Cricket Tournaments

What do you remember when we talk about the 1980s and 1990s in Indian cricket? Indians being the   underdogs cruised to a phenomenal victory over the mighty West Indians to lift the world cup. Emergence of some exceptional cricketers like Amarnath, Kapil Dev, it all happened in 1980s. Gavaskar’s excellent strides against the fast and fierce West Indian bowlers like no-one could ever do! 1990s saw some outstanding cricketers in action, from the likes of Sachin Tendulkar to Rahul Dravid to Anil Kumble to Sourav Ganguly.

But, these excellent years did have something to regret about in Indian cricket. Match-fixing sagas were the most disappointing ones among them. Playing against your own country even after being in the squad is one of the worst things you could ever do. Why would you ever do that? How could your conscience ever let you do that? How could you ever sell your own country? The thought just amuses me.

Indians were extremely confident about playing in India but when it came to pitches abroad they would falter. Basically India didn’t have proper technique to counter the pitches abroad, especially the ones outside the subcontinent.

But life isn’t always about what you need, it’s sometimes about what happens. And as said, everything happens for a reason.  Whatever happened was for a reason, and the reason was pretty awesome. This gave India the need to get in some-one who could actually coach them in a way to play against the teams in their own den.

Its been a decade since the resurgence in Indian cricket started. With John Wright’s inclusion to the team, it was time to adopt dome international standards and techniques. His being a unique style of coaching, it didn’t go down well with the Indian players in the beginning. But his ability to adapt and understand the Indian political situations in cricket well and creating strategies considering the Indian cricketer’s mindsets help made the perfect start for an excellent decade. His partnership with Saurav Ganguly as a captain was outstanding and they together paved the way for many more youngsters.

Their partnership was the reason to why we have such exceptional and mature cricketers like VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virendra Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and many more in our arsenal. He set a base, a foundation for Indian cricket. Some exceptional wins, he led India to the final of the World cup. And the credit has to be given to him. But statistics doesn’t matter as much as they way he has taught Indians how to play cricket in the right manner. Some motivational tips, the team huddle and there you go play cricket in the right way, in the right spirit on the ground. That’s what he taught them the best, apart from coaching them how to play cricket.

But his era was cut short due to loss of form of Saurav Ganguly and other cricketers, including Sachin Tendulkar. Though his tenure ended abruptly, but a job well done! But what matters is that the way he still advises the young boys and feels proud about the Indian cricket.

But what came next, was completely out of imagination. Greg Chappel’s spell with Indian cricket was one of the most horrendous experiences ever to be believed.  A supremely dominating, dictating and tyrannizing coaches I’ve ever seen. I agree these are harsh words, but all he’s done is worse to the Indian cricket.

Removing Ganguly from the team, marking an almost end to his exceptional career he never could have done worse. Ego problems always create bigger problems. I agree Ganguly had to be shown the right way, but not with the harshest solution. It still shows how much hatred he inflicted in the hearts of Indian cricketers, as no-one still has no words for him and as his name comes, they just say ‘Pass on please’.

Though an exceptional cricketer, his tactics never went down well with the Indians, as the way his tactics didn’t go well with the world in his playing days when he was captaining Australia. Asking his brother, Trevor to bowl the ball as if they were playing in a school playground, was one of the most disgraceful moments in the world of cricket. Even his brother, Ian Chappel doesn’t acknowledge it.

As his term was over, Gary Kirsten took his place. One of the most media-shy coaches, he never went in front of the media except when he left. He understood every player’s mentality and the way to deal with them. A cricketing brain, he was exceptional with whatever he did.

With M.S.Dhoni he had forged a partnership which was worth to watch. Winning the World Cup after 28 years, they together with the team got smiles on the millions of Indians all around the world. He was like John Wright in many ways. But where Wright laid the foundation, Kirsten was the man to lead the team forward.

He was a coach, a friend, a supporter everything you needed at that point of time. His coaching style was different and how! After winning the cup, he was carried on the shoulders by the young guns like the way he carried the team during his tenure. Creating a place in the heart of these millions of people is not easy, and he’s done the impossible. He has got himself the respect which he deserves. Cannot be forgotten that soon.

With him leaving the post, his post has been taken over by Duncan Fletcher. Looks like a media-shy person like Gary Kirsten, hopefully he’ll continue from where Gary Kirsten left and very well, indeed.

Chennai Super Kings vs Royal challengers Bangalore

It will be great from India’s point of view that at least one of the IPL teams will make it to the summit clash of the Champions League T20. That might be either the Chennai Super Kings or the Bangalore Royal Challengers, depending on who gets the better of the other in the first semi-final at Durban. Both teams are equally matched and well-balanced, a fact their head-to-head record demonstrates – Bangalore have won four and Chennai three. And so, another tight contest can be expected on the big Friday.

Interestingly, both teams have charted a similar path enroute to get to the last four. It was only a victory in their final league game that got them through. However, the mistakes can’t be repeated now as the tournament heads into the knockout stage. It would be difficult to say who holds the advantage since both Bangalore and Chennai have varied strengths.

While Bangalore have a solid pace attack backed by the experienced hand of their leading spinner and skipper Anil Kumble, Chennai rely heaving on spin, with both R Ashwin and Muralitharan tasting a good amount of success. Even though the Durban pitch is expected to favour the faster men more than the slower bowlers, Ashwin and Murali are good enough to trouble the best, irrespective of the surface. And so, it might all boil down to the batting of the two sides, which boasts of rather impressive names.

There is the rock solid Rahul Dravid at the top of the order along with the rollicking Manish Pandey, who have been giving Bangalore worthy starts. And then, there is Virat Kohli, who has been scintillating down the order, notwithstanding the mixed results. The problem for Bangalore lies in between. Ross Taylor hasn’t lived up to the expectations yet. But, he is experienced enough to come good on the big day. Also, Robin Uthappa and Cameron White will get another chance to enhance their big-hitting reputation. On their day, they can be the most destructive.

If Bangalore’s batting line is imposing, Chennai need now worry. They have their own arms of giants. The experiment of Michael Hussey at the top of the order with Murali Vijay has worked nicely thus far and should continue. Another good opening stand would mean the big hitters like Raina, Dhoni and Anirudha can free their arms from the word go. And if any from the trio gets going, Bangalore’s bowlers, especially the ones short on pace like Vinay Kumar and Praveen Kumar, can be taken to the cleaners.

As if to set up everything evenly, both sides also have a South African injury problem and that too with their chief all-rounder. However, while Jacques Kallis has been ruled out of the tournament with a neck injury, Albie Morkel can still make it to Chennai’s XI provided he has recovered from his illness. In that case, it would be advantage Chennai, since Morkel will give his side better balance as compared to Bangalore.

Having weighed all permutations and combinations, a close contest seems imminent. Over to the teams to live up to the bidding.

Eoin Morgan is Irish-born who currently plays for England. He has this reputation of creating strokes rather than playing text-book shots. And to add to that, his strokes are indeed as powerful as his team-mate Kevin Pietersen’s.

Last year, when he became 23, he shot to fame with two outstanding, match-winning knocks against South Africa. First, he hit a crucial 67 of just 34 balls in the Champions Trophy in September 2009 followed by unbeaten 45-ball 85 in the first of the two Twenty20s of England’s tour of South Africa, two months later.

Morgan looks like a born ‘finisher’ who is apt to be known as England’s Bevan or Michael Hussey. England needed finishers in their ODI team and Morgan’s resurgence has helped end the search for that position.

A solid and sedate left-hand bat, Morgan grew up playing hurling and with his change-up sweeps and pulls, he has clearly taken aspects of the Irish sport into his cricket. He first played for Ireland in the World Cricket League in 2006, averaging 52.20.

In the tournament, he scored his first ODI century, a top-notch 115 from 106 balls against Canada. However, in the 2007 World Cup, it was proved that Morgan was a huge hype. As his team-mates impressed, he underperformed with 91 runs from nine matches.

He joined his countryman, Ed Joyce, at Middlesex in 2006, where he helped them to the Twenty20 Cup in 2008 and caught the eye of the England selectors.

As he has played for England over the last one year or so, his stature has kept increasing which was proved when he was the only England player to play in the IPL 2010. He was signed for $220,000 by Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he joined Kevin Pietersen.

Yet again, he failed to make an impression when it was the most expected and was soon left to sit on the substitutes bench by a no non-sense captain Anil Kumble and coach Ray Jennings.

However, he was back giving it his best for England in the World Twenty20 that followed, as his powerful shot-making and coolness under pressure helped him score 183 runs and England won a global event in the form of the championship for the first time since 35 years.

As Paul Collingwood, the winning captain was rested ahead of the first Test against Bangladesh at Lords, Eoin Morgan got a surprise call-up to the squad of 15, much like Pietersen in 2005 Ashes.

The English selectors certainly had enough faith in him as he had proved his mettle. He has a bright future ahead of him and he might be the next Pietersen, who could put England on the top of the world map in all the three formats of the game in the next five years, at least.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

If ever there was an award for the worst IPL team performance, the Deccan Chargers would have won it hands down. 82 is all they got in the third place play-off against the upbeat Royal Challengers Bangalore at the D.Y. Patil stadium. Okay, this wasn’t the best surface for the batsmen – both the pacers and spinners extracted enough from the pitch to trouble Deccan’s batsmen.

The figures of Praveen Kumar (2/18) and Anil Kumble (4/16) amply reflected this. Still, this was by no stretch of the imagination an 82 all-out pitch, as proved by Anirudh Singh’s fluent 40. Bangalore too had their moments of trouble during the chase, with the ball stopping on the pitch regularly.

What went in their favour though was that they were completely devoid of pressure, owing to the partly total they were after and, in the end, they cruised home by 9 wickets.

Clearly, it was their accurate bowling performance combined with some unreasonable batting by the opposition that won it for Bangalore. Deccan lost their first five batsmen with a mere 35 on the board, and after a steady partnership of 43 between Anirudh Singh and Venugopal Rao, gifted their last five wickets for the addition of just four runs.

Yes, you heard it right. So swift was the collapse that even the Royal Challengers looked rather embarrassed at having done so exceedingly well.

When a team performs so miserably, it is but natural for them to be criticised. And, there will be plenty of it for Deccan for the manner in which they capitulated with the bat. It all went wrong for Adam Gilchrist and co right from the time they won the toss and elected to bat.

The skipper’s miseries in the tournament continued as he failed for one final time – this time a full toss from opposition skipper Kumble found its way into the lone fielder in the deep. While Gilchrist can be considered a tad unlucky, the shot selection from a few others was far from sane.

Monish Mishra was trapped in front for a duck trying to play across the line while Rohit Sharma gave some easy catching practice to mid-on, also without opening his account. The most disappointing of strokes came from the blade of Andrew Symonds.

He had just been dropped in the previous over by Dale Steyn, but instead of making Bangalore pay, he fell to the South African in the very next over, driving a ball that was too close to his body.

The only phase during which Deccan looked in some semblance of control was when Anirudh and Rao combined to add a few important runs. Both had their moments, hitting one six each of the spinners. However, once Jacques Kallis pegged back Anirudh’s off-stump, things took a drastic turn as Kumble joined Kallis in finishing off the innings in a flash.

A word of praise has to be reserved for left-arm spinner Nayan Doshi, who beat the batsmen in the air more than once and ended with impressive figures (1/17).

There really wasn’t much to do when the Challengers went into bat. Still, Rahul Dravid and Kevin Pietersen batted with authority to take their side home after losing Kallis for 19.

Dravid’s five fluently-timed boundaries and Pietersen’s two sixes were enough to kill Deccan’s hopes, if at all they had any. Overall, an utterly disappointing contest. But, for those seeking solace, be grateful this wasn’t the final.