New Year Wishes

Wish all of you a happy New Year – hope you have the best of luck in the coming new year of the decade.

Happy Reading and I promise to bring you much more interesting opinions of mine in the coming year.

Compilation of my posts in the year 2009 is as follows:

India's tour of NewZealand -
The Indian team won their ODI series against the Black Caps and came within striking
distance of the ODI Pinnacle. The Indians flexed
their muscles in the ODI series and won it comfortably, looking forward to the test series. The first test was also won  in a similar manner by the Indians and there were expectations that the remaining tests would be won with such ease. It was not to be, alas.

IPL2 - The IPL was shifted to South Africa thanks to the elections in India. Though it was a challenege, it opened up new avenues for BCCI. I decided to come up with a new way to track run-chases in T20 matches and use it for reference in the IPL2 tournament.The IPL2 was good preparation for the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup and witnessed quite a few innovations from the teams. After 37 matches, the IPL2 was placed in an interesting situation. One saw the commercialization of the IPL concept to the maximum by Lalit Modi, who wanted to maximize it further. The D-day arrived at IPL2 with teams who were placed at the bottom in the previous edition. The correct team won the tournament which came to an end, bringing a lull to the viewers around the world. There was one constant winner between the 2 editions of IPL other than Lalit Modi, of course.

T20 World Cup - The World Cup post IPL2 seemed to be a logical extension of the T20 matches and the Indianteam was expected to be the team to beat. The World Cup had a good start to the tournament with unexpected winners. After the league matches, the Super 8s was the next stage. India lost their first match at Super8 and eventually tumbled out.

Champions Trophy - The ICC Champions Trophy was held at South Africa. The stage was interesting
at the Group Phase with India expected to meet Pakistan. The Indians lost the match and lost out on qualification from the Group Phase. The Indian's performance was in stark contrast to their otherwise good results in the year.

Champions League - Champions League (First Edition) finally started in India with a bang. JP Duminy
showed how a perfectT20 chase could be orchestrated. Somerset then held their nerves and won a topsy-turvy match. Delhi Daredevils crushed the team from Sri Lanka in their contest. The Eliminator
was finally seen at the Champions League - an exciting way to identify a winner in a tied cricket match. Deccan Chargers was shut out of the tournament by T&T thanks to the dare-devilry batting.

India-Australia ODI Series - Amidst news of the ODI format losing ground against the T20, the Indians took on the visiting Australians. This series revived the ODI format with some interesting matches between the two sides. MS Dhoni and Yuvraj helped the Indians lead the series 2-1 but the Indians could not win at Hyderabad even though the maestro Tendulkar played a heroic innings. The Aussies then won the remaining match and thereby the series.

India-Srilanka Series - The Indian team announced for the SriLanka series had few surprises. The First Test at Motera saw Dravid and Dhoni revive India after the Lankans held an upper hand. Sri Lanka was solid in their reply and raced ahead on the 3rd day. The Indians started their fight-back for survival on the fourth day, bringing a tame end to the match with all things even. The Second test at Kanpur started
well from an Indian perspective and remained that way on Day 2 as well. The Indians gained further lead on the third day making it a formality on the fourth day. The third test at Mumbai started with honours even. Until Sehwag started his innings. The Indians pressed further on the 3rd day making it difficult for the Lankans to avoid a defeat on the 4th day. They did avoid defeat but not on the final day.

The focus moved from Test Matches to the T20 vesion. Sri Lanka thrashed the Indians at Nagpur while Yuvraj, on his birthday, evened the series at Mohali.

The ODI series was anticipated after the shard T20 series. The series started with a high-scoring win for India at Rajkot making the Cuttack ODI interesting.Sri Lanka chased down a huge total to even the series. The Indians pulled ahead at Cuttack to lead the series, going to Kolkata. Would it be another loss for India to even the series was the question? Gambhir and Kohli won the match and series for India, making the last match redundant.

Sachin Tendulkar completed 20 years of International Cricket. This was one of the occasions to celebrate in the year 2009. Among the batsmen who have scored more than 9000 runs, SRT was at
the peak. His progress in test matches was remarkable.

Miscellaneous Posts - The Indian contracts for the year 2009-10 was released with few surprises. Sehwag almost scored his third 300, showcasing his evolution as a Great batsman. Sehwag, Dilshan and similarly Gayle have shown a new facet of test openers in modern cricket. His exploits made India reach the ICC No.1 ranking for test matches, making others wonder at the achievement. India's focus on test matches needed refinement, as it seemed that the focus was on ODIs and T20s. 3 batsmen (Dilshan, Gambhir and MS Dhoni) made a difference to their respective team's fortunes in the India-SriLanka series. Meanwhile, Australia played the series against West Indies at home - there were no surprises who won.

As the decade came to an end, it was time to relook at the top Indian victories in test matches and ODIs.

Top Indian victories of the Decade - ODIs

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After the post on the best test wins in 2000, this focuses on the best ODI wins for India.

• NatWest Series Final - 2002 at Lords - Kaif and Yuvraj take India through. 
• ICC Champions Trophy - 2000 at Nairobi - Yuvraj and Zaheer announce themselves at the international arena  
• Victories in Australia CB Series - 1st and 2nd final 
• World Cup 2003 win over Pakistan
• Winning 317 in England by Uthappa with the tail
  
• Uthappa and the tail again against at Australia
  
• Pakistan in India ODI Series - 2nd ODI at Vizag - MSD scoring 148 in India's victory
  
• Sehwag and Yuvraj show against Sri Lanka
  
• Beating South Africa at a neutral venue - 2007
  
• A small but tough target to scale at Sri Lanka - 2008
  
• Srinath and Nehra win it for India (by their batting) - a lottery of a match in 2003
  
• First match in Pakistan after a long time - 2004
  
• Sehwag's first as an opener - 2002 - Master-stroke by Ganguly
  
• Decimating England at Rajkot - 2008
  
• India v Sri Lanka  at Rajkot (2009) - Scaling and then defending a total of 414 against Sri Lanka
  
• India V New Zealand at Christchurch (2009) - 400 almost and still not sure of a win.

What do you feel as the best ODI win for India?

Gambhir and Kohli step up for India at Kolkata

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Whole-sale changes to the Sri Lanka squad was the talking point - 4 players were drafted to the squad. The Indians had the forced change of Kohli in place of Yuvraj. This was the first time after 5 years that India were playing without MSD and Yuvraj.

The start of the innings was unusually slow what with the first maiden bowled by an Indian bowler (Ashish Nehra) in this series. But, slowly, Tharanga and Sangakkara started a partnership which played out the seamers and then started milking the spinners (after the initial pressure) for singles. The final-overs climax was good for the Lankans which meant that the Indians were asked to chase the biggest total on the ground.

It was up to the first three batsmen on the Indian team - Sachin, Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir - who had to step up to the challenge. Once Sachin and Sehwag got out, the hopes were on Gambhir to take the Indians to the victory line. Agreed that the Sri Lankan bowlers were not so experienced but the task was a huge total to chase. Gautam and Virat absorbed the pressure and took the Indian run-chase by the horns. Sri Lanka must feel happy that they were able to try out their young guns and all of them must have learnt quite a bit in this series.

The Indian team showed that there was some talent in the bench strength (Kohli, Karthik, Pathan brothers) that can be honed for the World Cup 2011.

Top Indian victories of the Decade - Test matches

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A collection of the top Indian victories of the decade (2000-current) as per my ranking from the list of 40 wins in the 10 years (in decreasing order of ranking)

• Laxman's Test against Australia at Kolkata
• Dravid's Test against West Indies at Kingston
• Sreesanth's Test against South Africa at Johannesburg
• India's win at Perth against Australia
• Dravid's Test against Australia at Adelaide
• Sehwag's test at Galle versus Sri Lanka
• Test that crowned the Sultan of Multan
• Victory of the Jellybeans and of course India at Nottingham
• Win against the Windies at Port of Spain
• Victory at Hamilton against the Black Caps

What do you have to say about these matches? Do you think there is any other match that you feel was better than the ones mentioned?

Will it be India's Garden at Eden?

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India play Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens tomorrow (24th) with the series 2-1 in their favor. A win will give the series to the Indians once again.

India will miss Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni in their batting lineup. Virat Kohli will be expected to make up for the omission while Dinesh Karthik proved to be an able contributor to the Indian team. The pace bowlers need to pick up Dilshan, Tharanga and Sangakkara early to put pressure on the middle-order.

The Sri Lankan team should bring back Sanath Jayasuriya and drop a bowler so that they can beef up their middle order even though he seems to be uncomfortable there. His spell during the 1996 World Cup at the same ground is fresh in every one's mind.

Can the spinners do it again for the Indians?

Sachin's India surge ahead in the series - Cuttack ODI

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Dilshan and Tharanga seemed like they wanted to get the Indian score in the first ODI - that was the way they shot off the blocks. The Indian bowling was also wayward initially but the introduction of Ashish Nehra reduced the runs and the dismissal of Dilshan brought sanity back to the match. Probably, the Sri Lankans had a look at the history of the ground and decided that attack was the best way to approach the pitch - not that it was helping the bowlers so dramatically.

So far in the ODI series, the first 3 batsmen had got to good starts and made major contributions to the Sri Lankan totals. Here, once Sangakkara went at 165 (in the 23rd over) and Tharanga at 169 (25th over), the innings went downhill. Wickets kept falling regularly and Sri Lanka was all out by 45th over. 74 runs for 9 wickets in 21 overs is obviously a very bad example of planning your innings. Sangakkara needs to think about these aspects in the next game. Till the 23rd over, the Lankans were enjoying their stay at the wicket and scoring merrily at more than 7 runs per over. But, they did not get a final run-rate of even 5!!!

Once the ball got old, the Indian bowlers came back well. In fact, Ashish Nehra was the first one to pull back (by a bit) the scoring rate after the hectic start. Sehwag could have introduced Ravindra Jadeja earlier into the attack, in his place. Nothing will justify the praise that one can heap on Jadeja. The kid has been bowling superbly and today's performance was the cream. On recent records, one can safely say that he is India's No.1 bowler and not Harbhajan. The latter also bowled well today and kept the pressure. Ishant, Zaheer came back strongly in their second spells to restrict the Lankan innings.

Sehwag showed that captaincy did not affect his batting in any way - he came out blazing with shots on either side of the wicket. Sachin Tendulkar gave good support in the beginning and settled down to accumulate runs on one end. He was helped by cameos from Gambhir and Yuvraj. Sehwag sent in Dinesh Karthik at three down in place of Raina as Karthik is more a steady batsman than the others. The runs started coming for India in singles and the odd four helped the cause also. Sachin came close to his century but could not get it eventually!!!

The Lankan bowlers could not penetrate the Indian batting in the same way as the Indian spinners did. Muralitharan was badly missed here - his presence could have definitely made an impact. His combination with Mendis could have caused many a headache but it was not to be. Malinga was coming back from an injury and could not make a big impact.

Sangakkara has a problem on hand, with four of his mainline players suffering from injuries - how he makes use of the remaining team members optimally in the next ODI will determine whether they stay alive in the series or not.

Interesting battle on cards at Cuttack

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India start their match against third ODI against Sri Lanka at Cuttack without their captain MS Dhoni. Yuvraj Singh is expected to take his position while Dinesh Karthik will come in place of Virat Kohli (who will consider himself unlucky to be dropped after scoring a 50). The bowling needs a change - maybe rest Ashish Nehra and give a chance to the promising Sudeep Tyagi. Virender Sehwag will be the cynosure of all eyes as he will lead the side for the next 2 ODIs.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, will miss Angelo Matthews in both departments (especially after his heroics in the last match). Sanath Jayasuriya will probably make a comeback to the playing eleven. The batting wears a good look, especially the first three batsmen who are in top form. The middle-order wobbled a bit after the fall of the initial wickets. That might cause a problem in case the top 3 have an off-day. Malinga coming into the match will prove to be handful for the Indians.

Without MSD, Sri Lanka are the favorites to go up 2-1 in the series.

Tale of three batsmen

The current series between India and Sri Lanka is interesting because of the form of three batsmen mostly - they are proving the difference between the two teams.

• Tilekaratne Dilshan - 2500 runs in all forms of cricket in the last 1 year - mostly because of his elevation to the opening slot.
• MS Dhoni - Since becoming a captain, his averages have increased drastically both in tests and ODIs
• Gautam Gambhir - Last year, his form was similar to Dilshan in all forms of cricket but this year there is a dip in his form in the ODIs. Overall, he is still doing great. His form in tests and T20s are helping his overall performance

With MSD losing out on the next two matches due to his ban, the Sri Lankan team is obviously the favorites to win now.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Gautam Gambhir helps India reduce deficit after Sri Lanka reach massive 7607 (telegraph.co.uk)
• Sri Lanka heap pressure on India (news.bbc.co.uk)

Test Openers are no longer the same today

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In the last test series between India and Sri Lanka, all of us were witness to the carnage that Sehwag and Dilshan unleashed on the respective bowlers. The bowlers had no clue to the way the two batsmen played in the series.

Today, Chris Gayle repeated the dose for the second time on the hapless Aussie bowlers. His innings has kept his often-beaten team still in the hunt!!!

The three of them are changing the way opening batsmen are facing the new-ball bowlers. It could be due to various reasons:

• The impact of ODI (and more so, T20) is making the batsmen play more strokes, thus increasing their strike-rates. 
• The test teams are planning to take early advantage of the game to increase the chances of winning the match.
  
• The quality of openings bowlers have reduced drastically after the retirements of greats like Mcgrath, Donald and Co.
  

What is your opinion on this?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Chris Gayle century sees West Indies strike back against Australia in third Test (telegraph.co.uk)
• India on top of second Test against Sri Lanka after centuries from Gambhir and Sehwag (telegraph.co.uk)

High scoring day at Rajkot

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Whoever won the match today, the curator had to be blamed for the run-riot that occured in Rajkot. The pitch did not help the bowlers at any point of the match. This pitch, coupled with the average fielding/catching performances by the teams made sure that there would be a high-scoring, close match. Two players, very similar in approach, on both sides took this opportunity to score a big century each. The presence of bowlers probably did not matter - it could be a bowling machine being operated, such was the dominance. Long ago, India had scored 299 in 40 overs in an ODI against Sri Lanka only for Roshan Mahanama to play a great innings to get them close to the winning post. Dilshan played a similar blinder to bring back the confidence of the Lankans after the first innings massacre but had to suffer the same fate as Roshan!!!

Sehwag has been criticised often that he did not play ODI's as per his potential or that he did not have the same success in ODIs as much he had in test matches. His big ton in the test match against Sri Lanka was the starting point - Gary Kirsten had asked him to spend time at the crease early, against hitting from ball one. Once he became comfortable, the runs would flow automatically. He almost scored his third triple ton. Today, he scored his highest in ODI matches. Sachin Tendulkar was there at the crease to calm him down and offer advice where required - this worked like a charm. Tendulkar himself was no less aggressive - he was matching Sehwag with the runs till he fell in a very familiar manner against Dilahara Fernando.

Sehwag continued and one felt that he would reach his double century (that Sachin had remarked earlier this year). The power-play is one introduction that has confused the players on the field - especially the batsmen. They feel that it is the right to score more runs than normal and take risks unncessary. Here, the team was going at a rate of 8.5 and more, but still the power-play introduction resulted in fall of wickets (in fact, contributing to a middle-order slump). Till then, MS Dhoni had matched Sehwag's run-rate.

Since becoming a captain, MSD had reduced his strike-rate to cut out the risks and play percentage cricket (ones and twos) before exploding at the end. Here, he had a long batting line-up to follow and could unleash his well-known shots. The only complaint (if one had any) was that Gambhir was not suited at the role he came out to play - this led to his early fall. But, no grouses anyway - the total was more than what India would have planned at the beginning of the match. Sri Lanka's bowlers had no role to play in the Indian innings - there was no specialist spinner and Sangakkara had to depend on his quicker bowlers and part-timers to help out.

Sri Lanka started on a similar note. If Sehwag waited initially and started his heroics, Dilshan followed a similar pattern. He left the big shots to Tharanga while he settled down. Once ready, he unleashed his range of strokes to take the breath (and noise) away from the Indians. The bowlers did not know where to bowl, such was his dominance. Dhoni tried out various options but none of them could make any impact. MSD was getting enough dose of his own medicine.

The situation had changed to such an extent that it resembled a T20 match after 30 overs - 164 required in 20 overs, nine wickets in hand, five Powerplay overs. Advantage Sri Lanka unless India grabbed two or three wickets quickly. Dilshan settled down after the initial flurry and got easy boundaries almost every over. This meant that his partners could ease in as well. Sangakkara came out and continued his good form from the T20 matches. It was no surprise that the man can bat but to destroy the opposition by hitting orthodox shots was something out of the ordinary. His dismissal (and couple of other wickets) made the match close. But, the long batting line-up of Sri Lanka was not to be disappointed.

Credit needs to be given to Harbhajan Singh for having the best run-rate (in terms of least runs given) among the bowlers on both sides. Zaheer and Nehra came back after a poor start to bring back India's chances in the last few overs. They attacked the batsmen by bowling yorkers (late swinging) and reduced the runs scored to a minimum. The fielders came into their actual form as well, bagging two run-outs at a crucial time. This was perhaps the turning point of the match. The others could not do much in the match - maybe MSD should start bowling now!!!

Hopefully, the next few matches will have pitches that support the bowlers also. It is also time for the real Mike Young to stand up please.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Sri Lanka fall just short in pursuit of India's 417 (telegraph.co.uk)

India's ODI tryst with Sri Lanka begins

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The Indian team starts its ODI series against Sri Lanka after the successful test series and evenly-contested T20 series. The Indians must feel confident about winning the series, considering the difference between the two teams in the ICC Rankings.

The return of Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan will strengthen the team, adding great experience to the team. More than the batting, the Indian team needs the return of the bowlers to increase their chances. Yuvraj Singh might be missing from the team, which is a definite negative.

The batting order looks settled with Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Raina (if Yuvraj is not in the eleven), MS Dhoni at the top. Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar and Harbhajan Singh form the allrounders who can contribute to both the departments. Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra will be the opening bowlers for the Indian team. There is space for one more batsman or allrounder in the team and one wonders who will be the lucky one (Virat Kohli seems to be the front-runner).

The batting of Sri Lanka seems to be in a strong shape also - Jayasuriya, Dilshan followed by Sangakkara and Jayawardene and Kapugedera was good enough to touch 200 in both the T20 matches. The Sri Lankan team seems to miss the services of a good spinner (there was just one over by a spinner in the last T20). Mendis seems to be off form while it is not known how much Murali has recovered. Malinga also might miss the match, which will put the pressure squarely on the Lankans.

All in all, a good series in the reckoning - the Indians are my favorites to win convincingly.

Related articles by Zemanta

• India beat Sri Lanka to tie series as Yuvraj Singh shines in second Twenty20 match (telegraph.co.uk)

Birthday boy Yuvraj takes India home at Mohali T20

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India seems to be continuing their form from their previous match, both in the bowling and fielding areas. The match started off in the same way as Nagpur - wayward bowling, fours and sixes aplenty in the first 10 overs. The run-rate hardly came below 11-12 runs per over for Sri Lanka - thus was their dominance. Sangakkara, again, showed their worth with shots that were classy as well as effective.

Was it the lights that caused the catches to be dropped? Or was it the innovative methods of Young that they are not able to pick up (are they not picking his accent)? Whatever the reason maybe, there were far too many of them dropped. Coupled with the number of wides that were bowled by the bowlers, the Indians had no means to stop the marauding Lankans. Somehow, the Indians seem to have totally missed the plot in T20s, in the bowling & fielding division at least.

The Indian openers came out in a determined fashion to take risks and keep the run-rate going towards the required run-rate. The running was haywire while the shots did not come off Gambhir's middle of the bat. Sehwag, however, did well and scored the big shots to keep the scorecard ticking. Fifty partnerships for the first two wickets set up the chase very well.

In came Yuvraj, at the fall of Sehwag's wicket. He put on 80 runs with MS Dhoni in less than 6 overs with his typical shots - bent knee and lofted shots in the V (mostly sixes). The Sri Lankan fielders had no respite - even they followed the Indians by dropping many chances. I feel that it is the wind or the lights or the slippery surface within the ground that made them drop the catches. MSD got out during the last mile of the chase but the matter was just a formality by then. Couple of wickets fell at the end but not impacting the final result.

The series was squared with a convincing batting performance but the bowling/fielding of the Indians left a lot to be desired.

The R-B dashboard is given below


The Dashboard shows how the difference was brought down by the brilliant batting of the first 4 batsmen.

India's test future needs to be closely monitored

After India's defeat against Sri Lanka in the Nagpur T20 as well as reading Harbhajan's article on Cricinfo, it is a question whether India is hungry enough to win in T20 and test matches.

Background - India, with new faces and a brave fresh captain, won the T20 World Cup in South Africa. The win, started the boom of T20 matches marketed innovatively by Lalit Modi as the IPL circus. The players made truckloads of money because of the business model of the IPL. In T20 internationals however, the team has been losing almost every other match against significant opposition.

The present - India thrashed Sri Lanka by an innings and more to get to the No.1 slot. This was one of the achievements that was really treasured by the current pack as well as the ones who were part of the team in the near past. Of course, the entire nation enjoyed the achievement with media going overboard as usual.

The ODI pinnacle is the one that is missing in the Indian team's cabinet. Of course, they were No.1 in the ICC rankings also, but the World Cup has been absent from 1983 onwards.

Hence, the question for the team is whether the focus going forward will be only on the ODI matches. The scheduling of test matches also does not help the Indians. MS Dhoni and Gary Kirsten might have the answers.

Sri Lanka thrash India in Nagpur T20

India lost to Sri Lanka in the first T20 match at Nagpur.

Sangakkara played a brilliant innings to take the team to a massive total. The catching was terrible and the Indians had no clue on how to stop the Lankans. The Indians started off on a good note with Gambhir thrashing the bowlers to all sides. Once he was dismissed, India went on a free-fall that could not be stopped.

The R-B dashboard is shown below



The comments from the captains -
Kumar Sangakkara : "The wicket was pretty good to bat on. What set us up was that the two openers saw through the six overs, even though they didn't get off to a flying start. We were outstanding in the first 16 overs, we need to a bit more ruthless and finish them off. Great all-round performance, everyone fought hard and showed hunger to win."

MS Dhoni : "At least we were not missing catches before. We are not a brilliant fielding side, but we are not known to dropping catches. It's getting difficult for us to get into T20 groove. Most of us treat them as warm-up for ODIs."

From test matches to T20

The action shifts from the 5 day matches to a 3-hour one. Sri Lanka would have enjoyed the break from the Mumbai test and renewed their energies - the coach and the support staff would have been over-worked during this time to ensure that the negative energies are totally wiped off the mind of the Lankans. The ODI/T20 specialists who have flown in recently will also lift the dressing room atmosphere. Muttiah Muralitharan is not likely to play because of a finger injury. Another veteran Sanath Jayasuriya will return to the fold. Others who come into the squad are Chamara Kapugedara, Chinthaka Jayasinghe, Kaushal Weeraratne, Muthumudalige Pushpakumara and Lasith Malinga.

India must have spent their time in enjoying their No.1 rankings in the test matches. Of course, T20 is a different ball-game and they seem to have slipped recently. The fact that this series is in India will help the team however. India announced the squad with 3 newcomers - R Ashwin, Ashok Dinda and Sudeep Tyagi. This seems to be more of an exercise to give them a feel of the Indian squad - a close view of how the players prepare and time to pick the minds of the seniors in the squad.

Nagpur and Mohali are the two venues and it does not matter how the pitch behaves - 40 overs is too less to figure out any changes of the character of the pitch.

MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma will vie for the batting slots (7 of them). It will be a good option if Dhoni steps down for one match so that he can rest himself before the ODI series start. If not, Dinesh Karthik might be the person to lose out.

Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Sreesanth, Ashok Dinda, Sudeep Tyagi, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha are the bowlers who will compete for 4 slots. The 3 who might be rested for the first match might be Ashish Nehra (for his poor fielding skills), Ashok Dinda, Sudeep Tyagi.

ICC Test Rankings - A Review

An interesting document on the ICC Rankings in retrospective on howstat site - shows that India would have been No.1 earlier also !!!

There have been many discussions on whether India deserved to be No.1. There are various articles explaining the small steps taken, the road to the pinnacle and opinions from ex-cricketers. It is a sad fact that the Indians would not play test cricket for a long time.

I thought that I would do an analysis of the situation in test matches - the table below shows the results of tests played between all the test-playing nations (Zimbabwe for obvious reasons are not considered).

The chart below shows interesting results. Each row shows the record of teams played by the ones in the different columns in the country (in 1st column for the relevant row).  For example, the first row shows the results of series of South Africa in India, Australia, England, and so on. The corresponding column for South Africa (4th column) shows the performance in other countries (like Australia, India, England and so on).

Overseas tours

• South Africa have lost only in Sri Lanka whereas they have drawn series in India and New Zealand. 
• Australia have lost to India, England
• India have lost to Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan
• England have lost to India, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies
• Sri Lanka have lost to India, Australia, South Africa & drawn with England
  

Home series

• South Africa have lost only to Australia and England
• Australia recently lost to South Africa
• India have drawn series against South Africa and New Zealand, lost to none
• England have lost to South Africa and India.
• Sri Lanka have lost to Australia only
  

Overall, it is a confusing scenario and obviously ICC has thought about it with the number of points. Some of the series have been played so long back that it does not justify the result currently like for example, India and New Zealand at home is a drawn series.

Based on the performance, I would say that India does justify the No.1 status.

India at the peak of ICC Test Rankings - Mumbai final day

It did not take a long time for India to wrap up the Sri Lankan innings. Zaheer Khan had a plan, that he executed to perfection. Once Sangakkara went down, it was a matter of time the others went down.

Harbhajan took the last wicket of Murali triggering off celebrations within the Indian team. This was one victory that was sweet in more ways than one. The No.1 ranking was the icing on the cake for the Indian team who have reached the peak of both test and ODI rankings in the last few months. Hopefully, they stay as the Test No.1 for a long period. The scheduling of test matches does not help the Indian team - they face Bangladesh next and then go without a test series for a long time.

The selectors should be credited for their policies on replacements - especially Sreesanth, Ojha and Murali Vijay. They should follow the same policy for the replacements of other players (even though they might be playing well as of now). Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli are the likely batsmen to get into the test team while the bowling needs to be planned in a better way. Probably, a full-time bowling coach needs to be reinstated. The fielding is being reinforced with Mike Young in the forthcoming days.

The session dashboard shows the status at the end of the test match. Need one say more?

Evolution of Sehwag

While watching the latest Sehwag-show, there was a doubt in my mind about his evolution as a batsman. He seemed to be a more well-rounded batsman compared to the other big knocks he had played before. Hence, this analysis is based on the wagon-wheels of the 4 big knocks that Sehwag has played in his test career.

Sehwag Wagon Wheels

The wagon-wheels show how Sehwag has evolved in the last 5 years. The knock in Multan shows the areas behind cover and square-leg as his prefered routes. The V in front of the wicket seems to be in minority. The off-side is the one where Sehwag showed his complete range of strokes starting from the cut over thirdman and his square drives. The leg-side sixes are the ones which he made of Saqlain (most remarkable being the one to get to his 300).

The next innings in Lahore also follows the same pattern where the favorite strokes are the cuts and cover-drives. The Pakistan bowlers had not studied the previous Multan innings - for they repeated the same mistakes and bowled to the areas that Sehwag likes a lot.

The Chennai innings was quite instrumental in reviving the image of Sehwag as a dashing batsman in his own right. This followed a phase where the bowlers all over the world had a plan on how to strangle him with balls angled to his body. Sehwag was dropped from the test side and went back to the drawing board with his long-time coach. There the transition happened and Sehwag was ready with a plan. The off-side is still prefered but the on-side strokes started to appear on the wagon-wheels against the pace bowlers also. This innings was played against Ntini, Steyn, Kallis.

The latest one against SriLanka in Mumbai shows that he has indeed become an all-round player. The strokes show a beautiful balance on either side. The leg-side strokes are the ones he has picked up recently - in fact, he played this in the IPL matches to great success.

Bowlers all round the world beware!!! 

Start making new plans for the Delhi Dasher. 

Your earlier plans have to be replaced.

Sri Lanka hang on - Mumbai fourth day

The Indian team wanted to wrap the series and the No.1 ranking by today. They got the prize wicket of Dilshan very early in the day - this must have brightened their hopes of an early close. But, Paranavitana and Sangakkara thought otherwise. They played really well to negate whatever the Indians could throw at them. Until Sreesanth was brought into the attack.

If Sreesanth can continue his good behavior and great form on the field, he can be the best bowler in the world - his talent is such. He also needs to improve his consistency in bowling - mixing ordinary balls with great ones seems to be his forte. In the morning, he made the batsmen play to his tune and took the wicket of the other opener.

Sangakkara has struggled always in his Indian sojourn and he was determined to bow out on a high. He played all the bowlers with the respect their balls deserved and nothing more. As the day grew, his confidence returned and he seemed to be nearing his best form.

The other batsmen who had to support him - Mahela Jayawardene and Samaraweera - disappointed. Samaraweera seems to have a problem with the short ball, which justifies his good record on the subcontinent and average one outside.

Matthews and Prasanna could not repeat their erstwhile heroics and left Sangakkara high and dry. Kulasekara gave good company to Kumar till the end of day.

The Indians should feel disappointed that the match was not completed today. Their bowlers tried their best but could not breakthrough when required. Harbhajan bowled a good spell in the morning but became average as the shadows lengthened. Zaheer and Ojha did a good job but even they could not beat Sangakkara. MS Dhoni was guilty of not utilizing his part-time bowlers a bit more.

The Session Dashboard is still in favor of the Indians - a quick wrap-up tomorrow will seize the match.

India on course for the No.1 position - Mumbai third day

The main interest in the first session today was whether Sehwag would complete his third 300 and continue towards Lara's record. After adding 9 runs, Sehwag was dismissed by Muralidharan - he later remarked that he was happy with 293!!! All hopes of the crowd went down immediately. Murali must have thought that this was his lucky day and would have harbored thoughts of a big haul of wickets which finally came true - well, a haul of four against India in India is a big one for Murali by his standards.

After Sehwag's dismissal, normal cricket resumed and it was clearly evident that the pitch was not so great for batting. Thanks to Sehwag's pace, the Indians still had a chance to bat on the pitch at its best. Even then, the bowlers were able to strangle the new batsmen at the crease. Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman scored half-centuries without carrying on further. The runs scored today was in stark contrast with what was achieved yesterday. Whatever rate it was, the fact that the Indians were spending time at the crease must have delighted MS Dhoni.

The pitch was playing true even in the morning and MS Dhoni must have thought about playing the entire day and take a lead of close to 300 over the Lankans. The pitch would then do its bit on the last 2 days thereby giving the Indians the match and the series. He had to do the staying part with the help of the last man, while scoring his 3rd century - his sixes helping him in no small margin. MSD has the Midas touch going and I am sure if he buys a Lotto ticket, he will win even a billion dollars.

The Sri Lankan bowlers bowled well, especially Herath (though he was luckless). Murali finally picked up wickets that would have comforted him after the thrashing he received the previous day. Sangakkara was clueless and it seemed that he was wishing the T20 and ODI series started earlier than scheduled. He must be hoping for the men in his team who have scored 1000 runs already in this year to do an India (in the first test) - Samaraweera, Dilshan, Jayawardene and himself are going to be key.

The Session Dashboard has Sri Lanka gaining points today thanks to the wickets taken. Overall, the Indians have a huge lead in the test match that Sri Lanka will take a bit to negotiate. Do expect the spinners to come to the fore tomorrow - interesting day tomorrow. Dont be surprised if the match is over on the fourth day itself - the Lankans wilted to pressure in the second test, they can do it again.Bayliss has bravely mentioned that his team is confident of scoring 400 - brave words!!!

India steam ahead - Mumbai second day

What a match? What a man?


This is probably the best innings one has seen in the last few decades in response to a score of nearly 400.

The Indians took the remaining two wickets of the Lankans in the morning and the scorecard read 393. Enter the Indian openers. The Lankans thought that they had a good chance to take control of the match. Sehwag and Vijay had other ideas. What happened next cannot be explained in words.Partnerships of more than 220 for the first and second (so far) wickets ensured that India sped away with the match in the manner of a Formula-One team.

Vijay and Rahul Dravid played good supporting roles to ensure that Sehwag does what he is good at. And Sehwag was not just good, he stole the thunder from the Lankans to such an extent that the Dream of Final Frontier was promptly laid to rest. It was carnage, to say the least. He features in three of the top four, and five of the top ten fastest double-centuries in Tests.The gentleman has moved quite a long way from the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar but such innings show that he can get into the leagues of the Greats also.

What does the man say about his day -

I missed the big knock in the last Test. I didn't want to miss out this time. I just wanted to hit the bad balls. I was watching the ball really well. I just wanted to see the ball and hit the ball. It's a good track to bat on. The first day the pitch was damp and so it was spinning and seaming but it has gone now. Day 4 and 5 it will turn again. Muralitharan is a big challenge to face; rather than wait for him to dominate I wanted to dominate him.

The Session dashboard shows the current status - India has taken a strong grip on the test match and I cant see how SriLanka will come back from this thrashing today. The series is going 2-0 and India deserve to be the No.1 on the ICC Rankings.

Honours even - Mumbai first day

Picture Courtesy: Cricinfo Site

For once, Sangakkara called it right and got a chance to bat first on a track that many suggested was true. The 3-spinner strategy was changed to a 5-bowler one. Kulasekara was the bowler called back in place of Mendis. India had the forced change of Vijay in place of Gambhir.

The first session was completely Sri Lanka's. The opening pair started off in the fashion that would have done Sehwag and Gambhir proud. The initial swing that the bowlers got, were negated with ease. Runs started to flow so quickly that Sreesanth was taken off the attack and Harbhajan brought in. With his introduction, the scoring rate reduced from over five.

Dilshan started off where he left in the first test - playing his natural game while waiting for the bad balls. His good year continued and he was determined to stay for a long time at the wicket to give the advantage of the toss won. The batsmen around him started falling off, after a good start. Sangakkara has shown that his captaincy is not good for his batting - he fell early once again. So, did Mahela Jayawardene. It was a combination of good tight bowling at both ends that did the trick.

With all respect to Matthews, the sight of him coming to the crease would have given a lot of hope to the Indian bowlers. But Matthews did not let his reputation drag his performance down. He gave good support to Dilshan first and set about repairing the innings with the help of Prasanna Jayawardene. Runs started to flow when edges went to third-man area, making the bowlers despair. Kulasekara also joined the fun at the end of the day. The new ball did not seem to make much of an impact initially but the Indians managed to take wickets.

Harbhajan and Sreesanth bowled probing spells in the first 2 sessions that got them wickets as well as reduced the run-flow. Runs were conceded in the third session when the bowlers tired a bit. Bhajji would have been thrilled with his success after a long time. Ojha played a decent supporting cast to ensure the pressure was on Sri Lanka. The pitch was helpful only if you adhered to the basic rules of line and length. Zaheer Khan was guilty of not doing it and went for runs. The Indians were slightly better than the Lankan bowlers on the first day of the second test - probably the captaincy of MS Dhoni was better. A Sehwag on this pitch would have been an option worth trying.

The Indians did well to peg back the Lankans after the initial flyer of a start. But, the Lankans have more than 360 on the board. If the Indians can take the remaining wickets quickly on the morrow, the batsmen can then give a solid reply. The match will be interestingly poised in the next day or two.

Does Australia need the series against West Indies

Shane Warne commented that the Two-tier system is crucial to save test matches - after the first test between Australia and West Indies at Brisbane.

I love Test cricket, but I think it is has got to the stage where there are some things that need to be addressed.

I reckon we need a two-tier system for Test cricket with a grand final for the top two sides in a neutral venue in a one-off Test.

So how is the top five decided? The ICC rankings would get credibility as the system that determines which tier each country goes to.

The other advantage of a two-tier system is Test captains will need to play to win, to protect their spot in the top tier, which will surely result in more entertaining cricket.

This is something very similar to what was mentioned on this blog not so long ago. I couldn't agree more.