Archive for the ‘Cricket and Sports’ Category
Sushil Wins Bronze
1 Gold, 1 Bronze and another medal on the way makes this the best ever olympics for India. Vijender won his quartefinals bout to assure himself of at least a bronze medal in the middleweight class. This makes it three for India in the 29th edition of the Olympics and is a wonderful feeling for every Indian like myself. India won a gold in Hockey in 1980 and had to wait for 28 years to win another one and this time it is even better as we managed to win two more medals on top of that.
When the Indian Hockey team failed to qualify for the olympics, it seemed like a medal hope was lost. Even though the hockey team never performed great in the previous 6 editions before this after 1980, we always thought that they are our best hope to win a olympic medal. What we have seen in the previous years is that there is someone who always stood up to be counted. Even though not many people thought that Leander would win a medal in tennis singles or Malleswari would win a medal in weightlifting, they did the same against the odds.
This olympics has been a great one for India and I hope that this inspires more athletes for the next edition in 2012. India has always found unlikely heroes in olympics to make the country proud and this time we have three. Kudos to Sushil, Abhinav and Vijender. These three have made all the Indians proud. I hope that Vijender goes on to win gold in Boxing to make this olympics even more special for India.
Abhinav Bindra
Its a proud moment for every Indian as Abhinav Bindra got the first Gold medal for India in 2008 Beijing Olympics. This is the first Gold medal for India since the Hockey team got one in 1980. India have got Bronze and Silver in the last few editions of the Olympics but getting a Gold is a great achievement.
Lets all celebrate this great occasion and hope that this inspires more medals for India in Beijing Olympics. Once again congrats to Abhinav Bindra for winning men’s 10 meters air rifle Gold. He sure has made our country proud.
Harbhajan Celebrates after a wicket
Sehwag’s double hundred and Harbhajan’s late 4 wicket burst kept India in the hunt in the second test at Galle. Srilanka finished on 215/5 still 114 runs behind India’s first innings total of 329. Earlier today Indian were bowled out for 329 after resuming on 214/4 on the second day. Sehwag scored a brilliant double hundred (His fifth) to guide India to a competetive total as the rest of the batting struggled. Only Laxman and Ghambir were able to give some sort of support to Sehwag’s lone hand for the visitors.
When Srilanka started their second innings, they lost Vandort early caught by Rahul Dravid of the bowling on Zaheer in the first over but Sangakkara and Warnapura batted with assurance to help their team to 137/1. The hosts seemed to be cruising with none of the Indian bowlers able to make any impact. After Harbhajan picked up Warnapura for 66 he was completely a different bowler and kind of ran through the middle order leaving them on 192/5 when Dilshan got out. Captain Jayawardane along with the other Jayawardane in the team formed a small unbroken partnership of 23 to lead Srilanka to 215/5 at the end of day2.
India would still be wary of the Srilankan captain as he can turn the game in the home team’s favour. Indians would also be worried with the bowling for of their captain as he was unable to make any impact in this series yet. Indians would be hoping to dismiss Srilanka within 300 and would hope to get a slight advantage in the first innings. The pitch will for sure get more difficult to bat on in the 3rd and fourth innings and both the team would want to have as much lead as possible.
Srilankan Jubilant after defeating India at SSC
Murali and Mendis combination bowled the Indian team out inside two days on a pitch where the home team had piled up 600 runs for the loss of just 6 wickets. The Indians showed no application or patience on a pitch which was not that threatening. Murali and Mendis accounted for 19 of the 20 Indian wickets to fall where as the Indian spinners just managed 2 between them. I would agree to Manjrekar’s comments that Indians are no longer masters of spin which they used to be few years ago.
Mendis had a perfect debut as he captured 8 wickets in the match and Srilanka won by an innings and 239 runs. He was largely helped by the excellent perfromance by the great Murali, who got the ball rolling for the lankans in the first innings. The Indians put themselves under pressure as none of the top 5 converted the starts they got. Sehwag played a reckless hook shot to get himself caught at the square leg boundary to gift his wicket to the home team. It looked like the Indians were still in the Twenty20 mood while at the crease.
VVS laxman tried to save his team from further blushes by getting the score over 200 with the help of the tail in their first innings. Anil kumble will be very dissapointed with this performance as this has become some sort of a habit for the Indian team. The consistancy is something which the team lacks and both the captain and coach would be aware of the same. During the recent test series against the South Africans after matching blow for blow in the first test the team crumbled to a heavy defeat in the second test.
This will really be a hard loss to bounce back from. Srilanka are a very hard team to defeat at home and now with Murali with his tail up the Indians need to do some serious planning to tackle him. The Indians should take heart from the way they bounced back in Australia after a similar performance in Melbourne. Anil Kumble though would realise that things can only get better from here. The coach and captain should work with the players to come up with a plan to deal with the Srilankan spin twins.
Even though all the focus is on Murali and Mendis the Indian think tank should not forget Vaas who might have few surprises up his sleeve for the second test. All in all this is the moment of realization for Kumble’s men and we will know how much this defeat has hurt the team when they take the field at Galle.
Day 2 – Srilankan batsmen dominate
Posted on: July 24, 2008
Mahela Acknowledges the crowd after getting to his hundred
Three hundreds from Srilankan top order put them in comand on the second day of the first test against India. Warnapura, Jayawardane and Samaraweera scored hundreds for the host as the home team piled on 337 runs on the second day. The Indian bowlers were just able to take two wickets on the day when the batsmen dominated. The Srilankan skipper would be pleased with the position his team is in right now.
Srilanka finished on a healthy 422/4 at the end of second day with Tilan Samaraweera still at the crease on 111. The Srilankan team would want to press on the advantage and score around 600 runs before asking India to bat. A score of 600 will give the Srilankan captain to attack the Indians with Murali and Mendis with enough men around the bat. The hosts at the start of the test would have exactly hoped for this senario after first innings with two good spinners in the team
The Indians though would be dissapointed with their efforts on the field as only Ishant and Harbajan managed to get a wicket each. The Indians would be hoping that the pitch stays good for batting in the coming days as they are looking at a huge Srilankan first innings total. India would need all their experiance to counter this situation. The pace at which the lankan batsmen scored their runs also gives them enough time to bowl the Indians out twice.
The second day performance of the home team has made sure that there are only two results possible in this test match. It can either be a Srilankan win or a draw. The Indians would surely be hoping for the latter. yesterday I said that the key to Indian success was removing Mahela early which they were unable to do and the Srilankan captain scored yet another century on his favorite ground to guide his team to a position of strength.
Cricinfo International Scores
Posted on: July 23, 2008
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Ishant celebrating after dismissing Vandort
Srilanka finished on 85/2 on a rain curtailed first day at SSC. The Indian new ball pair of Zaheer and Ishant took one wicket each for their efforts. The pitch was dead and is supposed to help the spinners on the last couple of days and Srilanka would just want to bat once on this track. The Indians will be really happy that one of the two wickets was of Sangakkara considering the form he is in. The days play was too short to determine which team has the upper hand but I would say that the visitors would feel satisfied with their display.
The Indian new ball bowlers bowled impressively on a slow pitch and were rewarded with two wickets. The second days play is very important for both the teams and if India manage to remove Mahela early then Srilanka’s inexperianced middle order will have their task cut out. Removing the Srilankan captain will be really crucial for the visitors as he averages around 80 on this ground.
Hopefully the second days play will take place without any further interruptions. India would like keep chipping away at the wickets and Srilanka would want to put up a huge total. All in all an interesting day ahead.
Everything to play for
Posted on: July 21, 2008
Captain will be hoping for a series win
Indians have already had a pretty hectic 7 months and things are not going to get any better for Kumble’s team. The good thing for India is that the core of the Indian test team has been well rested and will be fresh. The Indian team have played two very tough test series this year and the one against Srilanka is not going to be any different. India has everything to play for and Sachin’s world record will add more flavour to the series.
The Mendis factor also gives this series a definite edge. Even though the seniors have denied that they are worried about the sensational spinner from the island, I am sure that there will be plans discussed to counter him in the test series. The Srilankans though would be confident as they have the definite home advantage. They have a great bowling lineup with Mendis and Murali in the spin department and Vaas leading the pace attack.
Srilanka has not lost to India in a test series at home since the 1993 series. The last time India toured Srilanka they lost 2-1 to the host. The Indian bowling though would be bolstered by the return of Zaheer Khan who had a good warm up game ahead of the series. The rest of the bowling also looks pretty good with Ishant, Munaf, Anil and Harbajan with Ojha completing the lineup. The Indian batting though looks very solid on papers with the seniors returning to the squad.
The Indian batting would again be relying heavily on the middle order comprising of the famous quartet to help them put up decent scores. The opening combination of Sehwag and Ghambir will be expected to carry their one day success to the test arena.
All in all the series looks really interesting as both the teams are evenly matched with lots of experiance on both sides. The series will be watched closely for couple of reasons,
1. To see wthether Sachin breaks the world record
2. To see how the Indians counter Murali-Mendis combination.
We just have to wait and see what happens in couple of days. I am just hoping that the series lives up to the hype. I am going for India winning 2-1.
Absolutely Ridiculous
Posted on: July 17, 2008
Piyush not in test team
Everyone knows BCCI’s stand on ICL contracted players but today they have taken it to a completely different level. The current diktat issued by the BCCI is absolutely ridiculous. BCCI has barred the Indian players from signing with any English counties who have ICL players in them. This is absolute nonsense. BCCI is a cricket governing body of India but they behave as if they are governing world cricket.
BCCI has no rights to say what the ECB should be doing with their domestic tournament. Piyush chawla who is currently not a part of the Indian test squad to Srilanka was supposed to join Hampshire in the current season. Now BCCI has denied Piyush the opportunity as Hampshire has ICL linked players in their team. There are only three counties which dont have any ICL links and they are Middlesex, Somerset and Essex. This means that Laxman who was supposed to join Northamptonshire after the test series would not be able to do so either.
BCCI’s ongoing tussle with Subhash Chandra (Essel Group, Founder of ICL) is causing a major divide in world cricket. Already some good international players have been lost due to this ongoing battle. BCCI has already started their own league successfully and I dont think that ICL is causing any harm to them in terms of revenue. If BCCI open their eyes to the fact that ICL and IPL can coexist then it will be better for world cricket.
I dont understand why other cricketing nations should suffer due to this stand from BCCI. Already Newzealand has lost one of their premier strike bowler Shane Bond and Pakistan has lost players like Azhar Mahmood and Razzak. Playing in county cricket might have given young Piyush with a great opportunity early in his career. BCCI tried to stop the counties from signing up the players from ICL, when they did not adhere to their threats now they are stopping Indians from participating in county cricket.
ECB has nothing to lose if Piyush decides not to join Hampshire. Its sad to see that now Indian cricketers are also suffering due this ridiculous fight between BCCI and the ICL. BCCI have made the point with IPL and have made lots of money and I guess thats where this fight should end. The problem is BCCI has lots of ego and unfourtunately unless the ICC takes some stand on this issue the problem will never end. Being an Indian supporter I just feel ashamed of this behaviour from BCCI and I am sure that they are not earning too many fans accross the world with this latest stunt.
A bold move from the ODI captain
Posted on: July 16, 2008
Dhoni takes the test series off
Dhoni is one of the few cricketers in the Indian team to feature regularly in all 3 formats of the game. He has been playing non-stop cricket over the last 12 months and was sure in need of a break, a sentiment shared even by the coach of the Indian team. In the last 18 months Dhoni has been involved in 14 test matches, 56 ODI’s, 8 Twenty20 International games and 16 IPL games. Dhoni recently had mentioned during the Asia cup that back to back matches are causing player fatigue.
Even though Dhoni found support in Anil Kumble and Gary Kirsten, the BCCI was not that happy with his comments. Over the last few years players from different countries have complained about player burnout and India is the country who play most cricket every year. Australia’s famous rotation policy evolved due to this very reason.
Dhoni has now decided to pull out of the Srilankan test series a decision which is being scrutinized in the media over the past few days. Former players are providing their opinions, the seniors in the team are being approached for comments on this subject. Personally I feel that the comments by Sourav Ganguly on this subject was unnecessary. Seriously I dont see a reason for such a reaction, its Dhoni’s decision to take a break and everyone knows that he needed one. The one-day captain might have thought that taking a break from test matches where he is more dispensable might be the appropriate thing to do.
The media is after this decision because of the fact that Dhoni has decided to take the test series off instead of the one-day series which is to follow. They are also complaining that IPL is one of the major reasons for the player burnout and fatigue. Frankly for me I would rather see Dhoni take a break in tests rather than in ODI’s and Twenty20 where his presence is more important. I am sure that Dhoni has put enough thought into this decision and needs to be left alone. Everyone agrees that he needs a break and as far as I am concerned Dhoni’s decision is spot on.
India is playing a lots of one day matches in the coming 12 months and would require a fit and rested Dhoni leading them. Parthiv and Karthik are good test players and I am sure that team would not be missing Dhoni’s services that much in the test series. Dhoni has made a bold statement by skipping this series knowing the after effects of his decision. Now we have to wait and see if this precedence set by the skipper is followed by rest of the members in the future.
girisopinion
My Thoughts 