Back to Winning Ways

My last post on 14^th August pointed out reasons for India’s loss in England, so if a cricket fan is there to point out the mistakes of his team and criticize their performance then it’s the duty of a fan to also appreciate good performance and bring out the good points

First of all congratulations to Team India on the winning series, although the captain cool MS Dhoni is saying that this is not a payback series or a revenge series but as a cricket lover this series was a matter of lost pride. A loss here would have really created doubts on the commitment of the team and especially the loss would have come after the champion’s league which would have again given a chance to people to criticize IPL and CL T-20. This series loss would have also affected the morale of Team India. Although I feel people are actually not appreciating this performance of the team, as they feel it’s because of home conditions that India is winning, but then consider that even England had home advantage. It’s like when you are expected to win a series your performance isn’t appreciated but if you lose such a series then people are ready to cut heads off and abuse players so I feel team should be given its due credit and the performance should be appreciated. It’s like when you win against a weak team like Zimbabwe then it’s no big deal but when you lose against them then it’s bad, why not appreciate each and every win. A win is a win and will always be a win. And winning is a habit which is good to cultivate. And I feel India’s performance in the ODI series in England was good, weather played a spoil sport in all the 5 ODI’s, and it was always to the advantage of the host team.  

So now to the points where I feel India have done well in this series.

1) Fielding and Catching: Team India’s fielding and catching in this series has been outstanding. I can hardly recollect Indians misfielding or dropping a catch. It’s the most important aspect in ODI Cricket specially, and if you look back at India in England we were lacking behind in this aspect. A old saying catches win you matches still holds a lot of truth, and I can’t recollect team fielding so well in recent past.

2) Selection: Selection in this series has been good. Unfit players are not been drafted in the team, out of form players have been dropped irrespective of their seniority. Dropping of Harbhajan singh gives out the message to other seniors as well that no one can take his place in the team for granted and it’s the performance that gets you in the team and it’s the performance which helps you cement your place in the team. This would benefit India in long term. Although I feel Harbhajan singh will be back for the West Indies tests. I feel the problem with Harbhajan is the lack of patience, so I feel he should play only longer version of the game for some time to get that flight and guile back. So I feel he should stop playing limited over game for some time and concentrate only on 4 day Ranji cricket and Test cricket. Longer version of the game will help him get his guile and flight back. Selecting Umesh Yadav and then selecting Varun Aaron will also benefit the team in times to come and giving Rahane/Parthiv pair a longer duration to settle is also a good sign for the team.

3) Initiative: The Indian batsmen in the series have not thrown away the initiative. If a batsman has got into rhythm then he has made sure that he will finish the match. Be it Dhoni in the 1^st match while setting the score or Gambhir and Kohli in 2^nd match and in 3^rd match after good innings played by Rahane and Gambhir, Dhoni sealed the match for India.  Raina played beautifully to set up the match for Kohli to end the match convincingly in 4^th odi at Mumbai. So batsmen who have got in have tried to finish the game off on their own. Especially Kohli has learnt a lesson and rectified his mistake of throwing away a good start after 1^st match where he threw away a good start; he rectified his mistake by remaining not out in 2^nd and 4^th match and finishing the game off in style for India. Indian batsmen failed to grab the initiative and didn’t convert the good start to a big score during England series especially during tests.

4) Margin of Wins: The margin of wins especially in the 1^st two ODI’s have actually affected the English morale and has given confidence to team India and their morale is high after such big wins in 1^st two odi’s. The high confidence level can be seen even while chasing 300 in 3^rd odi at Mohali the team didn’t  succumb to pressure and after losing 3 early wickets in 4^th odi the batsmen who followed were attacking from the start specially Suresh Raina. This is what confidence does to a team it’s like virus that spreads quickly and to everyone in the team.

5) Team effort: This series win has been due to complete team effort it’s not that only one player is playing well and rest of the team isn’t contributing. Everyone has performed well at some given point, be it Raina and Dhoni will the bat in 1^st odi or Kohli and Gambhir in the 2^nd or Rahane in the 3^rd and Kohli/ Raina combination doing the duty in 4^th odi. Even the performances of bowlers have been outstanding. They have done well to bundle out England for low scores. Jadeja, Ashiwn, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav and new boy Varun Aaron have bowled well throughout the series. For me Ashwin is the most exciting bowler in world cricket today, he looks like he will pick up a wicket every ball he bowls. He is someone like Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka who looks of taking a wicket every ball.

This series would help India unearth a few younger players which would serve Indian team for the times to come. This series is followed by the 3 Test’s and 5 ODI’s against West Indies which should again allow the selectors to give chance to younger talent. Wish to see Varun Aaron in longer version of the game against the West Indies; with his pace and ability to get the ball reverse he would be a handful against the touring West Indians. I feel Ajinkya Rahane, Varun Aaron, R Ashwin, Manoj Tiwary and Abhinav Mukund should be given a chance in test team.

England has also helped the Indian team by not selecting the right set of players. Not selecting Ian Bell in any of the matches is shocking. Ian Bell is one of the few players in English side that plays spin well and he was in good form against India during the tests but still was not selected to play. In fact England team is having the same problems that team India had during the England tour.

India didn’t select right set of players during tests and odi’s and England have done blunders in their selection

India struggled with their bowling and England has been no different. I feel where England have suffered the most is the form and performance of Gramm Swann  he was their trump which has not worked for them and their batsmen have thrown away good starts, haven’t made a huge score.

So in the end it’s nice to see India back to winning ways, be it at home. A Win is a Win and will always be a Win. It’s so much relaxing to see India back to winning ways.

Some Reasons for Defeat in England.

Some reasons that I have shortlisted for India’s defeat

1)Selection: The selection of the playing XI has been a bit tricky, India have not picked horses for courses...Selecting Raina ahead of Yuvi in 1^st test was baffling and more so baffling by picking raina for 3rs test, after a poor 2^nd test Raina should have been replaced. Virat Kohli could have been given chance and he would also have added more value by his medium pace bowling which would have come handy in English conditions and we have been missing a handy 4^th medium pace(slow) bowler.Picking Mishra for 3^rd test was more surprising, the wicket was very green; on the 1^st day of the test it was difficult to find a difference between the wicket and the outfield. India should have gone with all 4 pace attack.  Picking Mishra confused me no end because England had 4 left handed batsmen in top 7, hitting with the spin made their life easy.

2) Initiatives: India have failed to grab the initiatives, they made chances but was not able to convert it into something big. India were able to land light punches on England but was not able to give the killer blow on England which was very important. Chances were made like in 2^nd test India had England on the mat but still they made a strong come back through broad and swann, which in the end resulted in India’s loss. Even the batsmen have failed to make an impact someone like Gautam Gambhir made a very good 38 in 3^rd test but failed to make a big one, some like Abhinav Mukund failed to convert a good start to match winning innings. This is where England have made a big impact, there have been 2 double centuries and 3 100s so far in 3 test matches.

3) Patience: Indian batsmen have not been patient enough to fight it out in the middle. Players like Abhinav Mukund and Raina have given away their wicket too early. They should learn something from players like Kevin Pietersen, Rahul Dravid, and Ali Cook. KP was struggling for form before India series and even during the 1^st test where he scored an unbeaten 200, he was struggling for the first 100 runs but he didn’t throw it away, in fact made a fight back against the India. Even Ali Cook had a very poor series till the 3^rd test but he made a grand comeback with a double in 3^rd test. The impact of the comeback innings shows your real character, it isn’t easy to come back fighting all odds. Someone like Raina is always seen committing same mistake, he should certainly take Cook as an example of how to make the comeback when going gets tough.

4) Runs: I just feel India have not been able to rotate the strike that often easily; they have kind of stuck at one end. Rotating strike regularly disturbs the line and length of the bowlers which India have failed to do it and neither have they taken the attack on English bowlers. Whenever Indian has taken attack on the English bowlers their line and length have been wayward. In 3^rd test when MS took an attack on them in both the innings they were found wanting and they were clueless. Indian batsmen have been stuck at same end for long time which leads to pressure, which in turn leads to a wicket. Blaming on the bowlers would be very wrong as batsmen have failed to put up a score on the board. If India would have been able to make a big score in 1^st innings, there would have been spring in the stride of bowlers, you would have seen more catching and attacking positions, the bowlers and the captain would have enjoyed the luxury of runs, more pressure would have been created on England batsmen, and more importantly the wicket/pitch would have detoriated which would have benefited the Indian bowlers and spinners specially, India have bowled on fresh wickets which have made batting a bit easy for their batsmen. India has failed to score a 300 in this series so far.

5) Margin of defeats: The margins of defeats in 1^st two tests and the way India have lost in this series that is having a huge effect, and coming back from such defeats is never easy. The morale in the dressing must be very low after such huge defeats especially when you are the number 1 team in tests. There was only one man who could have raised the morale of the team, but that man himself has not been able to score a big one. Sachin Tendulkar is the only man who could have raised the morale of the team very easily by scoring a big one, if Sachin was able to score a big 100 then that would have given some thing for the team to cheer about, not only it would have made India make a big total but also made all other players feel happy and good about something. We have had almost nothing to cheer about in this series, other than a few handful performances, we have been poor in this series.

6) Lower Middle order batsmen of England have made a huge impact in this series, someone like Broad, Bresnan, Swann and Prior have added more runs that the top order of India. England have also made comebacks from poor positions, when a team makes a comeback from loosing or poor position it actually raises the morale of the team no end. England would have loved the way Swann and Broad made a comeback in 1^st Innings of 2^nd test; it would have given them a lot of confidence. Whereas Indian lower middle order like Bhajji, MS have not been able to make a  big contribution.

The morale of the team has gone from bad to worse and there has been dropping shoulders too early in the match.

Reasons like No Practice Games, not going to WI, injury to Zaheer Khan and other players actually don’t hold any truth because If you take the reason of Not enough warm up games but then after playing 2 tests and 2 warm up games what has India done in 3^rd test, playing 2 test matches and 2 warm up games actually didn’t improve our performance. Reason like not going to WI, we need to consider that WI team was a 2^nd string team, and players who went there like MS, Raina have also failed to make an impact in this series. Injury is part and parcel of the game, what happened to Zak was unfortunate it could have happened to anyone at any time you can’t blame excess or lack of cricket to it and since we were the number one team in tests how could we just hope on one bowler to take all the wickets. Even someone like England have faced injuries in this series Tremlett was injured and was replaced by Bresnan who has performed brilliantly with both bat and ball, even their best bat Trott got injured but then Bell has taken his place with utmost responsibility. So players who replace the injured players should be good enough to fill that void in the team to benefit the team.

To end I would say this series have been disappointing but still as a cricket lover winning and losing is part and parcel of the game, sometimes we lose and most often we win. We should stand by the team rather than being critical of the performance. We have been number one for around 20 months which has been a good journey and let’s hope we would reach there once again very soon.

We should accept that England has played well in this series and they deserve to be number 1 but let’s see how long they be number 1.

Once Most Feared Tour.

West Indian tour was the most feared tour at one point of time both for the Indian Cricketers and the Indian spectators at home both having different reasons of course.  Indian batsmen feared the West Indian tall and quick bowlers who would bowl bouncers at will and make them hop like a hot potato in hand, the wickets also didn’t give any relief to the Indian batsmen, the wickets had bounce and pace which Indian batsmen used to hate and was not comfortable, only a few Indian batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar were little comfortable in the Island country in 1997 tour and Indian spectators feared this tour for the time difference, A 1 month long West Indian tour means 1 month of sleepless nights. Till the tour of 1997 the Indian batsmen were never comfortable to tour the Island country. Till late 1990s India were found this tour to be one of the most difficult tours.

Over the next 1 month India are back to the Island country where they do not have a very good record. India have played 42 test matches over 9 full series in WI starting from 1952-53 and last being in 2006, they have lost 18 test matches and won just 4 tests and out of 9 series India have won 2 series (1970-71 and 2006) and lost 7 series and out of the 4 test match wins 2 have come in the last decade (2001 and 2006) and 1 each came in series of 1970 and 1975 series. But things have changed now and only a few previous fears are still alive to come back and haunt India. Over the period of time since the 1970s where West Indies was the most feared team and was arguably the best ever team, the standard of their cricket has gone down considerably. The current team is nowhere close to the team of 1970s-80s and early 1990s. There are various reasons for the downfall of the West Indian team over the years. Few of the reasons being:

1)      The standard of cricket set up by the formers greats are so high that it is difficult to match up with talent wise.

2)      The retirement of all the former greats happened at the same time.

3)      The pitches have lost their venom, the bounce and pace they had once is nowhere to be seen and on the contrary they have changed into the spin friendly pitches which helps teams like India and is not helpful for the home team as they don’t have any world class spinners to take wickets and don’t have world class batsmen against quality spin to score runs.

4)      The backup talent after the retirements is not good.

5)      One more important reason I think is the relationship between the Cricket Board and the players. The frequent fights between the board and players leads to too much of chopping and changing in the team which leads to unbalance team.

6)      Not having proper talent management programmes. They should find talent and then do everything to nurture the talent this would benefit them in years to come.

Once their entire team was full of match winners, but now they even struggle to have one who can lift them. Now the West Indies is like a home away from home for the Indian team. The once scene of Charlie Griffith breaking the skull of Nari Contractor with his venomous bouncer in 1961-62 series is nowhere to be seen now, that scenes is been replaced by the slow and low pitches where the ball does not bounce over the knee height. West Indies was considered to a grave yard for debutant batsmen but when Virat Kohli would take guard in test matches making his debut it won’t be the same for him he has been brought up on pitches like this and bowling he would be facing won’t be that fearsome.

The West Indian cricket has one way to go that is UP, they are facing the number 1 team in test cricket, they have nothing to lose. On the contrary they should look at the Indian team for inspiration; they could look at the Indian batsmen and hunger for runs of players like VVS. Rahul Dravid and Virendar Sehwag over the years, a few tips and experience of such players would hold them in good future. West Indian quick bowlers should look up to Zaheer Khan for his experience and try to pick his brains on fast bowling and bowling on dead, slow and low pitches. They bowlers can also look up to Harbhajan Singh for his advice. They can even learn from the younger players of Team India, players like Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, and Gautam Gambhir. I feel West Indies team should use this Indian tour as a learning experience for them. The Indian team have some legends in their side and have loads of experience which should help the West Indies team and their youngsters.   It’s the way they take this series either they can take the beating from the Champion team hands down or stand up and learn from the experience of the champion team. This Indian team has transformed from an average team to a champion team, so their entire experience would benefit the West Indian team of years to come. I think more than the cricketing skills they should try to learn and try to pick up the things which work between the ears or try to learn the mind games and how they can have a strong mind and determination. The best team of West Indies were very good with their cricketing skills but was very strong mentally which the current team lacks.

Although the West Indies tour is not so feared any more for the Indian Cricketers but it continues to be feared tour for the spectators in India, as there would be many a sleepless nights for the next 1month. Let us all hope we once again get to see the West Indies team of the 70s and 80s but as an Indian would not want that to happen against the Indian Team.

What will get you the Team India Cap?

Less than a month is left for Indian tour of the Caribbean. It’s going to be a lot of Cricket for the Indian team in months to come. Right after the IPL Indian team flies to West Indies for 1 T-20 Match, 5ODI’s and 3 Test Matches and from there the flight takes off to England for 4 tests, 2 T-20 matches and 5 ODI’s, this is surely going to get hectic for Team India. But BCCI should be given credit for their correct and systematic planning for the tour. Where India after long IPL start WI tour with T-20 match followed by 5 ODI’s and then 3 Test matches and then England tour starts with Test Matches and then followed by T-20s and ODI’s. So there is complete planning which would benefit Team India on their Tour as they can get into one mould of the game. The selection committee led by Kris Srikkanth is scheduled to meet on Friday along with captain MS and coach Fletcher to decide on the team that will play T-20 and ODI’s in WI.

There are stories going around that many Indian players have asked for rest after a long World Cup and longer IPL. Players like MS Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Virendar Sehwag are surely not getting into that plane to WI for initial part of the tour. Whereas Gautam Gambhir is looked upon to lead the side having World Cup winning members like Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Munaf Patel and Harbhajan Singh. So this actually gives chance to many young players to make a mark at International level. This would be the ideal chance for youngsters to get into the Team as it’s going to be difficult to break into the full strength Indian team after the WC win.

So this starts the biggest ever debate of whom should be selected and who should be dropped. Everyone has their view on this, as already a lot of debate is happening and has happened on this topic. So let me fuel this debate a little further by giving my side of the debate. Rather than on who should be selected I would like to discuss what should be the criteria for selection in Team India.

Should only IPL be the criteria for the selection or only Ranji cricket should be the criteria.

I am of an opinion that the neither should be the sole criteria for Team India cap. IPL is part of Indian domestic circuit just like other tournaments like Ranji Super League, Ranji Trophy Plate, Deodhar Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Challenger Trophy, Irani Cup, Syed Musthaq Ali Trophy, BCCI Corporate Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy. The performance over the entire season should be made the bench mark for Team India cap rather than just performance of one tournament should be used as criteria for selection. Our domestic tournament has good mix of four day matches, One Day matches and T-20 Matches so it gives an ample opportunity for a player to prove his worth and helps him to prove his case for the prestigious Team India Cap. If IPL is considered a yardstick for Team India Cap  then consistency over the entire IPL should be considered rather than one, two, three or four good performances in IPL 

Someone like Rahul Sharma has been performing very well for his IPL side PWI but if you see his performance over the entire season it isn’t much inspiring similarly someone like Subramanium Badrinath, Manoj Tiwary and Ambati Rayadu who have performed well in the entire season, they have performed well in all the domestic tournaments for their respective teams.

A player should be consistent over a period of time rather than just for one tournament. Even International Cricket works on consistency rather than one tournament success For E.g.: A team winning one tournament does not make them the number one team in international cricket, to be number one, a team needs to consistently play well like Team India won the World Cup 2011 does not make them the number one team because may be some other team has been more consistent than them and similarly like Team India is number one in tests it’s not  that they have been ranked number one after one series they have consistently won matches around the globe to deserve that place of number one team in tests. Even the individual rankings work the same way, certainly playing well in one tournament gives you points but overall performance along the year is of much more importance. I somehow feel BCCI should start with local rankings, ranking players according to their performance over the period that will help to have a better view of the performance of local talent. I haven’t used much statistics to put forth my point because it would have made it long, and longer the post it’s considered to be boring.

IPL has also proved one thing or rather have proved many people wrong, people across the globe feel the shorter the version of the game more exciting it is, but the number of one sided matches in IPL proves even the shortest version of the game can be boring. I have found 2 reasons for the one sided matches in IPL may be I will use my next post to give my view on  why we are having so many one sided matches in IPL 2011.

Glance at Cricket World.

It’s been 34 days since India were crowned the world champions. But I somehow don’t remember M.S.Dhoni lifting the trophy and on the contrary I can easily recollect Kapil Dev lifting the trophy in 1983 on that historic Lords ground. One reason for this I feel is too much off cricket. Even the cricketers along with the fans would agree that there was not enough time to enjoy the World Cup Triumph. The gap between the World Cup Final and 1^st match of IPL was 5 days, which I feel was a little too less to get out of the Victory Hangover.

IPL IV had a fairytale start, first few matches were very exciting and almost all the initial games went down to the wire. But as the time has gone the popularity and the TRP of IPL IV has fallen down considerably, may be the popularity and TRP would increase in later stages of IPL IV when IPL reaches its business end of the tournament. It’s very surprising people who voiced their opinion and were against about the length of the World Cup and believed number of meaningless matches are very high, but they have not said anything about the lengthy IPL. The main reason for the lack of interest in IPL is because it’s been a lengthy tournament and also the confusing format of IPL IV. It’s already been 47 matches and still we have another 23 matches in league stage and then 4 matches in qualifying stage that makes another 27 matches to go. One thing which has benefited IPL IV unlike previous editions in this IPL no one team has dominated the matches; it’s been the most open IPL out of the 3 previous editions. But teams having inspiring captains have done well as compared to make shift captains or captains who are not that reluctant to captain the side.

One of the reactions of a lengthy and little boring IPL is, many people have started to surf the internet to know when and where is India playing next.

But I feel for Cricket Lovers there is never over dose of it.

It’s been more than 1 month that World Cup is over there has been some news which has taken the Cricket World by surprise.

Duncan Fletchers appointment as Team India Coach, there has been many Ex-Indian Cricketers airing their opinion about his appointment. So I don’t feel it requires any more discussion, and we all should back the decision which is been taken now.

England’s 3 way vote of confidence. ECB has appointed 3 different captains for 3 different versions of the game. Where twice Ashes winning captain Andrew Strauss continues to captain the England test team. Alastair Cook who’s not considered to be a One Day player by the selectors is given the job of captaining the One Day side and the 24 year old Stuart Broad will lead the England Lions in Twenty-20 matches. Two things which has taken me by surprise here is 1^st being why was A. Cook dropped from One Day team and 2^nd being since he is not part of one day team what has he done to be made captain of the side. Baffling to say the least, but it’s a good choice specially the Twenty-20 Captain Broad is a good choice, this man has been hit for 6 Sixes in an over so he knows it can’t get worse that this on the field if things don’t go in his favour.

The problem between WICB and West Indian players continues, it’s a never ending war. I wish they can show such never dying spirit on the field. Pakistan has beaten WI 3-2 in 5 match One Day series.

Australian tour of South Africa later in the year is been shortened because of the Champions League in India. There is plan to fit in 2tests, 2 Twenty-20 matches and 3 ODI’s. So the cash rich league is taking its toll on the number of tests played across the world.

The biggest news of all and heart breaking news for me personally is retirement of Shane Warne from IPL or rather from all forms of cricket after the end of IVth season. This news has certainly come as a shock to many cricket lovers as Warne was playing pretty well and was fit enough to play for some more time to come. But it’s his personal decision as the decision of retiring completely depend on the player as the player is the best judge of his body and fitness levels. I hope Warne continues to be part of the RR in some way or the other as he has been guiding light for many an Indian Local Players. Warne was the person who brought the art of leg spin back to the world cricket and he made it a fashion among many aspiring cricketers. If you recount his performance in his debut test against India at Sydney he was slaughtered by Ravi Shastri, where Warne’s figure read 1/150 off 45 overs, where Ravi made 206, but eventually Ravi was dismissed by Warne caught by Dean Jones. So if you think of his debut test and today if you consider what all he has achieved he certainly has come a long long way. A true champion and who has the ability to make a hero out of nothing. Long Live the Legend.

Mother Land or Money Land.

Mother Land or Money Land

One week into the IPL edition IV has been nothing less than exciting. Some of the matches and some performances have been amazing least to say. The start of IPL IV was a fairy tale start, an amazing 1^st match between CSK and KKR; the match which went down to the wire was the perfect start to the IVth season. IPL needs such matches for people to show interest in it. Many thought that IPL won’t get the viewership after the long WC, but on the contrary the WC win has increased the interest in the game and so the viewership has been high, in fact it is believed that the opening ceremony and the opening match had the best TRP’s compared to the previous 3 editions. All urges well for IPL almost all high profile cricketers playing barring a few Australians and West Indians, some exciting matches and to match with it some amazing performances. 

The previous 3 editions of IPL honestly India as a team haven got any match winning player from IPL, barring Yusuf Pathan no other player have been able to use the IPL platform to make it to the national team successfully. But this time the story seems to be changing, in 1^st week itself we have seen some amazing performances by less known players. Paul Valthaty has been the 1^st to catch eye of every one this IPL by scoring the 1^st century of this IPL edition, a very less known player before the 126 not out against CSK has made him almost an house hold name now after that stupendous innings. The most important thing about that innings for me was that he didn’t give it away after making a 100 he made sure that his team won the match and he stayed there till he guided his team to the 1^st win of IPL IV. The 2^nd performance which took every by surprise was the innings by Bharat Chipli of DC against RCB, this has to one of the very confident innings, he played superbly throughout the innings, again he didn’t give it away in middle he was there till the end of the innings which lead the DC to a good score and which helped them register their first win, Both the performances have lead to a win for their respective teams which is very important. There have been other match winning performances by players like Mohnish Mishra of PWI against KTK his 31 not out was a knockout punch for KTK. 

The performance of a player which makes me very happy is Ambati Rayudu’s performance, it has been nothing less than brilliant so far in this tournament, he has always been a very talented batsmen but just lost his way by getting associated with the rebel league ICL, but he is back since IPL 3 and has been back with a bang. The best part for Rayudu is he has the guiding light given by none other than the legend Sachin Tendulkar. Rayudu’s performance so far is creating a gap between himself and the other talented Mumbai batsmen Rohit Sharma. Other than this amazing performances so far there has been a very brilliant knocks by the old war horses Jacques Kallis with 3consectuive 50s, Sachin Tendulkar who is yet not dismissed in this tournament so far with 1 Century and 1 half century, Gautam Gambhir has been a valuable addition for KKR this year.  We all hope this IPL gives us a brilliant match winning player who can serve the country for long time to come.

Along with some amazing performances this IPL, there has been few controversies also. The 1^st being where the Sri Lankan Cricket Board has called its players to report back by 5^th May so that they can prepare for the England tour. BCCI would do everything to influence their decision. I am somehow of a feeling that national duty should be given preference over the IPL duties, but some players like Kieron Pollard has a different point of view who has refused to be part of West Indies team for Pakistan series at home.  He has chosen money land over mother land which I feel is poor decision by him. National duty should always be given priority over IPL commitment; nevertheless it’s his personal point of view. There are players in this IPL who are not ready to lead their National Team or who have given up National captaincy but are very happy to lead an IPL team. This seems to confuse me no end.

Players like Kumar Sangakkara has given up Sri Lankan captaincy after the world cup loss due to some reasons but then he is very happy to lead the IPL side. I wonder why the reason for quitting national captaincy does not apply when you are leading an IPL side. Players like Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, and Daniel Vettori have all given up their national team’s captaincy but are happy leading an IPL side. On the other hand our very own Virender Sehwag is also not too interested in leading the DD team; he had given away his captaincy to Gautam Gambhir in 3^rd edition. But this season he has been put back to leading the team. If you see the performance of teams who have captains who aren’t that keen on leading the team isn’t very inspiring. Performances of DC,DD,RCB and KTK has not been very exciting so far with one win for each of them and when you compare with a keen captain like Yuvraj Singh, Shane Warne, MS Dhoni you can clearly see the difference. The reason for Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene for quitting national captaincy was they didn’t see them self playing for long, but these reason don’t apply when captaining the IPL side The Sri Lankan players are going to go back to Sri Lanka by 5^th of May, that would mean they won’t captain their respective sides during the most important leg of the tournament so since they won’t be there for the entire tournament why don’t they allow someone else to lead the side, who will be there for the entire tournament. When they leave for national duty then their respective teams would again have to start from scratch, they should actually help the young players to get into the role of a captain with help of their experience. But in IPL all the reasons and problems go for a toss. In first 3 editions we had players who retired from international cricket but continued to play in the IPL; in this edition we even have the umpire doing the same. Rudi Koertzen has retired from International Cricket but is happy umpiring in IPL. I won’t be surprised to see in future if players decide only to play in the IPL.

Nevertheless this IPL has been brilliant so far. We have seen some very exciting matches which have gone down to the wire. Hope to see such more matches in future for the benefit of Cricket and IPL. For me IPL is all about Divided by teams but United by Cricket.

Fairytale Start to IPL IV

What an amazing start to IPL IV.One could not have asked for a better start to IPL IV.It could not have been better than this,the match was in balance till the last over of the match.You could not bet your money on a team to win till last over of the game.After the brilliant inauguration of IPL from KKR owner ShahRukh Khan,this kind of a match was the icing on the cake for IPL IV.
CSK's captain won the toss and elected to bat first,not surprising at all since the pitch at Chennai is a slow turning pitch,during World Cup 2011 the pitch at Chennai was turning square.But the at the toss both the captains were pretty happy as MSD wanted to bat and Gautam Gambhir wanted to bowl,so their wish was fulfilled.The CSK started well their opener Srikkanth Anirudha started well and top scored with a fluent 64 of 55 balls with 6 hits to the boundary and 2 over it,although the other opener Murali Vijay didn't score too much was out int he 1st over of the match.There was very useful contributions from Suresh Raina with 33 off 29 balls(4sx4) and the CSK captain MS Dhoni with 29 from 21 balls (1x6s,1x4s),but CSK innings needed a knock out punch which was given the South African all rounder Albie Morkel making 15 off 9 balls(1x6s,1x4s).
Srikkanth Anirudha's innings was very important, he played well and it was also a quick innings showing he can bat the way his dad did for India.
KKR started well in this match by getting Vijay's wicket in 1st over of the match,but then they lost the plot when Raina and Anirudha gave the innings stability.KKR also dropped couple of catches of Raina and Anirudhas both the time Yusuf Pathan was the culprit.After dismissing Raina KKR came into the match nicely and they did well to restrict CSK to 153 where earlier it was looking like CSK would easily reach a total of 175+.
When KKR's turn with bat came up they started well,but I was surprised to see Bisla and Kallis opening.As KKR opened their bowling with a spinner I.Abdullah CSK went for the orthodox approach opening with 2 pacers.
KKR had the best opener in Gambhir but they didn't opt for him has surprised many a people.KKR batted well specially in the first 8 overs with 64 on board without loss of a wicket.After the ball lost its shine and hardness captain cool was in his favorite zone getting his spinners and create pressure on the batsmen and that pressure worked in favor of MS and the spinners Jakati,Ashwin,Randiv and Raina bowled well and created pressure with each of them taking 1 wicket each.Kallis played well and made a fluent 54 off 42 balls(7x4s) the Kallis innings proved that the Purists have a place in this format,he was the only one who made some thing substantial for KKR.KKR was winning the match till the 15th over but then came the brilliance of Indian Captain Dhoni he ran out Yusuf brilliantly.After the wicket of Kallis who tried to play a cute paddle shot, then the wickets were falling like nine pins,between these wickets there was cameo from Manoj Tiwary who made 27 off 15 balls(1x4s,2x6s) because of Tiwary KKR was in the game till the last over of the match.Gambhir who batted to bat at number 6 was run out by Styris for a single run.
Because of Tiwary's cameo KKR needed 9 runs to win off the last over but some brilliant bowling from Kiwi Tim Southee made sure that CSK won the match by 2 runs.
The difference between both the teams was the Captain,where MS was ready to take the challenge on and promoted himself at number 4 and KKR captain Gambhir shy ed away from the challenge and lost the match.The difference between the captaincy was the experience,where MS has a lot of experience of captaincy and used his experience to good effect where as Gambhir was found wanting and didn't not take the challenge.
There is a saying,"To Win a Match you need to Teach,and when you loose a match you need to learn."
Dhoni wanted to win this match and he lead by example with both bat and gloves and not to forget his cool captaincy and where as Gambhir although lost the match would learn from his mistakes and rectify his mistakes in coming matches.In KKR's defence they got the toughest opening match against the IPL III winners,the only way they would go from here is up and they would only improve.
Since its a long tournament where each team gets minimum of 14 matches in Round Robin stages,every team has a chance of making a comeback in the tournament.
Nevertheless it's an amazing start to the IPL season hope to get some more tight matches as the tournament goes along.
IPL is back although with new set of administrators but with old excitement.

World Cup Triumph

World Cup Triumph

Would like to start by congratulating Team INDIA on their amazing WC win. After the team would like to congratulate the Support Staff of the team and last but not the least Congratulations to the fans. Fans if not more but have worked equally hard to win this Cup. Except a few everyone has been supporting the team in ups and down, more so important when the team is down.

This world cup win has been nothing less than magnificent it’s been a complete team effort thought out this tournament it’s been superb team effort. Everyone has chipped in when it was very important. As in the past all the world cup winning teams start slowly and then they start peaking at the right time. Be in India in 1983 when they lost to West Indies in round robin match and when there were in trouble against minnows Zimbabwe at 17 for 5 before Kapil Dev played captains knock of 175.

In 1987 the World Cup was in Asia and no one gave chance to Australia to win it.

Pakistan didn’t start well in 1992, mid tournament there were 3^rd team from bottom and we all know how the tournament ended for them. In 1996 Sri Lanka was least expected to win the World Cup. In 1999 Australia lost matches in WC unlike their next two triumphs.

So like past winners India was a bit slow to start. Before the tournament started many people thought India would win the tournament but 2 weeks into the tournament everyone would have changed their opinions. India’s performance against Bangladesh especially the bowling was poor, their next game against England which ended in a tie was a shocker specially after scoring 330runs, but after Andrew Strauss’s innings the tie would have made India happy, but I would still feel that Tie against England was a poor result for Team India. Their next two matches against Ireland and Netherlands ended in Indian victory which was expected out of the Team but still the way India won was less than convincing losing half the side while chasing 200 odd runs. But these two games gave us Yuvraj Singh the bowler. His Fiver against Ireland was truly the highlight of the World Cup. Then came along the loss against South Africa, if we consider the start that Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag gave in that match losing that match was a nightmare. But when you also consider that India made only 296 and they lost the match only in the last over so this bowling performance was the best bowling and fielding performance till that time in the tournament.

Then came the match which I think made the real difference and this match got India peaking and it was the best time to peak and so well did them. The match against West Indies was the best game in round robin for Indian bowling. The win did not excite me but the thing that I excited me was the way Team won. Virender Sehwag was sitting out for this game. Unlike other games Sachin Tendulkar was out early in the innings, when he walked while the umpired didn’t give him out.  Then came the Yuvraj the batsmen and he conquered the world with his batting this time scoring a century his maiden century in World Cups. After amazing innings by Yuvraj Singh, India didn’t not end up making up a big score. 268 are what they could manage which was the lowest score by Team India batting first in 1^st stage of this World Cup. But the way the bowlers made a comeback in this match was amazing to see especially after West Indies made a good start with the bat and were going strong when Indian bowlers decided to end the match early. This was the best bowling performance in round robin matches and also the best victory by the team in round robin matches. This is the match where India looked at home and they started to peak from this match. They Started to peak not too early and not too late just at the right time before the knockouts.

Then came the 3 most amazing victories for India in World Cup, one was against the three time world cup winning team Australia and the team which made their dreams shatter in 2003, and then against the arch rivals Pakistan and then came the final victory against the team which washed away India’s dream of winning the world cup in 1996 by defeating them in 1996 World Cup semi finals in Calcutta (now Kolkata). With each game India’s performance got better in Knock Outs. I feel the difference between the Sri Lankan team and the Indian Team this World Cup was the road to the finals. Where Sri Lanka had a much easier route to World Cup finals playing Tired England in Q F's and New Zealand in SF's where as India has more difficult route to Finals playing Australia and Pakistan in Q F's and SF's respectively.

There is a saying "Still Waters do not make Skilled Sailors". So may be since India had come through rough waters they were more ready for the Finals and were more skilled as compared to Sri Lanka on the day.

India’s performances are more commendable because of the pressure they were surrounded with. Be it from Media and the home crowd. World Cup has never been won by the host till date; this shows the amount of pressure home crowd creates on their team. This World Cup win is more so sweet because it came in the host country for the winning team, like 1996 Sri Lanka won the World Cup but then the finals were played in Pakistan. But this Indian Win was in India which makes me applaud this performance more so.

This World Cup win would take Indian Cricket to higher levels. It’s a dream for every player to win the ultimate trophy in cricket. This World Cup would also help the ICC to advertise the 50 over game which was slowly dying because of invention of Twenty-20 cricket. I don’t think ICC needs to worry about the future of 50-Over format any further as the biggest cricket loving nation has won the trophy. This world cup win would also promote the game further especially among people who thought 50-over cricket was boring. The fight of tickets for the final match assures the safe future of One Day cricket. This win would also make kids take up the sport more, as when young kids watch such amazing victories its more so motivating for them to take up the game, so this win would also improve the standard of the game in future. The Master Blaster Sachin has many times said that seeing the team win the World Cup in 1983 when he was just 10 yrs motivated him and it was his dream to win the ultimate trophy. So this win would also help India to produce some more great players in future which would benefit the Indian cricket. So this win would help India reap benefits for many more years to come. It won’t be surprising to see many young kids taking admission in cricket academy this summer vacations. It’s like seeding a mango tree by the grandfather but the benefits that is the mango fruit would be enjoyed by the grand children over the years.

Would like to end up by saying Congratulations once again to everyone and thank you to Team India for making us proud. Cricket is something that unites every Indian. 

Proud to be an Indian.

Last World Cup of "THE STARS"

The World Cup 2011 is about to end.It has been one of the best World Cup's.Before this World Cup there were talks whether there is a future of One Day Cricket because of growing popularity of the "Fata Fat"Cricket the Twenty20 Cricket.But this World Cup has actually put life back to the Dying One Day Cricket.There should be a special thanks to Team England from ICC and from the fans of One Day Cricket.They have been the best advertisers of this game in this World Cup as all their matches have gone down to the wire.They have won the award for the "Most Entertaining Team" this World Cup.
But as this World Cup has helped to increase the popularity of One Day game.This World Cup would also be remembered as the last World Cup of the Stars.This World Cup would see the end of many a Stars.

This would be the last World Cup of many players who have been at best of the ability level.Some stars have announced their retirements before the World Cup began and where as some took the difficult decision during the tournament and where some may have not taken the decision but it would be difficult for them to last for the next 4 years to participate in the most followed cricket tournament.

This World Cup would see an end to the career of the best spinner in any form of cricket Muttiah Muralitharan. It would be shame if the champion wide eyed spinner does not the play the Final.He has been the brand ambassador of Sri Lankan Cricket for a long time and also the lone warrior for them specially in Test Matches.The person who would miss Murali the most would be the Sri Lankan captain,he no more can look round his shoulder to find the champion spinner helping him out of trouble.
Another player who announced his retirement during the tournament was the player better known as the Rawalpindi Express.Shoaib Akhtar he announced his retirement during the tournament after the poor match against the Kiwi's where he was slaughtered by Ross Taylor.But his final match does not show us the way that he has performed in past.He has slaughtered many a batsmen during his prime time.We wont consider as the ideal career as his career was always surrounded by controversies.But still he would be remembered as the fastest bowler the cricket world has seen.
Where some players have announced their retirements,there are some whom we doubt would stay till the next World Cup in 2015 to be played in Australia and New Zealand.
The South African who would feel unlucky in all the World Cups he's been part off.Jacques Kallis one of the best all rounders the cricket world has ever seen. Although his team has been suffering from World Cup Jinx.
There is player who has always raised his game during World Cups,he's been part of 6 World Cup campaigns.The little master from India Sachin Tendulkar although he has not announced his retirement but it is highly unlikely that the master would be part of the tournament to be played in 4 years time.He has always raised his game in world cups and the only trophy missing from his trophy cabinet has been the world cup trophy.But it's about to change in next 24 hours as India are playing the World Cup 2011 final.The hunger of World Cup trophy in the master can be seen as he has always raised his game in the big tournament barring the 2007 where India were out of the tournament in the 1st round.
Wonder how would the cricket world  be without these stars,as these players born once in a generation or a lifetime.
Along with these players there are some more players who wont be part of the Cricket World in future specially they wont be part of the cup that counts the World Cup.
Steve Tikolo from Kenya announced his retirement during the tournament.
Ricky Ponting it will be difficult to see him playing in world cup in his home country.
Mahela Jayawardene,Paul Collingwood,Mike Hussey,Shivnarine Chanderpaul these are the few more players who would find it very difficult to remain part of the respective teams during the next extravaganza in next 4 years.

Cricket world wont be the same without these stars.