Posts Tagged ‘Sachin Tendulkar’
Everything to Play for – II
Posted on: July 21, 2008
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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.
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.
Go Kings Go!
Posted on: April 28, 2008
The Chennai Superkings(CSK) under the captaincy of Dhoni has now won 4 out of 4 to remain the only team to be unbeaten in IPL. Today the CSK defeated the sorry Bangalore Royal challengers by 13 runs to hand Vijay Mallya’s team their 3rd defeat in 4 games. The team captain Rahul Dravid made his second duck in consecutive games to make things worse for his team. The main problem for the BRC is that they dont have any player in the team apart from Ross Taylor who looks like a Twenty20 specialist. Even though the Royal challengers beat Mumbai Indians (The other struggling team in the tournament) they still look out of sorts and the captain seems to be running out of ideas.
The absence of a renowned big hitter in the team is costing the BRC’s a lot. The role played by Dhoni for the chennai team today is what that is lacking for the Royal Challengers. Martin Crowe and Rahul Dravid have to sit together and come up with a better strategy to make optimum use of the available resources. The Chennai Superkings though have done exceedingly well in this tournament and at the end of the first week they are at the top of the table. Great performances by the inexperianced bowling line up and consistancy at the top of the order has helped them to succeed.
Dhoni’s captaincy has again been very precise and his cool head under pressure situations has helped the team from Chennai. Dhoni has got great response from his inexperianced bowling line up and the inclusion of Albie Morkel and Makaya Ntini will sure bolster the same. Elsewhere the Mumbai Indians crashed to their 4 consecutive defeat of the tournament and remain the only team to have not won a game yet. Their team looks in total shambles in the absence of their icon player Sachin Tendulkar and Harbajan recently due to his row with Sreesanth. Rajasthan Royals continue to impress with their 3rd consecutive win and are in second spot behind the CSKs.
Punjab Kings X1 also overcame a dissapointing start to the tournament to win two games in a row to put them back in contention. Adam Gilchrist’s fastest IPL century gave the strong Deccan Chargers their first victroy of the tournament against the hapless Mumbai attack.
The first week of cricket was really interesting and entertaining. When IPL began I was little skeptical regarding the same due to the involvement of the bollywood and the kollywood stars but after the first few games the focus has shifted to cricket. Cricket has been really fantastic only the Harbajan and Sreesant row has taken some sheen of a good week’s cricket. Harbajan has plead guilty and has been handed 10 games ban from IPL whereas Sreesanth has been let off with a warning. I guess Sreesanth needs to be handed a more serious punishment than just a warning. His behaviour on the field is still questionable. The fact that Sreesant cried and made a scene in front of millions of viewers accross the world should not excuse him from the ridiculous behaviour in that match when he was bowling. Behaviour like that in the name of aggression should not be tolerated in any sport.
IPL – First Impression
Posted on: April 21, 2008
IPL began on friday with a match between the Kolkata Knight riders and Bangalore Royal challengers. we all know the hype behind this tournament and everyone was waiting for the big opening to see how the teams square up. The match in itself was not that interesting as it was completely one sided affair. The RC (Royal Challengers) were beaten by one of the greatest innings seen on cricket field by any player on any format from Brendon Mcullum of Kolkata Knight Riders. Mcullum smashed every bowler from the Bangalore team to finish with the highest induvidual score in this format when he made 158 n.o of just 73 deliveries.
The match was one sided as the team lead by Rahul Dravid collapsed to make just 82 and losing the game by 140 runs. I was lucky enough to watch all the games this weekend and also all the teams in action. My first impression was that Kolkata team owned by Sharukh Khan seems to be the team to beat. They have the right balance with the right mix of youth and experiance. The Knight Riders have played two and won two.
The other team which was very impressive was the Chennai Super kings lead by Dhoni. The Super Kings scored 240 in 20 overs riding on another great century in two days this time by an Australian Micheal Hussey. Hussey made 116 n.o of just 54 deliveries ably assisted by Hayden, Raina and Badrinath. The Super Kings have an excellent batting lineup but barring Murali they have a very week and inexprerianced bowling lineup.
The next team which impressed me was the Delhi Daredevils lead by Virender Sehwag. The team has a very good bowling attack lead by the great Glenn Mcgrath who looked like he had been bowling all the while. The batting lead by the captain himself looks impressive too.
The Bangalore RC who had a forgettable first outing came back strongly to defeat the Mumbai Champs lead by Bajji in the absence of Sachin. The RC team which I thought as the weak link in this tournament actually look strong in the presence of experianced Chandrapaul, Kallis, Boucher along with the captain Dravid which came into play against the Mumbai team in a tense chase. The team also contains promising youngters like Virat Kohli who impressed one and all with his batting in the U-19 world cup.
The Kings X1 lead by Yuvraj, looks a strong outfit too inspite of their loss to the chennai team. They have a good balance in team and their bowling lead by Brett Lee looks fine. As I am writing this article they are battling with the Rajathan Royals lead by Shane Warne. The Rajasthan Royals seem like the weakest in the championship with a weak bowling attack apart from the genius Shane Warne himself. Their batting too looked very weak against the Delhi Daredevils attack.
The Deccan Chargers though were undone by a bad pitch in Eden gardens where both teams struggled to score runs freely. We can probably assess their strength and weeknesses in the coming games.
All in all the tournament was an interesting watch with all teams to trying to find their feet in this format. We will probably know about the teams more as the tournament progresses in the coming week. Lets hope that the standards improve and we have more close games in the coming week.
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The Partnership which began about 10 years back is still up and running in fine style. Sourav joined Sachin at the top of the order sometime around 96/97 season when the team was desperately looking for an One-Day opener. Sourav started as a correct batsman with mostly elegant strokes through the offside, even though he was a great player of spin. Sachin was already an established opener in the shorter version of the game and was one of the most feared one at that.
Few years later they became one of most consistent and prolific opening combination in the one-day format of the game. The broke all sorts of records at the top including the highest opening stand of 258 which they made against Kenya at Paarl. Ganguly by then had become the captain of the team and also one of the most dominating batsman in the shorter version of the game. One of his innings in Australia against a strong Pakistani attack, made Wasim Akram (Who was part of the attack which comprised of Shoaib, Waqar, Razzak and Saqlain) admit that he has never seen anybody play so well through the offside. Sachin at that time was already termed as the next only to Don Bradman. He was already breaking all sorts of records in both forms of the game.
Sachin and Sourav have batted together for more than 150 ODI’s and have 25 century partnerships. Both these greats joined at the top of the batting order again in the recent series in England and in Belfast and proved again that they are one of the best opening combinations in the world. Now since Rahul has resigned as captain of the National team there are talks that Sachin or Sourav might be offered the position. I just hope that both of them reject the option as by just concentrating on their batting they might offer much more to the team in the last few years of their illustrious career. Sachin and Sourav have few more years of great one-day batting left in them and when they decide to hang up their boots they might end up as the greatest combination in ODI. Lets just hope that they do not put more pressure on themselves by agreeing to captain the National side and just concentrate on their batting as its very important for India to succeed in the upcoming series against Pakistan and Australia.
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I started playing cricket at a very young age but did not have the patience to sit through a entire cricket match on television. The first game I ever watched was a match between India and Pakistan in Sharjah in 1990. India were chasing a total of 250 odd against a strong Pakistani bowling attack and there walked in a young batsman barely 18 years old. He was none other than Sachin Tendulkar. This was my first look at the great player. I did not have too many memories of the game as it was the first game I ever watched. The only thing I remember was that India lost that game and Sachin got out trying to smash Mushtaq Ahmad for the third consecutive time in an over.
Before watching this game I always thought that Sachin Tendulkar was a model who happened to act with Kapil in the Boost ad which was very famous at that time. Sachin played a brand of cricket which was not that prevalent in the early 90’s. He was attacking and also very positive in his strokeplay when he was at the crease batting. Since that Innings in Sharjah I have closely followed Sachin’s career. I guess Sachin will agree with me that the biggest failure so far in his career has been his captaincy. He has captained India on two separate occasions and both the times it was not that great. He has been a great player and great ambassador for Indian cricket over the years.
In recent times his batting has gone downhill, even though he is still one of the major run getters in this period. Sachin’s major problem has been that he has changed his batting style which unfortunately is not his natural one. He has tried to change his batting style according to the team’s needs which is the cause for his inconsistent performance in the last few years. Sachin has always drawn parallel to another contemporary great Brian Charles Lara who retired from International cricket just a month ago after the World Cup. Lara’s success is based on the fact that he never changed his batting style no matter what his role in the team was.
Sachin on the other hand has been confused with his role in the team and has decided to be more circumspect with his batting being one of the senior members in the team. We all know that Sachin can still be the devastating one-day batsman he was couple of years back. The innings he played against Srilanka just before the World Cup further proves my point. For Sachin to get back to one-day team and make a difference he needs to get back to his strength. I remember him as a fearless young boy standing up to the likes of Waqar, Wasim, Donald, Ambrose and few other great bowlers of this era. He is one of the players who took pinch hitting to a different level, where the shots were not mere slogs but pure cricketing strokes. He has been an inspiration to countless number of youngsters who want to follow his path and become like him.
He deserves to have a send off from Indian cricket just like the way Glenn McGrath had after the World Cup. Being the great player that he is, I guess he owes it to himself. As I was writing this article, Sachin scored his 36th test century against Bangladesh in the first match of the series in chittagong. I hope that Sachin continues this form in to the rest of the season ahead against the English team and the Australians later this year. I hope he also makes a comeback into the Indian one-day team and plays the way we all know he can. For a great player like him it does not take too much to get back to his strength give his fans much more to cheer about in the last few years of his wonderful career. I have been an ardent fan of his and will continue to be the same till the end as he was the one who got me interested in this wonderful game and also inspired me to write about the same.
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