It’s a tricky scenario. You can’t really bet your hard-earned money on one team when the two best Test sides lock horns. But if you simply cannot hold yourself back, the loopholes need to be analysed.

South Africa have more than proved themselves on the international arena with scintillating performances on a consistent basis while Team India is touted as the next big thing in the cricketing fraternity. So if nothing, the two Test series will at least decide the ruler of the ICC rankings, at least for now.

The South African team was initially scheduled to play five ODIs but an interference of the cricketing boards, in a bid to save the fading excitement and grace of Test cricket, saw the itinerary being altered to a couple of Tests followed by three 50-over deciders.

Whether or not the encounter between the two sides will live up to the label of the ‘Majestic Combat’ is to be seen. Now, that is because, both the teams are struggling on various fronts.

If there has ever been a team worthy of replacing the Aussies at the top of the pack, it has been South Africa, hands down. Similar to Roger Federer’s supremacy being challenged by Rafael Nadal time and again, it has been the Proteas that has given the Champion Aussie outfit a run for their money every time the two sides have met on a cricket field, at least in the recent past.

The famous Johannesburg ODI where Australia scored 434 runs only to be chased to death by the so called ‘Chokers’, is an example that supports my above statement very aptly.

Getting back to the loopholes of both the teams, South Africa, the second ranked Test team, have not been in the ‘Test-groove’ in the recent past. They played two Test series against Australia (at home and away), sharing a trophy each. The only other Test series they have played is the one against England that concluded recently. It was drawn 1-1.

Their pace attack comprises of only two big names - Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. The spin department is not worth the time and space in the blog. With India being among the best players of spin bowling, Paul Harris and Johan Botha will have to come up with something Read more…

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INAIA IS NOW the world’s top team in Test cricket. The move to ensure that india plays more Tests is a step in the right direction and can help this format regain its popularity

For cricket’s hardcore devotees, the purists who insist that Test cricket is the real form of the game, September 24, 2007, was no day for celebration.

It was the day Mahendra Singh Dhoni led a team short of full strength — a squad for which top batsmen such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly had made themselves unavailable — to victory in the ICC World Twenty20 in Johannesburg. The game that we knew, relatively gentle, moderately fashionable and acceptably paced, took on another dimension.

It was not as though fans suddenly woke up to the joys of big hitting to the detriment of all else —after all, the subcontinent has been serving up flat decks in one-day internationals (ODIs) for some time now. It was just that India’s administrators, who till then considered Twenty20 cricket a creation of marketing men in England, wholeheartedly adopted the shortest version.

If sociologist Ashish Nandy’s assertion that cricket was “an Indian game accidentally discovered by the British” was a bit of an exaggeration, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) strove to make this a reality with T20s. The hurried establishment of the Indian Premier League ushered in the era where T20 is king.

One-day cricket became popular in India after the country won the World Cup in 1983. T20 got wide acceptance in 2007. Now it is to be seen whether India rising to top position in Test cricket leads to revival in interest in this variety of the game.

When India beat Sri Lanka 2-0 to become the No. 1 Test team in the world, the men counting the coins in the BCCI’s vault discovered there were things that didn’t figure in a balance sheet but they mattered a lot to the game’s stakeholders.

Suddenly, being the best in the world, rather than briefly occupying top spot thanks to a quirk in the rankings system, became the goal. Reaching the top has forced the board to request the visiting South Africans to convert February’s five-ODI series into one comprising two Read more…

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Sri Lanka is ranked number seven in the ICC ODI rankings, and there is not a fan who disagrees with that ranking. We are ranked above West Indies, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland, and Kenya.

If there is a reason why Sanath Jayasuriya has played beyond his 40th birthday, it’s because the 7th ranked team in the ICC ODI rankings needed him.

“All our guys accept the fact that you got to perform to stay in the side,” Kumar Sangakkara told the media when asked about leaving Jayasuriya out.

One then wonders why on earth Mahela Jayawardene is still playing! Sangakkara’s hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Fellow Island cricket blogger, Merlin, pointed out that Sanath has performed better in 2009 than Mahela. Albeit slightly better.

Following is a quote from Merlin’s post,

The only thing that keeps pushing Sanath Jayasuriya out of the Sri Lankan squad is the blatant age discrimination being displayed by both the former skipper Jayawardena and the current skipper Sangakkara.

In 2006, with the inclusion of Tom Moody as coach, Sri Lanka was on a drive to introduce “young blood” in to the squad and drive out the seniors. Jayawardena and Sangakakra both were mislead into thinking this is a progressive move which would set them apart from other Asian teams.

Unfortunately in both Marvan Atapattu’s case and now Jayasuriya’s, it is a case of ageism, also known as age discrimination.

Meanwhile, Trevor Chesterfield has written a hard hitting piece, after Sri Lanka’s dismal performance in the 3rd ODI, which really needs to be given a thorough look at.

Sri Lanka has one of the largest groups - if not the largest group - of support staff Read more…

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In any sport, a coach can make or break a career. In cricket there are numerous examples of the stormy relationships between the players and the coach.

Very rarely do we hear of a team complimenting the coach and when Yuvraj Singh praised coach Gary Kirsten, one had to take into account the fact that it came from a player who was under John Wright and Greg Chappell.

Wright was a low-key coach. He was working on a particular process that was approved by captain Sourav Ganguly. He did that diligently. Chappell though hardly had any experience of handling an international team. He perhaps felt he could pioneer a new process that would revolutionise international cricket management.

To be fair to him, he did say this in his presentation to the committee that appointed him. If three of the key members in the committee — S. Venkatraghvan, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri — didn’t find anything objectionable with what Chappell had projected, the nation felt the right person was picked for the important job.

But no presentation, however impressive it may look, can predict the inter-personal relationship aspect so very crucial to a team game.

Gone are the days when England captain Ray Illingworth could summon main bowler John Snow to his room (before the Ashes series began in 1970) and warn him that he could be sent back if he went on reciting his poems on the field. Snow went on to take 32 wickets that helped England win the Ashes.

Things have changed. Kirsten seems to have done his homework well on ways to handle the Indian team. He has either discussed the handling of the team with his predecessors or analysed the pitfalls that could derail the preparations.

If cricketing and administrative pitfalls are tackled, implementation of techno-administrative plans tend to succeed. Kirsten did that well. Now he is focussing on individual needs.

Trust and acceptability are the two important qualities any successful coach has to Read more…

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Since the Indian team last played a Test match in April this year, they’ve been involved in 16 one-dayers and five T20 internationals. Add to that tally the 59-match Indian Premier League and the inaugural Champions League, and it’s been quite a hectic six months of the game’s shorter versions.

The change of pace at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad is noticeable as it is welcome. In the nets, the batsmen are looking to leave the ball rather than swing at it, the fast bowlers are bending their backs instead of concentrating on ‘bowling in the right areas’, while the three spinners are creating mesmerising arcs in the air, not pinging them in flat and straight. Inevitably though, to cap a week-long celebration of a party that’s lasted two decades, all the focus on the eve of the match is on one man.

Watching Sachin

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir go into bat first, one punching crisply, the other dead-batting deliveries on to his toes. Then it’s Rahul Dravid’s turn, eyes scrunched up to keep the glare of the Ahmedabad sun out (and partly, one suspects, out of habit). VVS Laxman ambles into the adjoining net, languid to the point of lethargy unless of course you’re watching his wrists, working overtime as always. Yuvraj Singh brings out the booming drives, both along the ground and in the air and, as usual, sparks intermittent roars of ‘watchit’. Each of India’s batting top six demand attention, but on this day, everything they do seems incidental.

For Sachin Tendulkar is out there as well; stretching, jogging, laughing, driving, generally working his charm without ever trying. There are more eyes on him than usual, including wife Anjali’s, who makes an appearance that has the television cameras panning uncertainly from left to right and back — to catch a smile from the first lady of Indian cricket or a straight drive off the Read more…

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The final ball of the fifth over during India’s chase in Hyderabad may have had little significance to the eventual outcome of the match, but for the capacity crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, what had transpired before it and what was to follow were from two different worlds.

When Sachin Tendulkar flicked Ben Hilfenhaus through mid-wicket for three runs, he became the first batsman in the history of one-day cricket to reach 17,000 runs. It was the moment that the people of Hyderabad had waited for with fingers crossed, and when it arrived, the celebration was absolutely no-holds-barred.

After all, with India chasing an improbable 351 against a fired-up Aussie outfit, it seemed like the only real hurrah up for grabs as far as the 30,000 spectators at Uppal went. Little did they know that Tendulkar had a special surprise up his sleeve to celebrate the milestone.

Australia, batting first after winning the toss on a good pitch that offered consistent bounce, showed that they were up for the challenge here. Shane Watson was the early aggressor, his 89-ball 93 setting the pace for Australia. Ricky Ponting scored a run-a-ball 45 while Michael Hussey and Cameron White came out all guns blazing. All this time, Shaun Marsh held one end up, starting slowly and opening up towards the end, as his 112 and the late charge took Australia to 350. The last time the two teams met on a pitch with even bounce was during the second one-dayer in Nagpur, and led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India went on to post a mammoth 354 for seven. Ponting & Co had returned the favour.

In Nagpur, Australia’s chase had almost crumbled before it began. In Hyderabad, even as wickets fell at one end, Tendulkar seemed determined to do it alone.

The much talked-about seven runs behind him, Tendulkar broke the shackles and began marshalling India towards their gargantuan task. The boundaries seemed to flow that much easier and his 92nd half-century came off 47 deliveries. The well-set Virender Sehwag had once again failed to convert his start, while Gautam Gambhir, Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh soon Read more…

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India's Saturday triumph against Australia is immensely satisfying. The pitch was tricky. And the top 3 batters failed. But Yuvraj and Dhoni played with composure and intelligence. They showed India can be as clinical and professional in a run chase as the Australians. That felt real good.
 
But, again, let us not go overboard. This is our first XI, minus Zaheer Khan. Almost. But the Aussies were missing at least five top players: Michael Clark, Brad Haddin, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, James Hopes. They still put up a good fight. That only highlights the quality of their bench strength. Having played IPL and Champions League, most Aussies are very familiar with Indian conditions now. We won't have much home advantage against them in the 2011 World Cup.
 
My other observations for the match:
 
1. What a knock by MSD! In times when an international match is played almost every other day, there's no time or space in mind's hard drive to build a cache of memory. But three shots played by Dhoni at Feroze Shah Kotla on Saturday night will endure. All of them came after Yuvraj Singh's masterly innings had ended after a dubious decision.
 
The first one was a fierce straight drive, a trifle uppish in the air. But before bowler Peter Siddle could bring his hands together, it had traveled 20 yards ahead. The burly Aussie was lucky. The red cherry could have broken his hand, an injury Ponting can ill afford right now. The second one was a square drive off Johnson, hit with equally savage ferocity. The third, again off Siddle, was what the commentator described as a punch cut, played off the back-foot past cover. Read more...

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Team India is in good hands because its skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni can be a cool customer even at the worst of times. It seems he didn’t let the defeats in England and South Africa get the better of him.

Only men with an unflappable temperament and skill to match the best can lead India for long. The Nagpur game saw the highest ever total against Australia, a crushing win and an absolute masterclass from Dhoni.

Such feats have cascading effect on the rest, especially if the skipper is involved. These are not good signs for Australia, because it’s not just Dhoni’s knock, a few others also showed what they are capable of.

Ishant Sharma always had the talent. On a pitch that suited his style of bowling he rose to the occasion and bowled with good rhythm and pace. Praveen Kumar looked a different bowler from the one he was in Vadodara, while Suresh Raina also didn’t seem affected by the threat to his position in the starting line-up.

Think of the impact when Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh come into the picture together. In Brett Lee’s absence, I have a feeling that Australia’s bowling will struggle. Nathan Hauritz showed promise but what might disturb Ricky Ponting is the ability of India’s tailenders with the bat.

The Indian spinners are putting the pressure on Aussies too. Harbhajan and the part-timers had nearly half of their overs left in Nagpur. Yuvraj Singh is worth his weight and Read more…

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Overview

With the Champions Trophy out the way, many sides can now switch their focus to building toward the 2011 World Cup.

This series will give Australia and India the perfect opportunity to do just that.

Of course, there’s a trophy and bragging rights at stake so it’s unlikely that there will be too much experimenting for either side.

The hosts’ form in limited-overs competition has been extremely patchy in recent months. They struggled to stamp their authority against the West Indies in the Caribbean, were offered hit-and-miss cricket across the Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka and then flopped in the Champions Trophy in South Africa.

On paper they remain one of the strongest outfits in world cricket and the selectors have one of - if not - the biggest player pool to draw from, but unfortunately they just cannot get the combinations right. Rahul Dravid, Abhishek Nayar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Dinesh Karthik and Yusuf Pathan have all come and gone in recent tournaments.

The constant chopping and changing has not helped the core of the team and captain Mahendra Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma have all had one good game followed by a poor one. It’s about time they each string together a good run of form and with seven matches lined up, they won’t get a better opportunity to do so.

On the up side for India, Virender Sehwag, Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh have all recovered from injury and will strengthen the batting line-up considerably. Bowling-wise, despite Zaheer Khan’s absence through injury, Ashish Nehra, Sharma and Praveen Kumar will be favourites for the fast-bowling slots. Throw in spinners Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra and you’re met Read more…

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The India squad selected on Thursday for the first two ODIs against Australia is balanced but not without anomalies. Spotted a contradiction? You won’t if you are familiar with the way Indian cricket runs.

About the good things first. Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh are back. With a certain Gautam Gambhir in the mix to go with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, that comprises a formidable batting line-up.

Problem is, even taking into consideration the batting abilities of allrounder Ravinder Jadeja, in terms of back-up there is just Virat Kohli. Will that be enough?

And why drop Rahul Dravid after digging him out of nowhere? The BCCI isn’t exactly forthcoming with answers.

Another question is why have five medium-pacers in the XV. By naming Sudeep Tyagi in the squad, the quintet of selectors have unfurled a surprise that might catch the Australians unawares as well.

The other and more significant question is about Ishant Sharma. Last year, when Australia came over for a four-Test series, his presence was a major factor behind India’s success. The same can’t be said now because the 21-year-old has been overused since. Couldn’t he be rested?

Here’s hoping Ishant won’t become the beast of burden from a promising, young bowler, contradicting the concept of preserving the ones of his kind. He has lost pace, everybody knows. Why risk losing more of his other qualities? The poser may have been dealt with but the answer certainly hasn’t been made public.

There is also the curious case of Dravid. His exclusion is probably with an eye on the future. So why was such a retrograde step was taken in the first place.

Why was Dravid chosen for the trips to Sri Lanka and South Africa?

That said and done, this isn’t a bad squad. All those who could have been Read more…

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