Posts Tagged ‘Australia’
Cricket takes center stage again
Posted on: March 24, 2008
After all the recent hype and hapoola surrounding the IPL and the Australian tour, focus is back on cricket with the India-South Africa series. In the recent times the youngsters in the Indian team have indulged in too much of trash talk after the series down under. India did well there and the series was controversial, but it should have ended once they landed on the Indian soil. There has been too much of trash talk going on in the media by few Indian players. India has a chance of becoming the number 1 team in the world but we have a long way to go. The series in Australia was just a step closer to the goal and was not the destination. We play Australia, SA, Srilanka and England this year and its going to be a tough season. Australia got the tag of world beaters with consistant performances over a decade and not by winning couple of titles.
South Africa on the other had have remained calm and composed. They havent gone overboard with their comments in the media even though there was one inappropriate one by their cricket chief. SA know that the best way to win a series is on the cricket field and not in papers. India should be happy that the test team is different from the ODI team and the seniors have taken a measured approach when dealing with the media. They all expressed their happiness over the team’s success down under but also spread the word of caution regarding any complacency.
The youngsters should realise that they need not retaliate to any comment made on them in the media. The great example to that was Ishant Sharma replying to John Buchanan’s comment advising him to put on some muscles. There was not need for the same as the former Australian coach was just expressing his opinion while praising his performance down under. Dhoni’s comments on the seniors on the wake of a test series was uncalled for as he was playing with all of them in the same. Even though everyone seems to be backing his comments, the timing of the same is the one causing concern.
Amidst all the media frenzy concerning the IPL and the player auction, the Indian team prepares for their second stern test in the last few months. The team returned with their pride intact after the first one but this will be equally important hurdle for them to cross. Anil Kumble will know that and thankfully he has the experiance of himself, Sachin, Sourav, Laxman and Dravid with him.
I hope that this series lives up to its expectation. India would want to win this series to cap off a great 4 months of cricket.
- In: Cricket | Cricket and Sports | ODI | Sports
- Leave a Comment
India’s top order again Succumbed to the pressure of chasing a huge score against Australia. When Australia ended up with a score of 317/7, I thought that India had done a reasonable job as at one point it looked like they would get more than 350. It seemed like a very gettable target and by no means an easy one. India lost too many early wickets to slip to 51/4, leaving Gambhir and Dhoni to perform the repair job. Apart from Gambhir, the Indian top order has been really inconsistant and has failed to deliver putting too much of pressure on the middle and lower order.
Dhoni has had no luck with the toss which has made sure that India chase in most of their games. Except for one game against Srilanka, India has failed to put up a decent opening stand in this series. Sehwag and Gambhir have taken turns in partnering Sachin in this series and it doesnt seem to be working till now for the Indians. Uthappa has been wasted down the order and has been stuck with the tail in most of the games. Gambhir has been very consistant at number three and as Dhoni rightly pointed out he would not to move him to open with Sachin. The other choice would be to open with Uthappa and Sehwag and push Sachin to number 4 in the order which might actually help him with his batting.
India has always struggled to perform as a unit in ODI’s in Australia. The problem is that there is always two batmen who is very consistant and the rest inconsistant which has always been the case when we play in Australia. In 91/92 it was Sanjay Manjrekan and Tendulkar, in 99/00 it was Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, in 03/04 it was VVS Laxman alone with the others blowing hot and cold. The problem for India is that Sachin Tendulkar who has played most matches in Australia is having a poor CB series. This is his 4th full tour to Australia adding to the 1992 WC. Australia is kind of jinx for Tendulkar as he has always struggled to be consistant here in ODI’s since the 91/92 season, where he was our best player down under.
India’s inexperianced middle order needs an in form Sachin Tendulkar for us to succeed in Australia which has been a problem for Captain Dhoni. Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Sachin and Sehwag have been totally out of form which is putting too much of pressure on Ghambir, Dhoni, uthappa and Pathan. India is going to play Srilanka in an important game on the 26th which will determine who will join Australia in the finals. The Indian Batsmen have to come to party if they have to beat Srilanka at Hobart. India would be hoping that the law of averages should be catching up with Sachin and Sehwag and this time they will fire.
I was recently reading a great article on sledging by Harsha Bhogle and it got me thinking what does aggression on the cricket field mean. Aggression on a cricket field has been a hugely misunderstood concept.
Crucial Game for India
Posted on: February 22, 2008
- In: Cricket | Cricket and Sports | ODI
- Leave a Comment
Sunday’s contest between India and Australia is a very crucial game for both the teams. Its almost certain that India would join Australia in the best of 3 finals after Srilanka’s loss in Melbourne on Friday. Srilanka will be very dissapointed as this is not the first time their batting has let them down against the Aussies in this series. Srilanka though need to win both their matches from here on and hope India loses theirs.
The Indian team though pulled off a crucial win against the Lankans on Tuesday to go up by 6 points on the table. One thing which is common to all the three sides in this series is that their batting has struggled. The bowlers from all the three sides have had great success in this series and the fact that there has been just two 250+ totals in this series is shocking considering the batting strength of the sides.
India would hoping to keep the trend going as I think the best possible scenario would be for India to bat first and post a challenging total on the board. Dhoni who has had pretty ordinary luck with the tosses would want to win one soon. Teams have generally found it difficult to chase as the pitches have been really difficult to bat on. The Australian batsmen except for Clarke and Hussey have found it really hard in this series to get the ball off the square. The Indians would hope to keep it that way. The Indian bowling has been great throughout the tour with Ishant Sharma being the find of this series. Ishant has been getting able support from Sreesanth, Munaf and Irfan and as a unit they have been able to keep the Australian batsmen quiet.
Both the teams have each won one game in their previous three meetings and whoever wins this one will get a slight edge before the finals. India would like to win this one and completely eliminate Srilanka from the picture. All in all this promises to be a great game and we hope that it lives up to the expectation.
A Wonderful Test Series
Posted on: January 28, 2008
- In: Cricket | Cricket and Sports | Test | test cricket | Test match
- Leave a Comment
The Adelaide draw brings to end one of the most fascinating test series in the recent times. The Indians would be really pleased with the way the came back in the series after two defeats. This series also was the last on the Australian Soil for the big 5. Sachin, laxman and Kumble had a great series but Dravid and Sourav would be ruing missed opportunities.
In a way the last two test matches brought focus back on cricket after the chaotic Sydney game. Both the teams played hard and competitive cricket over the past one month and 1-1 would have been a fair result. Bad preparation cost India the Melbourne game, bad umpiring and some bad shots cost us the Sydney test match.
Australia in the end proved that they are still the number one team in the world but only by a little margin. The Indian team has again proved to the rest of the world that Australia can be beaten in its own den. Brett lee was the best bowler in the series with 20+ wickets and has improved leaps and bounds since India toured Australia in 2003/04. It seems like Australia have found an ideal replacement for Glenn McGrath. The Australians though are finding tough to replace Shane Warne as the experiment with Brad Hogg failed miserably in this series. The fact that both Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke out-bowled Brad Hogg is an able testimony for his failure in this series. Australia would be hoping that Stuart McGill recovers from his injury really quick to fill the void left by Shane Warne. Adam Gilchrist’s retirement also came as surprise as there were no indications of the same prior to this series.
Matthew Hayden was again their best batsman against the Indians as he was in the prior meetings between the two sides. Andrew “Lucky” Symonds played some important innings for his side in this test series and so did Micheal Hussey and Clarke. Stuart Clarke provided able support to Brett Lee in the fast bowling department and Mitchell Johnson was terribly inconsistent throughout the series. I have never seen a test bowler bowling so many wides as Johnson did in this series.
The Indian team again relied on Sachin Tendulkar for some big runs and to his credit the “Little Master” did not disappoint his captain. Dravid and Sourav had a very inconsistent series but as usual VVS Laxman had a great series against the Australians. Irfan Pathan, who I think should have played since the first test, gave a good account of himself by winning the man of match award contributing handsomely with both bat and ball in India’s win in Perth. Sehwag again one of the players who should have been in India’s playing X1 in both Melbourne and Sydney had a great end to this series by scoring a match saving 150 in the Adelaide test.
The inexperienced bowling attack performed very well against the strong Australian batting line up with Ishant Sharma being the find of the series for India. RP Singh bowled beautifully in the series in patches but lacked consistency. Kumble was once again the star performer for India in the bowling department as he captured 20+ wickets in this series. He captained the team really well during the difficult time after the second test and also made sure that he brought out the best from his team.
Overall India gave a good account of themselves in this test series. India remains the only team to have at least won one test match against Australia in every series they have played with them since the 2001/02 series.
Australia Triumph as expected
Posted on: April 13, 2007
- In: Cricket | Cricket and Sports | ODI | Sports
- 3 Comments
Australia won the Cup as expected and the championship ended on a dark Saturday evening. The Australian team beat Srilanka convincingly in the WC finals to win it for the third consecutive time. The Australian team once again proved that they are way ahead of the other teams in both forms of the game. Everyone in the team contributed when it mattered and Glen McGrath had a dream exit from one dayers being the highest wicket taker of the tournament and also named the “Player Of the Tournament”. This was a fitting end to a great career which spanned over a decade and also coincided with the amazing Australian dominance in both forms of the game.
Glenn McGrath has been a great bowler for Australia with more than 400 wickets in both forms of the game. He has been a part of 3 world cup winning teams, a rare achievement in the modern era. Matthew Hayden became the highest run getter of the tournament with more than 600 runs in the championship and Rickey Ponting became just the second captain in World cricket to lead two World Cup winning teams after Clive Lloyd of WI.
The World Cup Finals itself was an organizers nightmare with the rain before the start of the game. The game was reduced to a 38 overs a side and Srilanka’s best bet would have been to bat first and set a challenging total for the Australians to chase in the finals. The Srilankans lost the toss and Australia did what they did four years ago and batted first. The Srilankan new ball bowlers except for Malinga were trashed by Adam Gilchrist on his way to the championship winning 149. Adam Gilchrist had a ordinary tournament before this game but he performed when it mattered the most. Adam Gilchrist has always been the man for Australia in WC finals as he has two fifties and a hundred in the three chances he has had till now.
This innings almost batted Srilanka out of the game as Australia amassed 281 in 38 overs at almost 7.5 runs an over. Srilanka’s start to the innings was not that promising with Taranga getting dismissed in the first couple of overs.Everything rested on the partnership between Sangakkara and Jayasurya after the early loss. Both these batsmen kept them in the hunt until Jayasurya’s charge against part timer Clarke ended his innings on 63 which also ended Srilanka’s hopes of winning the game. The Australians tightened the screws after Jayasurya’s exit and Srilanka kept losing wickets at regular intrevals. Later the match was stopped due to the rain with Srilanka needing more than 10 runs an over and after lots of chaos Australia were eventually declared the winners of the World Cup.
Srilanka had a great World Cup as not a lot of people thought they would be in the finals. Srilanka played beautifully and the veterans in the team Jayasurya, Murali and Vaas had a great World Cup. These three great players from the island might have just played their last World Cup game and they would feel that they had given their best in the Championship.
Overall the World Cup was a dull event due to the Australian dominance over the other teams and also was too long to keep the viewers interested as there were too many meaningless games towards the end of the tournament in the super 8 stage.
- In: Cricket | Cricket and Sports | ODI | Sports
- Leave a Comment
The Indian team again dished out yet another pathetic performance on the field to loose the all important game against the Aussies. I am sure not many people gave the Indian team a chance before the match as they had not beaten the aussies in the one-day format for a long time now. The batting was ordinary after a good start and bowling was pathetic to say the least.
The Indian selectors need to take some harsh decisions and drop people who are not performing and inject some young blood in the team. Irfan Pathan has been bowling rubbish for the last few months and his batting has also hit a all time low, inspite of which he continues to be in the team. The batting of Sachin and Kaif defied any logic and I was not sure what they were trying to achieve by batting so negetive.
Sachin at the start looked clueless against the bowling of Mcgrath and eventually lost his wicket. If Sachin was finding hard to face Mcgrath, he should have made sure that the strike was rotated and he does not have to face the entire over. Mohd Kaif’s batting in the final overs was also something which could not be explained. Eventhough I would like to give credit to the Aussies on restricting India,but the batting by the Indians lacked any planning. The batting order started out well but sending Raina before Dhoni was a huge mistake which cost India some valuable runs late in the order.
All in all it was again a horrible performance by the Indian team. The Indian team selection to South Africa brings no surprises, except for the inclusion of Anil Kunble and Zaheer Khan. One more oversees tour and this time there is no expectation on Indian team to perform miracles.
Congrats to the Australian team on yet another title win. They proved once again as to why they the number one team in the world.
- In: Cricket | Cricket and Sports | ODI | Sports
- Leave a Comment
The Champions trophy has reached its most important phase where teams battle for the semifinal spot. The favorites have been knocked off and the subcontinent teams have faltered to leave an impression on this tournament. Srilanka and Pakistan have already been knocked out, and India still have a mamoth task of beating Australia to grab the final spot for the semis.
This tournament has been a dissapointment in terms of good tough matches. The only matches which come to mind are Aus V WI, SL V Pak and Ind V WI(Only at the end) as the rest of them have been one sided affairs. The batsmen have struggled and bowlers have enjoyed the conditions, pretty rare on Indian pitches.
With three spots for the semifinal already decided, the India V Australia match seems to an interesting contest. Both the team have had problems with their batting with their bowlers doing a reasonable job. This is the first time I feel in an Ind V Aus encounter that both teams have an equal chance as Australia have been vulnareble with their batting in the last couple of tournaments. It was kind of dissapointing to see the Indian batters struggle once again against the WI.
The Indian batting has struggled since the WI series where they lost 4-1 after having a great run in one-day cricket prior to that. The Indians would be hoping that their most experianced players like Sachin, Rahul and Sehwag would step up to the occasion and deliver the goods on the most important game for India in the last few months.The Indian bowling was a mixed bag against WI with Irfan Pathan leaking lot of runs at the start(may be psychological, playing WI).
I am still unable to get the selection of RP Singh over Sreesanth as the former has not been able to deliver in the last 3 or 4 tournaments. Sreesanth was Indias best bowler in WI and bowled beautifully in the only match he played in the DLF cup. India should realize that we should make use of players who are in form rather than just playing people who they want to succeed. This tournament would be a big confidence booster for India as they visit SA right after this tournament.
Australia on the other hand came to India as the favorites as is the case in most of the tournaments they are involved in. They have had pretty rough time in the champions trophies prior to this and have not reached the finals even once in the previous tournaments. If I know Australia they would want to set the record straight.
I hope that this match provides a great contest and not a one-sided affair like the other matches in the tournament.
girisopinion
My Thoughts 