to happen!

When India posted the highest total of the tournament, they never thought they were in for such a scare. In fact no one thaought that these West Indians -minus their only world class batsman, Chanderpaul, were capable of such a powerful batting response. Throwing away the label of being the weaker of the two departments, the batsmen that too without a major name in the list came at India as if possessed and almost reached the goal. While it was a powerful statement of what even weak West Indian teams can do, it also reminds us that Indian bowlers have a habit of becoming the whipping boys of international cricket these days. Anyone, it seems, can walk in and do a death-dance against the Indian bowlers.

There was a minor toss-related issue which also worked against India. The pitch with its initial life made the West Indian quickies look more dangerous than they were. Once it settled down, the pitch played true and began to yield runs to the talented. If Dravid had decided to field first, India may have had a better and confidence-boosting margin of victory. Of cource, hind-sight is always a great tool to have, especially for the armchair critic. But the experience accumulated through the years should have its use.
It was a great recovery by India through Yuvraj and Kaif after India struggled through the first few overs. Once the partenership gathered momentum, nothing but cramps could put a break on the scoring rate. Though there is persisting feeling that India could have added ten or twenty to the score, it was a par score for the pitch. Even when the pitch itself lost its initial spite, the score looked secure enough as none expected the weak West Indian lineup to do so well. And because the Indian bowlers have been doing well throughout this tri-series. But Runako Morton and later Denesh Ramdin showed up the Indian bowling's inadequacies and took their team to the straight, falling short by a whisker.

It was a second test on the nerves in an hour's time to those who were watching the Ashes test also. After the magnificent rearguard action by Warne, Lee and Kasprowitch, one was not ready for the stressful final overs at Premadasa. Cricket has a way of presenting its best at the most unexpected moments. England with great justification looking forward to a brief session to wipe off the Aussie tail and India confidently taking the field against the novices from the Caribian Islands. and see what happens at Edgbaston and Premadasa! This is the real return you get for putting in years of learning the game and trying to develop a sense of finetuning to the nuances of it.

The final is on Tuesday. On form, India does not start as the favourites. The sharpness of the Sri Lankan new ball bowlers and the great resilience of the Lankan lower order cover up any top order misfiring. And India, with problems in both batting and bowling does not look capable of overturning the Sri Lankan aspirations for the Indian Oil Cup. But of cource on its day any team, let alone India, can swipe the floor with its opponents, be them Australia or by today's yardsticks England.

The tournament which was playing second fiddle to the Ashes series has suddenly demanded attention. Even those Indians who occasionally looked over their shoulders to get a cursory
picture of what was happening in Sri Lanka will have to pay a little more attention to the Indian Oil Cup.
All this was made possible by the tremendous, last-gasp effort by the West Indians who upset Sri Lanka with a much improved batting display. Batting was their major problem especially with the absence of Lara, Gayle, Sarwan etc. Yesterday they made a serious effort to put up a total they could defend with a sharp bowling performance. Sri Lanka of cource did not have Attapattu and Vaz in their ranks but that should not in any way lessen the impact of the West Indian victory. This win not only has given them their self-confidence back but also made them a real contender for the second finalist's slot.
Today's match in that sense is virtually a semifinal. The winner goes into the final. India quite unexpectedly has run into a situation it had not bargained for. It has been tinkering with its batting lineup in an effort to come up with an effective combination for the final. Its plans to play all the team members at least in one match may have to yield to the new and unexpected challenge thrown up by the West Indian victory. India simply has to win this match. Playing Kumble or
Yadav or drag-dropping batsmen up or down may have to give way to the selection of the best possible team, a team which has only one job on hand- to beat the Windies.
The idea of playing Kumble and Yadav looks interesting. Kumble could bring into the Indian bowling more variety and accuracy and Yadav can bowl his medium pacers in addition to
contributing to the batting efforts. The West Indians may find the twenty overs by Kumble and Harbhajan a handful. And the Indian pace attack has been doing well in this series which without exception has given some help- Dambulla or Premadasa- to both the merchants of new and old balls.
So another pressure cooker situation. India may come out it winners because it is the stronger side. But much more important than that it has the experience to handle pressure better than its rivals.

This is becoming slightly boring. India forgetting the hard-earned lessons when pitted against Sri Lanka. Look at yesterday's match. India was in a miserable position half-way through its innings, after a comparatively better start. But thanks to Irfan Pathan, India could reach 220 which was by no means a match-winning score. But the hard-workig Indian bowlers converted that into an almost insurmountable target. At 95 for six, it looked like all was over bar the shouting. All they had to do was to bowl no noballs and wides. From that position, India let Sri Lanka get back into the
game and win it comfortably. Let me make one thing clear. I am not the type who is miserly in giving credit where it is due. Tremendous display of determination and innovation. But that should not cloud the main issue as far as India is concerned.
What was that enabled Sri Lanka to wriggle out of the impossible situation, that too without losing any more wickets? We know that Dravid has a problem with the ten overs belonging to the fifth bowler. Well, that is not actually Dravid's problem, that has been India's problem for quite some time. Defending a huge score, India might have got away with Tendulkar, Ganguly, Sehwag, Yuvraj etc. But in a relatively low-scoring match, these part-timers are not tight enough or sharp enough to contain the batsmen. To play or not to play the fifth genuine bowler, has been our dilemma for quite some time. You can't be sure tha Kumble would have won the match for India. But Kumble would not have given away the runs that Sehwag and Ganguly conceded and that alone would have made it much closer. The fifth bowler is likely to make more difference in low scoring matches. In big chases, the fifth bowler often gets away without heavy punishment because of the pressure on the batsmen. The bowler may even end up with a couple of wickets as the batsmen try to choose him for the assault.India has an easy outing against the West Indies next. But for the final ( assuming that India gets into the final), Chappell and Dravid may have to put on a cap of a different colour to chalk out an effective strategy to make use of Kumble.

The second day's play of the tri-series cricket tournament also went according to the screenplay. India, playing the same team but making some changes in its batting order, quite convincingly brushed aside the challenge of the inexperienced West Indians. The toss was even more vital in this match, it seemed. A good toss it was for Dravid to lose. Chanderpaul, knowing the brittle nature of his batting lineup, obviously wanted to bat first whatever be the tricks
of the pitch. And they did bat with disastrous results. I heard Srinath saying that he frankly believed Dravid would have batted first had he won the toss. So from the toss onwards, the match was moving India's way. And at no stage did the West Indians seem to wrest the initiative from their rivals. But for brief spells of resistance by Deonaraine and Chanderpaul and later by Dwayne Smith and Tino Best, it was India all over. Indian bowlers enjoyed the little bit of assistance they got from the pitch and bowled to a plan. The fifth bowler still seems to haunt the Indians and against better opponents India may rue the decision not to play the fifth bowler. I admit it is not an easy decision to make. Though India lost Sehwag very early in the innings, Raina who got the consolation promotion for the brute of a ball he got in the first match, got some runs even though his technique looked trifle loose. He may have to tighten up his stroke selection against better bowling attacks. Dravid as usual took things under control and brought stability to Indian batting. There was a useful partnership with Raina which might have given some confidence to the other batsmen. Later Yuvraj and Dhoni gave good support to the skipper and India romped home with enough to spare. In this match Dhoni came at number six. Yuvraj at five. Kaif came at one drop. And Raina was asked to open. These changes for the second time give the feeling that Chappell has not yet made up his mind about the boys. With Ganguly being available for the next matches, a fresh restructuring is inevitable. If the former skipper goes to the top along with Sehvag, Dhoni, Dravid, Yuvraj, Kaif and one of the newcomers could make the batting order. Dhoni's moving up or down may depend on the opening pair's performance.