It looks very unlikely that if the rains stay away, India will not be able to make a clean sweep of the current series against New Zealand. In terms of experience, expertise, planning and strategy the visitors are looking stronger than the hosts. The Black Caps could hardly stretch the Indians to the fourth day - so strong was the execution of the plans that the Indians had laid out.
In hindsight, it looks like MS Dhoni wanted to give his team-mates a taste of the seam conditions, in the final ODI - that would be the one reason why India batted first. Although he mentioned in his press conference that he had made a mistake, it looks like it was a well-thought strategy to get used to the wickets. Similarly, his decision to bowl first on the green wicket showed the confidence that he had on his seam attack.
All his bowlers chipped in the first session to reduce the hosts to 60-6, from which they could never recover. Centuries by their captain and Jesse Ryder helped them to get to a respectable total but obviously it was not enough on a pitch that behaved much better after the first session. The fielders backed the bowlers very well by picking their catches. The bowlers were rotated very well during the innings such that none of them got tired during the innings. The ends at which they bowled were also changed so that they had an opportunity to bowl against and with the wind.
Then, the batsmen took over. Right from Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid and then Zaheer Khan at the tail, all the batsmen scored fifties to support the legendary Sachin Tendulkar to post a huge total. Sehwag's early departure notwithstanding, the Indians scored runs at such a pace that they had 2 days to get the remaining Kiwi wickets. Sachin showed that his class had not diminished one bit, even after so many years. His hunger still remains, as it was in his first year in international cricket.
It was the turn of their lead spinner, Harbhajan Singh, to get going in the second innings. He has always not performed overseas as compared to the Indian wickets - this was a chance that he did not leave. He grabbed six to hasten the collapse of the NewZealand innings.
Overall, it was a clinical team effort from India to grab the lead in the series. The Rockstars have started the test series in the same way as the ODIs. The end result will be also no different.
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Saturday, March 21, 2009
Sunday, March 08, 2009
India flexes its muscles that keeps the Kiwis and rain away
Denied of making use of the entire quota of 50 overs in the first 2 ODI's, the Indians scored 392 in the 3rd match to take an unbeatable lead in the series 2-0. Unbeatable because the Kiwis can only now try and equal the Indians in the remaining matches.
As Sehwag mentioned in one of the pre-match talks, if the Indian batsmen got going, they were confident of scoring 300s in every match. They managed to go almost 100 more in this match, thanks to blistering knocks by Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni. The small grounds have enabled the Indians to scale such a mammoth target, that was no match for the Kiwis inspite of the lax fielding by the Indians.
The first 2 Twenty20 matches gave the Indians enough insight to the conditions that are nowhere close to the previous tour. The first 2 matches were hampered by rain and only that could save the Kiwis from going behind much farther in the series. The punishment meted out by the Indians made the Kiwis openly talk of Sehwag as a 'fear'. This sort of statements will put more pressure on the Kiwis, as if they did not have any.
Daniel Vettori was missed more as a captain than a bowler. His ten overs would have been very handy in the conditions. His absence raises another question - why are there more instances of players going away from match duty to attend to their domestic duty. Matt Prior from the English team was another 'offender' recently. Brian Mccullum was obviously new to his role and was taken away by the Indian attack. The fact that Jacob Oram had bowled so well in his initial overs but was not called back to finish his quota. Tim Southee struggled from beginning to the end to give more than a century of runs.
Even though the Kiwis got partnerships going, the regular wickets kept pegging them back. It is normal to score 8 runs per over in the Twenty20 matches but to do that consistently for 50 overs is another world. It is a great task to sustain that scoring for a long period. The small grounds helped the Kiwis but they needed more than a boundary an over to win the match.
Was the Indian team great? They were good with the batting but not the bowling and fielding. The 3rd bowler is an area of concern - in fact, MS Dhoni should have been thanking the umpire when he took Munaf Patel off the field. Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan are the other options but it would be good if the Indians can bring in Pragyan Ojha instead. The fielding, however, needs to improve - the great attempts were interspersed with misfields (that went for boundaries) and dropped catches. Of course, the huge total helped the Indians but one thought that it probably made them complacent.
The next match should see the Indians wrap up the series, provided the rains keep away. Will Vettori's return provide the Kiwis the much-needed boost? Very unlikely.
As Sehwag mentioned in one of the pre-match talks, if the Indian batsmen got going, they were confident of scoring 300s in every match. They managed to go almost 100 more in this match, thanks to blistering knocks by Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni. The small grounds have enabled the Indians to scale such a mammoth target, that was no match for the Kiwis inspite of the lax fielding by the Indians.
The first 2 Twenty20 matches gave the Indians enough insight to the conditions that are nowhere close to the previous tour. The first 2 matches were hampered by rain and only that could save the Kiwis from going behind much farther in the series. The punishment meted out by the Indians made the Kiwis openly talk of Sehwag as a 'fear'. This sort of statements will put more pressure on the Kiwis, as if they did not have any.
Daniel Vettori was missed more as a captain than a bowler. His ten overs would have been very handy in the conditions. His absence raises another question - why are there more instances of players going away from match duty to attend to their domestic duty. Matt Prior from the English team was another 'offender' recently. Brian Mccullum was obviously new to his role and was taken away by the Indian attack. The fact that Jacob Oram had bowled so well in his initial overs but was not called back to finish his quota. Tim Southee struggled from beginning to the end to give more than a century of runs.
Even though the Kiwis got partnerships going, the regular wickets kept pegging them back. It is normal to score 8 runs per over in the Twenty20 matches but to do that consistently for 50 overs is another world. It is a great task to sustain that scoring for a long period. The small grounds helped the Kiwis but they needed more than a boundary an over to win the match.
Was the Indian team great? They were good with the batting but not the bowling and fielding. The 3rd bowler is an area of concern - in fact, MS Dhoni should have been thanking the umpire when he took Munaf Patel off the field. Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan are the other options but it would be good if the Indians can bring in Pragyan Ojha instead. The fielding, however, needs to improve - the great attempts were interspersed with misfields (that went for boundaries) and dropped catches. Of course, the huge total helped the Indians but one thought that it probably made them complacent.
The next match should see the Indians wrap up the series, provided the rains keep away. Will Vettori's return provide the Kiwis the much-needed boost? Very unlikely.
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