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.

Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag making their presence felt, the fragile middle-order has been exposed. While Yuvraj Singh has made a few contributions, skipper M.S. Dhoni, Yusuf Pathan, Gautam Gambhir leave a lot to be desired. An important case in point is the senseless batting display by the Men in blue during the batting display. On more cases than one, the batting powerplay have witnessed some uninspired batting. The very fact that you need to get the ball past the in-field to fetch a boundary has not been worked out. For a team that has done well on the performance aspect in the last few years, Dhoni’s men have been found wanting in the imagination aspect of the game.

While the Indian batters have always wanted to use the longer handle, it is the singles that needs to be taken to rotate the strike, a trait, which I doubt would ever be mastered by Dhoni’s men.

Now, we come to the bowling and fielding assets of the team. Well, the lesser said, the better. The selectors literally spun a surprise by including Piyush Chawla in the final 15. Chawla, who last played for India back in 2008, has looked ordinary and should have been given more chances with the side than picking him up for a tournament of this magnitude.

Barring Zaheer Khan who has been inspirational with the ball, the rest of the cherry-hurlers have looked out of sorts. While Ashish Nehra played one ‘eventful’ match in this tournament, players such Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel has looked good only in patches.

Zaheer needs a special mention here. While he has constantly bowled with venom and head, the lack of support for him at the other end has made India look ordinary with the ball. With Zaheer looking like the only bowler who looks threatening, Dhoni needs to utilise him judiciously.

Indian ground fielding never was high-quality, and, in all probability, will never be one. While players such as Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh are the live-wires in the field, others in the form of Ashish Nehra are embarrassing to say the least. While the Indians may not be great fielding outfit, but showcasing intent and applying themselves on the field could go a long way in helping the team save invaluable runs.

Also, with the crunch game against the West Indies in Chennai coming up on Sunday, India will have to be on their toes if they want to make it to the quarters with a lot of confidence.

Coming to the main question—will this team lift the World Cup? Well, the world is full of miracles and India do have the necessary arsenal to surprise its spectators in both their wins and their losses. Fingers crossed.

Ok, our actors seem to get crazier by the day with cricket. And it all started from a phenomenon called Lagaan and it made Aamir Khan one of the legends of Bollywood. Then his fiercest rival, Shah Rukh Khan took it in his stride and endorsed Pepsi, with the great Sachin Tendulkar which makes him the king of marketing till date. Then there were movies like Victory where a desperate Harman Baweja wants to make himself famous across the world when he hits Brett Lee for a six, even if its reel! I mean why is cricket such a hit amongst our actors, when their profession is filled with glamour and not with action with bat and ball?
Yes, the best possible answer is the emergence of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008. It made cricket marry Bollywood in the best possible way as actors are perhaps in the same class of society as businessmen. Although the beautiful Sharmila Tagore married Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Neena Gupta had a love child with Sir Vivian Richards, it never struck anyone that Bollywood had a connection with cricket.
Coming back to the IPL, Lalit Modi used all his charm to woo Preity Zinta to own a huge stake in Kings XI Punjab. And didn’t Preity oblige well enough? Well, she had a boyfriend already in the name of Ness Wadia with whom she could mix business and pleasure. Perhaps Ms. Zinta is a little old, so thought that a double-date would certainly help her rule the game of cricket. And what better than the dashing playboy of Indian cricket, Yuvraj Singh being her puppet since he was the icon player of the team. Preity called the shots by buying Brett Lee, who she has a crush on as well going by the interviews and photos circulated in the media. She loves cricket and indeed wants to rule it. Maybe she wants to return to Bollywood at the age of 35 because she has the hots to woo any actor since she can woo boring cricketers! Preity, your presence has been a pleasure for all of us to watch and has made Kings XI Punjab such an interesting team to watch because it depends on your mood whether the team will win or lose.
In 2008, the IPL also saw the Royal Challengers Bangalore being created by liquor baron and a known ladies man, Vijay Mallya. Mallya marketed the team well enough by picking up a Test team for a T-20 championship and also flying in US cheerleaders for the opening ceremony. However, Preity Zinta’s presence made him crave for an actress. And the actress who accepted the invitation was the ravishing and beautiful Katrina Kaif. It seemed that Mallya wasn’t happy being accompanied by Katrina everytime she rendered herself available. And the team was getting distracted with her being around as they finished 7th in the first season. So Mallya thought, lets get Deepika Padukone as well. Shes a Bangalore girl, and for certain much more of a sports fan than Katrina which would make Dippy baby available on a regular basis. And here comes in Deepika. Anything in two is always better than one and it worked for Mallya as his team did well in the next two seasons. And whats more, Deepika has been a better investment than Katrina since she has wooed his son, Siddhartha Mallya so much that now they are in a relationship. Deepika certainly rules the franchise since Bangalore gains enough publicity with her personal life always spoken about, and the cricketers can always be entertained with her sensuous looks and desperacy for the younger Mallya, whereas Vijay Mallya can look after Katrina well. And whats more, Deepika and Katrina are pure enemies and cat fights are the perfect entertainment for otherwise boring days for them, where they are just playing and nothing else. I must say, the future of Royal Challengers Bangalore is set to be great as Mallya has two hot actresses by his side and cricket will never be the same again to watch.
2009 saw Shilpa Shetty enter IPL just as her compatriot, Preity Zinta. She bought a 12.5% stake in the Rajasthan Royals with her shorty firang partner, Raj Kundra. And with Shilpa being in full flow, Rajasthan were only going to benefit the most. Shane Warne, the womanizer that he is, would have cashed in this opportunity and perhaps felt that his IPL future is set with her being around, so what if he is 40+? And look, he was retained by Rajasthan for this years IPL too. Yusuf Pathan looked so desperate with Shilpa Shetty watching him as he won the Super Over against his current employers Kolkata Knight Riders in 2009 and also in 2010, scored a 36-ball 100 against Mumbai Indians. Shilpa loves Yusuf for his power-hitting and so Rajasthan wins everytime Yusuf feels like giving back to her the compliments she deserves. Anyways the whole team is filled with young players, who surely are gullible to Shilpa’s beauty and as a result, Rajasthan Royals also matches Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders in making the IPL a global brand due to the glamour quotient present in large numbers.
And lastly, Kolkata Knight Riders has Shah Rukh Khan as their owner, making it by far the most popular team in the IPL just as Manchester United in the EPL. However, Shah Rukh seems to have taken all attention since his team has failed in all the three seasons. He actually is the ruler of cricket since he calls the shots on the players and is involved in decisions such as making Baz or Brendon McCullum the captain of the team in the 11th hr in South Africa or making Sourav Ganguly a mere puppet in the hands of John Buchanan, the former coach.
Bollywood certainly loves cricket as there is drama, action, comedy, romance which is present in movies too. And ofcourse money and power too, which superstars crave for.

Okay, so the wait is finally over. The Indian team for the Asia Cup has been announced. A first glance at the squad gives one the impression of a mixed bag. There has been extreme pressure on the selectors ever since the T20 debacle, soon followed by the recent disaster in Zimbabwe. And so, the medley of the team for the tournament in Sri Lanka is quite clearly a reflection of how things have transpired in the recent past. Even so, one can’t quite comprehend the logic behind the 15-member squad picked.

Without doubt, a lot of print and online space in the media will be dedicated to the exclusion of the under-fire Yuvraj Singh – some supporting the axe, and a few others denouncing it. We too will discuss about the southpaw’s case. But, does anyone have the courage to question Sachin Tendulkar’s decision to rest himself?

Unquestionably, he is among the greats in the game. However, it is correct for a player to request himself not to be considered, even if he is the legend himself. A couple of seasons ago, when MS Dhoni decided to opt out of the Indian Test team touring Sri Lanka, the India skipper received a mouthful from former players and the media alike, an uproar which only got stronger after India lost the series to Ajantha Mendis, and one which fell silent post India’s 4-1 one-day series win under the same man.

You can bet the same uncomfortable questions can’t be asked of Tendulkar. But, by doing so aren’t we making him bigger than the game?

Of course, it can be argued that the Mumbai batsman is doing this keeping the 2011 World Cup in mind. And, there is no question that Tendulkar has anything but noble intentions. The problem, though, is that every time he walks in and walks out, it upsets the balance of the side.

It is no secret in world cricket that he likes to bat at the top of the order. However, during the period that he was away from limited-overs cricket, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag have forged a scintillating pair at the top. But, every time Tendulkar has come back, he has separated the Delhi duo.

And, while the man himself has been performing exceptionally well, India have been lucky that Gambhir and Sehwag haven’t suffered exaggeratedly. But, for how long? After all, this isn’t the first time in the last two years that Sachin has opted out of a series, and going by the precedent the selectors have set, it won’t be the last one either.

Moving on to the ‘hot’ topic of Yuvraj, it is least surprising that he has been shown the door, considering his recent non-performances. The motivation that took the lanky left-hander to such great heights till as recently as last season is, without doubt, missing.

Being so, Yuvraj should consider this as a blessing in disguise. Probably, the selectors could have done him a favour by announcing publicly that he has been rested. After all, like the other members of the team, he too has been part of some non-stop cricket action. Just because his extra-curricular activities are on the forefront, it doesn’t mean that his contribution to Indian cricket should be undermined.

So what if the selectors didn’t do it, Yuvraj can himself look at it in a positive manner and believe he has been given a much-needed break. At the same time, he must utilize the opportunity to get back to prime form and fitness. This is not the first that he is facing a roadblock.

The last occasion when he was dropped, more than five years ago, he came back with a vengeance, and took world cricket by storm. True, he had age on his side them. But, even now he is only 28, a stage at which most players hit their peak. And so, he still has ample time to make a mark and reclaim his spot prior to next year’s World Cup.

As a parting thought, it is sad that Yusuf Pathan has been made a scapegoat once again. He rarely got opportunities to score, batting down the order in Zimbabwe, and in the one game that he was promoted, he came up with a decent effort. And, keeping this yardstick in mind, one wonders how Ravindra Jadeja has managed to retain in place in the team.

Also, why is IPL being considered a short-cut to the ODI team? What made selectors pick Saurabh Tiwary even after watching how other stars of the league, Ashok Dinda (surprisingly retained) and Umesh Yadav, struggled even against minnows Zimbabwe?

The team has been announced. Now, for the rapid-fire round.

In 20-20 cricket, the value of keeping wickets in hand is often underestimated. However, it is equally important to ensure that you don’t leave too much to be done at the fag end of the innings. Finding the proper balance is most important.

While the Kolkata Knight Riders managed to succeed in the first aspect, they failed miserably in the second and, as a result, handed the under pressure Rajasthan Royals their first win in the tournament at the Motera stadium in Ahmedabad. Chasing Rajasthan’s challenging 168 for 7 on one of the slowest pitches in the tournament, the Knight Riders could muster only 134 for the loss of five wickets.

The Royals, for the first time in this IPL, looked at ease as the pitch offered enough for their spinners. Skipper Shane Warne was smart enough to sense the occasion and open the bowling with Yusuf Pathan. And the all-rounder, who failed with the bat, responded immediately.

He sent back opener Manoj Tiwary with a quickish one, which Tiwary failed to read and was clean bowled. Brad Hodge and Cheteshwar Pujara then strung together a useful partnership. However, the Royals ensured that they remained in the hunt by not allowing either of the batsmen to run away with the game. Warne also played his part by keeping the runs down from his end though he could not pick up any wickets. And the tactics paid rich dividends.

As the pressure and required run-rate mounted, Pujara was taken out for 29 by pacer Siddharth Trivedi and the aggressive Pathan returned to knock out Hodge, bowling him through the gate as the batsman tried to break free from the shackles imposed. Hodge contributed 36 from 34, but in the context of the game, it was a poor effort.

He fell at the start of the 15th over, by which time the Knight Riders had scored only 95 and had a tall mountain to climb despite having wickets in hand.

Also, it did not help that the ball wasn’t coming on to the bat towards the later part of the match. Sourav Ganguly struggled like to time the ball at all as Munaf Patel and Shaun Tait finished off things very well for the Royals, bowling some accurate Yorker length deliveries.

Ganguly’s ordeal ended in the final over when he was dismissed for 33 by Patel. But, the match was over long before. Owais Shah hit a couple of mighty sixes, but in between those two strokes, he also found the going tough. The Royals took a cue from the battering they received against Bangalore and bowled some good short deliveries as well.

With the bat too they put in an improved performance. Abhishek Jhunjhunwala led the way with a composed 45, but Adam Voges quickfire, unbeaten 37 from 22 balls, 17 of which came in the last over from Ishant Sharma was equally crucial. In between too, the Royals batted sensibly.

After losing Michael Lumb early, Naman Ojha and Faiz Fazal too turns to go after the attack. Thus, the runs kept coming despite the loss of wickets. This approach saw them garner a fighting total pf 168, which was enough to earn them their first points as Kolkata mistimed their chase.

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.