Month: April 2005

Ganguly:It appears as though the selectors were in a hurry to get rid of Ganguly. The appeal has not happened as yet and the selectors almost instantly named the new team and captain. Sounds like they were in a hurry to bid Dada “bye-bye”. His decision to come in at number 4 has come in for a lot of criticism. Personally, I think he did the right thing. The spinners were on, and he is very capable of belting the spinners. Unfortunately, he never really tried to force the pace. For this he certainly deserves plenty of criticism.

Dravid: This could be a make or break for his captaincy hopes. If he delivers two victories and some of the younger folks shine, Ganguly’s fate may be sealed for ever from the one day side. He has a lot at stake here. Its also a chance for him to set things right and show his ideas with regard to the ideal team combination. Kumble is back, Dhoni appears to have grabbed number 3 slot, Kaif is a terrible misfit at number 7, Murali bowled well in the last ODI, our opening bowlers suck repeatedly, he has a new deputy in Viru. All in all he has an opportunity to make some interesting decisions. Besides in addition to these two games, he has four more to go before Ganguly is back in the reckoning. In short, there is a lot at the stake for India’s most reliable batsman. Will he scale the wall?

Sachin: Played a superb innings. I only wish he had retired hurt once he was hit by cramps. It was a painful site to see him struggle and bring down the run rate along with Ganguly. This is a pitiful example of a complete lack of strategy on the part of the Indian team management. Either Sachin should have attacked and given Ganguly the time to settle. Or Ganguly should have attacked from the word go and had Sachin rotate the strike. Unfortunately neither of the two scenarios happened, and both perished leaving India with a loss of momentum. But for the super cameo by Yuvraj India would have ended up with a score lot lower.

In the final analysis, India never played as a team. A few super performances and that’s about it. As always we continue to create celebrities out of individuals in the team for their personal performances, while the team as a whole continues to languish as a totally unpredictable bunch.

As for Pak, they are a terrific team, but equally unpredictable, especially when the opposing team is not India.

India put up a spineless response to Pak’s 319. Veeru failed and India collapsed barring a decent show by Pathan with the bat. For an ardent Indian cricket fan, it was disheartening but nevertheless familiar sight of a procession of Indian superstars walking in and out after failing to settle in and dominate the Pak bowling. For the third consecutive time Sachin returned with a single digit score. For all the pressure on Ganguly to perform, Sachin, Yuvraj, Kaif are not far behind.

Dravid was out to a nasty delivery. The rest had no excuses. Dhoni threw his wicket away to a poor shot just when he looked set for a big score. The sad part is that for once the famed middle order got a golden opportunity to build a score because of the early loss of wickets and simply failed to deliver.

Pathan could use a break?After his dismal show with the ball, Pathan had to redeem himself somehow and he certainly managed to do that with the bat. In any case, Pathan’s bowling seems to have completely lost its venom. In a relatively short period he has regressed from being India’s lead strike bowler to a potential weak link in the bowling. In short, I think he could use a long break, a la Zaheer Khan. The break certainly helped Zaheer regain his bowling form at least to a certain extent.

The Wicket: The Jamshedpur wicket was certainly not a bad one, in that it wasn’t a batting paradise like the earlier ODIs. The truth is that the Pak bowlers exploited the pitch while the Indian bowlers simply failed to. It won’t be a stretch to speculate that India would not have put up a big score even if India had batted first.

Changes in the Pak team: Younis Khan was reduced to a mere passenger (he did manage a catch or two) while Danish wasn’t really tested given the way the Indian batting collapsed. The true test is when Viru starts slogging him at the top of the order, just as Pathan did to him at the end.

Thank God, no Agarkar: Dada’s choice of Pathan over Agarkar shows how little confidence he has in him. He clearly prefers an out of form Pathan over Agarkar. Wonder who is behind Agarkar’s selection when the captain has so little faith in him. The next one day might unfortunately see Agarkar in action after Pathan’s poor show with the ball.

Overall a very convincing victory for Pak. The Pak bowlers bowled well and the batsmen had no trouble scoring against the Indian bowling. Hopefully, the next one day will be hard fought and won’t see another “wuzzy” performance from the India superstars.

Pak put up a fine batting display. As often happens, India has the rare ability to bring out of form batsmen from the opposition back to form. In this case, it was Salman Butt’s turn. He played a fluent innings and deserved the century. Pak seemed set for a score higher than the 319 they ended up with. They lost too many wickets at the end to achieve the 350 target.

In any case, I had predicted that India would make 220 in reply. India is now struggling with a pathetic 76-5. I still think it will take a miracle for India to win and we’ll be lucky to cross 200. Pak seem set for a morale boosting win. The psycological impact of this Pak victory here will be huge. India could well find itself in a post third test mind-set. The dependency on Sehwag is similar to India’s dependence on Sachin in the 90s, and is cause for serious concern.

Glad that India won in style. Hats off to Pak for putting up a fight. Dhoni is a great find. I hope Dada will continue to send this guy up the order. Dhoni and Viru at the crease is electrifying cricket. Man, that guy Viru, is like Kapil Dev on steriods.

Razack’s batting was very impressive. He is a master of improvisation and placement. Nehra was completely clueless about where to bowl to this guy. It was not that Nehra was bowling badly. This guy just had an answer for every kind of ball. In my opinion this guy is more dangerous than Afridi. He indulges in sensible hitting and is hard to keep in check.

Btw, can someone tell me what on earth is Agarkar doing in the team for the third one day! What happened to Dada’s pool of young fast bowlers — Bhandari, Munaf Patel, Gagandeep, etc.etc. Anyone can do better than Agarkar. I can’t imagine Agarkar bowling to Afridi is full flow. Agarkar has a strange knack of putting people in a “zone” where their free stroking skills simply come alive! God, I hope he doesn’t play in the third one day! Even an injured Balaji is a safer bet!

India recovered quite a bit in the last few overs, after losing a flurry of wickets, thanks to some lusty blows by Balaji and Zaheer. Pak need a flying start from Afridi if they have to make this score. Veeru went completely berserk right from the start. After the early loss of Sachin, Dhoni joined Veeru and did a super job of keeping up the run rate. After Veeru’s dismissal, as always Dravid played a sensible knock and took the Indian score to a respectable 250+. Then a flood of wickets and finally a cameo from the tailenders helped India to a very good score. Hats of to the Indian team management for promoting Dhoni in the order. If this guy proves to be a good keeper, Dinesh Karthik better watch his place in the test side. His batting was very impressive. And finally we have found someone other than Veeru who can really whack the ball! He is definite asset in the one day side and should be used whenever needed to accelerate the run rate.

Pak need a flying start from Afridi if they have to make this score. A run rate of 7+ can obviously be daunting. Should be an exciting match ahead provided Pak can remain in the chase.