Cricket Tournaments

‘And a tremendous win by West Indies over India.’ We used to hear about this news quite frequently during the 1980s and 90s. Defeating West Indies in their own den is even more difficult, with their fast bowlers who were harrowing the batsmen for almost 2 decades. But their performances have just been dropping since then.

Once hailed as the dominant team, nowadays aren’t even close to being one. India taking their apparent ‘A’ team, says it all. India’s series against West Indies was basically a chance for youngsters to prove themselves and a chance for India to test their bench-strength. But with West Indies struggling big time and hardly able to get their combinations right, India had a good chance to set it straight up for them. After winning 3 matches convincingly, India was already out there to prove what they have in store for the world. But the winning combination was changed in order to give everyone an equal chance, but the chance to whitewash West Indies was lost and over. Losing the last 2 ODIs, the sight wasn’t great.

HIGHS

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Amit Mishra have been the highs of this series. Rohit Sharma pioneered Indian innings and helped India India win in a couple of matches. Averaging 128 and scoring around 257 runs in the 5 matches he played, he obviously has acknowledged many greats who have predicted him to be a future great for India. Kohli, another person who has been scoring consistently for India has had a pretty good series, but is capable of much more. Scoring 199 runs in 5 matches, he couldn’t score at all in a couple of matches as he lost out on capitalizing in the games. Parthiv Patel also gave us some solid starts in the games, and is trying to capitalize into the 2nc choice wicket-keeper place in the squad.

Among the bowlers, Amit Mishra was tremendous. Aggressive, he has always been looking for wickets. Picking up 11 wickets in the series with an exceptional economy rate of just 4, he has an awesome future to look at. Along with Harbhajan Singh, a defensive off-spinner, this leg-spinner can have a phenomenal partnership in the spin-bowling department. Munaf Patel has carried his form since the World Cup and looked good here again, picking up 8 wickets in the 3 matches he played.

LOWS

Suresh Raina was an utter disappointment. Playing rash shots, he was certainly over-burdened by the captaincy.  Making him a captain was a bad decision anyway, since he doesn’t have much experience anyways. Virat Kohli, who had the experience and certainly a good captain, could have been given the opportunity. Even Harbhajan Singh, a senior player could have had the chance to be what he ever wanted to be. Scoring just 82 runs, he certainly didn’t play to his capabilities. Even Shikhar Dhawan, lost out on a golden chance to prove his worth scoring as low as 69 runs, which included a fifty. Inconsistent performances are going to hurt. Manoj Tiwary, though didn’t get enough opportunities at the moment, but he certainly couldn’t get in through how many ever opportunities he was given.

Harbhajan Singh, being the senior-most player in the squad with his experience should have inspired the youngsters. Instead he himself wasn’t playing to his capabilities. Picking up 4 wickets in the 3 matches he played, his economy rate was good, and shows his defensiveness and the tendency to not look for the wickets. Even, Praveen Kumar was in the same league though his economy rate wasn’t as good as Bhajji’s. Even Ashwin couldn’t capitalize on the opportunities given to him. Actually he quite failed picking up just a wicket in the 2 matches he played.

WORSE

The biggest disappointment of the tour being, Subramanium Badrinath. Hailed as a great player, ignored by selectors all the time scored just 40 runs in the 4 matches he played.  Scoring well in the IPL, he lost the opportunity he was waiting for. Then why perform in the league games, if you don’t want to perform at the big stage? Nerves! Playing at the big stage is always a challenge and he needs to cope up with it. Dhoni brings out the best in him, and possibly his run tally could have been a lot better if he would have been around. Yusuf Pathan also couldn’t live up to his reputation of being a pinch-hitter and a clean striker of the ball. Poor selection of shots, he had a good opportunity to retain his place in the last ODI. When India actually needed him in the last ODI where wickets were consistently falling, he got a good start but fell for 30. Again losing out big time.

Ishant Sharma, who had a great opportunity to regain his lost glory again disappointed. Hailed as the one to put off fire in India’s fast bowling department when he actually made Ricky Ponting hop around in his crease he certainly has lost all the confidence in himself. He has to work on himself, indeed very hard.

It was a dream, but the dream just remained a dream. A whitewash and what would have been the frolic in the country. History would have been made, and how!  A golden opportunity, lost big time for the players as well as for the history to be made. Hopefully, they will create more opportunities for themselves in the near future.

Virendra Sehwag

The controversy over the ‘denied century’ notwithstanding, Virender Sehwag batted with extreme maturity to lead India to victory in the crucial tri-series game against Sri Lanka. True, India weren’t chasing a massive target by any means. Still, the conditions weren’t the easiest for the batsmen under the lights. Most of the top order struggled to cope with the moving deliveries. As such, a repeat of the disastrous batting effort against New Zealand seemed a possible danger. This is where Sehwag came to India’s rescue, and how.

Often in the past, the swashbuckling opener has hit India out of trouble. And while he was totally restraint here either — never expect him to be – there were sure signs of a batsman, who was willing to hold himself back, even be it ever so slightly for the team’s cause.

On this day, Sehwag was prepared to wait for the loose balls instead of trying to invent strokes, which has often been his bane in the shorter format of the game. It was a masterly knock that not only ensured that India stayed alive in the series, but also saw to it that they were very much on par with the other two teams, courtesy the bonus point gained. If only Sehwag can continue to adopt a similar approach in the coming one-day games, one is sure his success rate would only be that much greater.

If Sehwag was the undisputed hero with the bat, there were plenty of them with the ball for India. Praveen Kumar swung the game India’s way early on with a lethal exhibition of bowling under overcast conditions. His performance at the top was critical in guaranteeing that India did not feel the pinch of another lost toss by MS Dhoni.

More importantly for India, the other bowlers stuck to their guns as well and did not allow the Lankans to get away, unlike in the game against the Kiwis, where the opposition recovered brilliantly to post a challenging total and then dump India out of the match with a cunning bowling effort.

Ashish Nehra, whose fitness was a concern, used his experience under such situations to proper effect, backing up Kumar were well. And thankfully for India, Ishant Sharma too raised his game and struck some crucial blows. Following the early strikes, it was imperative for the spinners to carry on the good work. And both Pragyan Ojha as well as Ravindra Jadeja responded to the task on hand.

All in all, it was a well-rounded bowling effort for India, something which should please Dhoni no end. Having said that, it still remains to be seen whether they can be as effective under less helpful conditions. This is all the more imperative in case of the spinners, who have looked listless at times in the recent past.

A couple of other areas India will want to work on would be their batting order, which still doesn’t wear a settled look. Dinesh Karthik put in a match-winning effort in the Asia Cup final. But he hasn’t been up to the mark before and after that.

In the absence of Gautam Gambhir, India need him to make the transition to a consistent performer at the earliest. Also, while both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma remain in the scheme of things for India, one of them needs to be identified as India’s next middle-order lynchpin pretty soon, in case Yuvraj Singh’s woes don’t end.

The Sehwag-enabled win has definitely given India something positive, from where they can build on. For that though, the rest need to chip in as well.

India’s uncomplicated win against Bangladesh wasn’t surprising in any sense. However, it must have been a relief nonetheless following the recent disappointments in Zimbabwe and also the fact that Bangladesh have troubled the Indians quite a lot in recent times.

Even on Wednesday, the Indians began as if they were the underdogs and it was some senseless batting from the Bangladesh batsmen as well as a better bowling performance towards the second half of the innings that allowed India to get back into the game. Once that happened, there were literally unstoppable. Then too, there was some scope for improvement as India closed out the game.

The bowling performance at the start was especially appalling. Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar sprayed the ball all over the place and had no answer to the early onslaught by the Bangladesh openers. In a sense it was understandable since the former was returning from a break, while the latter hadn’t had the best time in Zimbabwe.

Still, the Indians cannot afford to be lax against the stronger Asian opponents. And so, it was good to see the duo coming back well in the second spell and regaining some respectability in their bowling. It is of utmost importance for them to carry on the good work into Saturday’s crucial encounter against Pakistan.

The Indians put up a much better show with the willow in hand, though one has to say they could have avoided a couple of hiccups. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma fell in quick succession, which put India in a spot of bother.

Chasing a mediocre total they would have preferred to canter home. And while they did manage to get through with a bonus point eventually, it was only because the Bangladesh batsmen had kicked themselves in the foot earlier in the day.

Shifting to the positives, there were a decent number of them for India to cheer about. As aforementioned, the bowlers came back very well after the initial outburst by the Bangladeshis.

Even here, there was a surprise package. It was batting wizard Virender Sehwag, returning from injury, who spun a web around the Bangladesh lower order. Tossing the ball and inviting the batsmen to go for the strokes, Sehwag was successful in defeating four batsmen in the air as he ended with career-best figures. While the return wasn’t surprising as he also boasts of a five-for in Test cricket, it was a proper test for Sehwag’s shoulder, and he seemed to pass fit.

When the Indians went into bat, there weren’t under too much pressure. But it still need one decent partnership to see them through. And while Sehwag couldn’t match his heroics with the ball, Delhi mate Gautam Gambhir ensured he left his stamp on the game. After the initially edginess, self-confessedly the T20 effect, Gambhir settled down nicely to lead India’s victory charge.

Despite the meagre total, it wasn’t the easiest pitch of bat on as the game progressed and, as witnessed in the opening game, the lights weren’t the best either. Under the circumstances, the southpaw’s knock was a highly valuable one. He paced his innings according to the needs of the situation, and was thus instrumental in India getting home.

In the form of skipper MS Dhoni, Gambhir once again found a steady influence. And even after he was dismissed, the Indian captain kept steady head and earned India the crucial bonus point.

This victory notwithstanding, things will be on even keel when India take on Pakistan over the weekend after what seems like ages, following the political conflict in the latter nation. For now though, they would be pleased just to have overcome Bangladesh, who were influential in embarrassingly knocking India out of the 2007 World Cup.

When India embarked on the Zimbabwean sojourn with a new look side, it was clear that their aim was to test out the bench strength in the team. And, while the opening game against Zimbabwe turned out to be a disaster, Rohit Sharma’s well-compiled century did stand out as a glimmer of hope amidst the ruins for the Indian side.

And, after tasting defeat against the minnows, his match-winning ton against Sri Lanka was equally impressive. Though there were moments of impetuousness, Rohit did well to ride his luck and come up trumps. The fact that his preceding ton was in a losing cause made this innings all the more special.

There was never been any doubt with regards to his talent. However, he has often been unfair to his promise over the last couple of years. True, he has a right to feel that he has been let down by the selectors on occasions.

Despite this, one has to believe that he has been given enough opportunities in the past to prove his mettle. One constant criticism of him has been his inability of cross the 20s and 30s. In this context, the consecutive tons in the tournament should make him a lot more confident of crossing the ‘cameo’ barrier in the future.

Rohit can take inspiration from the youngster who was at the other end during their match-winning partnership – Virat Kohli. Till not too long ago, Kohli was also consistently falling after getting starts and looking well-set.

However, once he registered his maiden ODI ton last year, there has been no looking back for him. Kohli has been consistently notching up significant scores. His latest effort, in partnership with Rohit, was proof of his ever-improving maturity.

Even when Rohit was getting impetuous, Kohli remained calm and gave India a Dravid-like assurance, if one can take the liberty to say so.

To put things into perspective, Rohit’s centuries have come against two relatively weak attacks. And so, he needs to remain consistent against the serious teams as well in the times to come. Still the amount of time he has spent on the crease should only do him plenty of good.

But, amidst the accolades Rohit shouldn’t forget that there is one department in which he needs to make a remarkable improvement, and nothing less. That is the fitness aspect of his game.

He has put on too many extra kilos in the recent months and looks worse than a retired cricketer. Rohit needs to understand that the days of Arjuna Ranatunga and David Boom are long over. With so much one-day and T20 cricket being played these days, a team cannot afford a liability in the form of an overweight cricketer.

After all, fielding has become an equally important aspect of the game now, on par with batting and bowling. By no means is one expecting Rohit to turn into a Suresh Raina, however he cannot expect to remain a certainty in the team unless he works on the one aspect often underestimated in Indian cricket.

India have often had to pay the price for their lethargic fielding, so it is somewhat surprising that they still aren’t working on it diligently.

If Rohit is able to overcome these couple of shortcomings that exist in his game and remains mentally strong, there is little to stop his from achieving greater heights in international cricket.

A scintillating, unbeaten 93 by Mahela Jayawardene was overpowered by an equally brilliant 68 not out by Rohit Sharma as the Deccan Chargers chased down a tough target of 175 set by the Kings XI Punjab at the scenic setting in Dharmasala. Rohit and T Suman joined forces after their team got off to a rapid start, at 54 for 2 in seventh over.

And, by the time, Piyush Chawla managed to have Suman caught behind for 43 (from 31 balls), the score had progressed to 120 in the 14th over. There were some anxious moments for Deccan after Suman’s dismissal. But, Rohit batted with great maturity to see his side through.

The beauty of the partnership between Suman and Rohit was that they attacked from the word go and never let the bowlers get on top of them. Both batted with supreme confidence, which came courtesy their successes in the recent games. They were especially severe on the seamers, lofting them with ease.

Neither among Vikramjeet Malik, Irfan Pathan or Shalabh Srivastava could make any kind of an impression. Pathan did strike early, getting the big scalp of the struggling opposition skipper Adam Gilchrist. Unfortunately for Punjab, he was the man to let Deccan off the hook when things got tight towards the end. Rohit took a liking to him, driving him with ease on the off-side and plucking twos and also lofting him for a magnificent six to level the score.

Suman, on the other hand, struck to his tried and tested formula of his inside out strokes and succeeded yet again. In all, he hit three fours and three sixes, supporting Deccan perfectly as they went about approaching the target in an aggressive manner. Kumar Sangakkara tried to distract the duo by constantly chopping and changing the bowling. But, it did not work as both the batsmen looked well-settled at the crease.

Eventually, it needed one from Chawla that turned away to end Suman’s resistance. Soon, Juan Theron cleaned up Andrew Symonds for 4 with one that kept low. But, Sharma ensured that there were no more hiccups. A couple of lusty blows by 18-year-old Mitchell Marsh helped as they registered a five-wicket win and kept their hopes of progressing to the semis very much alive.

Sharma’s genius undid some splendid work by Jayawardene earlier in the day. The former Sri Lankan skipper was in his elements once again after Gilchrist won the toss and inserted the opposition in. Punjab got off to the worst possible start as Shaun Marsh edged a superb outswinger from Ryan Harris first ball. However, that only brought a fired up Sangakkara to the crease.

Taking on RP Singh and Marsh, Sangakkara got Punjab into a position of strength. He did not slog but struck to his natural game, timing the ball to perfection. Thanks to his blistering half-century, Punjab raced to 87 in the 12th over, before indiscretion got the better of him, a predetermined reverse sweep was lapped up by Pragyan Ojha.

Following the skipper’s dismissal, Jayawardene’s bat fell silent and Yuvraj Singh’s lack of form did not help either. But, once Jayawardene broke the shackles dispatching Marsh to the fence, there was no looking back. He punched five consecutive fours off RP Singh to lift Punjab to 174 for 3. At the break, it seemed a competitive score. And, but for Rohit’s blaze, it could have been a match-winning one.

There are plenty of lessons for India to learn from the debacle at Nagpur, none bigger than the fact that they shouldn’t pick unfit players in the side no matter how big a player is. As we all saw, there was talk that VVS Laxman could be drafted in at the last moment if fit.

However, it wasn’t to be and, as sheer bad luck would have it, stand by Rohit Sharma also twisted his ankle, moments before the game. It didn’t cost India the Test, but must have surely dented their psyche severely, as they had no option but to pick Wriddhiman Saha as the seventh batsman. India’s plans completely went for a toss and their performance in the Test reflected it.

Except for the initial half an hour, when Zaheer Khan struck two deadly blows, the Indian bowling look completely insipid. Nothing should be taken away from Hashim Amla, who batted brilliantly as well as Jacques Kallis, who proved that there is still enough fire in his belly to fight tough battles. However, there are no two ways about it that India could and should have definitely done better.

The bowling has been a worry for quite a while now for India and the signs are hardly encouraging. Zaheer Khan is the only quality bowler around, and he too is approaching the dangerous mid-30s. Ishant Sharma may have done well against Bangladesh, but against a quality opponent like South Africa, he was back to his insipid worst. The change in action hasn’t made an inch of difference. Ishant has to do some real soul-searching.

There was a time in Indian cricket was spinners used to run through the best of opponents at home. But, since the retirement of Anil Kumble things have definitely changed, and how. Everyone now seems tired of pointing out that Harbhajan Singh is not the same bowler he was in 2001. He has lost the zip and nip that made him such a force to reckon with.

One can of course give him the benefit of doubt saying, he bowled on the first two days of the Test when the pitch was at its best. However, the fact of the matter remains that such performances have become far too common for comfort from India’s point of view. Unfortunately, he is still the best spinner we have on offer. Speaking of Amit Mishra, he had an impressive debut against Australia, but has done precious little since. The leggie needs to prove sooner rather than later that it wasn’t a one-off.

Despite the disastrous batting performance, one would do well not to read too much into it. Gautam Gambhir’s failure was long overdue. Virender Sehwag could not carry on to make a big hundred and Sachin Tendulkar’s ton wasn’t enough. Also, one cannot replace legends like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman overnight. The duo has led the Indian fight back on innumerable occasions and was sorely missed. Even so the youngsters need to be given some time to settle down into the scheme of things.

Amidst all the calamitous happenings, there were a few positives. Debutants S Badrinath and Saha did show some spunk, which augurs well for the future. Murali Vijay looked good, but yet again fell in his nervous 30s. At the end of the day, India may have lost embarrassingly, but it wasn’t a bad result considering the long-term targets of the team, as they unwittingly got a peek into the future.

Now, Indians fans have something to smile and cheer about after India’s disastrous consecutive defeats in ICC T20 World Super 8. 26, June at Sabina Park in 50 overs ODI, India defeated Indies in most exciting and close match. Yuvraj with 131 innings coming off 102 balls outstandingly batted and became significant factor to India for anticipated victory. India batting line up after a long time supported each other well enough and they aggregated gigantic score of 339 runs off 6 wickets. 340 runs target was huge nevertheless as speculated Indies fired back with bat but that fire came late and they were not able to hold wickets. Consequently they all got out and succumbed to achieve the target by just 20 runs still 11 bowls spared.

Indian batting lineup has always been most powerful; each Indian batsman has on and off made bowlers sweat and frown over their own ability. On 26 June, at Jamaica again we saw Indian batsmen joshing and bashing Indies bowlers. Gautam Gambhir (13), Rohit Sharma (4) and Ravindra Jadeja (0) left the ground scoring inexpensively. Beside that Dinesh Karthik (67), Yuvraj Singh (131), MS Dhoni (41), not out Yusuf Pathan (40) and not out Harbhajan Singh (21) rampaged the pitch and not a single corner left where ball didn’t transgressed the boundary. Indian batsmen were unstoppable and Indies bowlers each trick seemed nothing but desperate plea. Yuvraj was everywhere in the scream of crowd and commentators, simply marvelous innings we saw coming from Yuvraj charismatic batting leading India to mammoth score of 339 runs off 6 wickets in 50 overs.

West Indies bowling was at its worst, each player economy reaching above 6 runs per over. Jerome Taylor, Lionel Baker and David Bernard took 1-1 wicket and Dwayne Bravo took 2 wickets. West Indies Bowlers gave batsmen ample space take shoots and every trick of in swing or off-spin was worthless in front of Yuvraj and Dinesh.

Indies got huge pressuring 340 runs target, yet it was difficult to achieve but it was never impossible for Indies. Indies got good start by Chris Gayle (37) and Runako Morton (42) and middle order played above average; Sarwan (45) and Chanderpaul (63) snatched the chance for Indies but the wickets kept falling not single batsmen after them sustained on pitch to lead Indies. Eventually when victory seemed near they all got out at 319 in 48th over by Indian bowlers.

Return of Nehra in team gave the boost to the Indian bowling. Indian bowlers fared well, RP Singh, Ishant and Harbhajan took 1-1 wickets; and Ashish Nehra and Yusuf Pathan took 3-3 wickets. Though bowlers were not able to confine Indies batsmen but still Nehra, Pathan and other bowlers didn’t let batmen sustain on pitch.

Match concluded with the close win of India and man of the match to Yuvraj Singh. Contrarily Yuvraj poked sting like a bee, as Gayle predicted for Indies.