Champions Trophy 2013 - India and England

India meets England on the 23rd June in the final of the last-ever Champions Trophy at Birmingham (two days before the 30th anniversary of their greatest victory in limited over internationals - the 1983 World Cup win) trying to go farther than their earlier achievements in the tournament (Joint Winners in Colombo and finalist in Nairobi). The Champions Trophy has given us great memories over the years and a win this time will be the icing on the cake.

The match seems to be quite evenly matched with a solid English side playing on familiar home conditions against a young fearless Indian team. Though on the surface it appears that the Indian batting is its strength (which might still be the case), the tournament statistics so far reveals a different picture.

If one looks at the top bowling performers, Jimmy Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja are at the top of the table for their countries with the same number of wickets. They are followed by a bunch of Indian bowlers (Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashwin) and a bunch of Englishmen (Broad, Tredwell, Bresnan, Bopara) before being rounded off by Umesh Yadav. The economy rates for the Indians have been quite remarkable while the English team's numbers have been dented by the loss against Sri Lanka.

Jadeja's accuracy and strike rate especially against the English middle order (who will be suspect to his spin) will be key while Ishant and Umesh will have to be at their accurate best. Ishant has always troubled the English captain and he will do well to repeat the same in the final. Ashwin will be expected to bamboozle the team with his bag of tricks. If the English weather comes to the fore (which seems to be the case seeing the weather site), the bowlers from the home team (led by Anderson) will test the Indian batsmen to the max. Broad and Bresnan seem to be struggling and hopefully the Indians will be able to take advantage of their erractic form.

On the batting front, only the Indian openers are present in the top six run-scoring batsmen on either side. This could be attributed to the fact that the rest of the Indian team have hardly had any chance to play, thanks to the remarkable partnerships put up by Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan (two fifies and two hundreds in 5 innings - least being 48). That is where the Indian captain and coach will have to worry about - Dhoni doesnt figure at all in this list (since he had to play only one innings). It will be truly the final test for the openers to prove their worth in a big match against a testing opposition - if they can pull it off, their confidence will surely move up one notch.

The Rotation Rate surprisingly has been in favour of the Englishmen in this tournament (players like Trott, Root and Cook) seem to be better placed compared to the Indians. The reason for this is the fact that the Indians are more circumspect in their approach, preferring to play dot-balls at the beginning to protect their wicket (though looking at Dhawan one cannot agree with this conclusion) while bringing the T20-style big shots at the end. It is also partly due to the fact that the Indians have been chasing smaller targets in this competition so far. The English are doing good in recent matches and their coach must be hoping for an encore in the final. They are up against the World Cup champions and it will be a big challenge for them to bring out their A-game.

My prediction - an Indian win, no doubt!

Champions Trophy 2013 - India continue the good work

The Indian team seems to be doing all the right moves while the others are suffering a spate of bad form (Sri Lanka and Pakistan) and injuries (South Africa, England, Australia).

The match between India and West Indies (30 years after the epic 1983 World Cup final) was one-sided except for the first 20 overs. 'Sir' Ravindra Jadeja was the one who made maximum damage to the Windies innings. Neither Bravo nor Pollard could make a big difference to the target set by West Indies and the Indian fielders raised to the occasion (easily one could say that this was the best ever Indian fielding side). Umesh Yadav was off mark during the match while Ishant and Ashwin provided good support to Jadeja. Sammy made sure that the Windies management took notice of his all-round skills.

MS Dhoni was, as usual, cool when the Windies were scoring heavily at the top. Making all the right moves and triggering off a collapse in the middle order, Dhoni could not later put the brakes on Sammy's blitzkrieg. But, this match must have given him a good sense of his team and the 'hot' form they are in.

Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma seem to have gelled together at the top and a consecutive century partnership in this match means that Viru Sehwag and Gauti Gambhir have to wait even further (in case the selectors decide to take a back step). Kohli was dismissed quickly but Dinesh Karthik cashed in on his good form to take the team past the target.

The Indian team is now through to the semifinals which means that they need to continue the winning run further. So far on the England sojourn, this win meant that India have won 4 matches in a row. It will be good if they have their off-day in the tournament against Pakistan (they have lost twice in Champions Trophy against their arch-rivals) and return back to form for the last two matches.

Champions Trophy beckons - is it the last?

From all quarters, everyone seems to be proclaiming this as the last Champions Trophy to be played! There had been many noises around the world where no one were convinced about the stature of the tournament (conceived by Sharad Pawar initially). One hardly remembers anything about the editions that have gone by except for those few and far between. West Indies (in their decline) and New Zealand have won one edition each while India & Sri Lanka shared the trophy (match being a no-result after 110 overs were played!) once.

The memory that stays in my mind is the quarterfinal of the 2000 edition between India and Australia for many reasons. This match was played when the Australian team was slamming every other team in the world.  India was rebuilding under Sourav Ganguly and had two relatively new players in their side - Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh (at the age of 18 years, playing his second match). Both of them used this match to pitch themselves to the forefront.

Image Courtesy: Cricinfo

The first image of the match was the way Sachin Tendulkar ran out of his crease to upset McGrath's rhythm. Known for his stinginess at the bowling crease, McGrath was thrashed for 61 runs in his 9 overs after the initial flurry from Sachin.

Yuvraj Singh was one player who made his reputation in this match by his match-winning innings, following up on Sachin's blitzkrieg. To quote Steve Waugh:

As a striker of the ball he played an excellent innings. He kept the composure of the side going and he saw them basically through to the end so it was a match-winning innings.

Zaheer Khan, in fact, was a revelation with his yorkers (Steve Waugh was one casualty) throughout the tournament staking claim to be one of the bowlers to be looked out for. Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad were looking for a third bowler to ensure that the pressure they created could be sustained and Zaheer proved that he was a good fit. What a revelation he would turn out for India in the years to come.

India defeated South Africa next but lost to (Chris) Cairns-inspired NewZealand in the finals.

Zaheer and Yuvraj were in contention for the 2013 version also - this itself speaks about their longevity and talent that they demonstrated in this 2000 match.

Do you remember any other image of the Champions Trophy? 

2013 Champions Trophy - Indian team to be announced

The Indian team will be announced on 4th May for this year's Champions Trophy, pruning down the list from the 30-member squad announced earlier.

The probables separated by different categories are as follows:

• Openers - M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand. Based on the IPL performances, Gambhir and Chand do not have any performances to take note. Dhawan is high on confidence after his debut test as well as the matches he has played in IPL so far. Rahane can be the spare opener in the squad as well.
• Middle-order - Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu. Kohli, Raina will walk into the squad while Rahane is a good option to have. Manoj Tiwary is injured (again) and if he deems fit, he might be a strong contender along with the eternal selection - Rohit Sharma.
• Wicket-keepers - Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik. There is no doubt on who is the main keeper. Karthik's blazing form in IPL means that he will play the dual role of spare wicket-keeper as well as a middle-order option.
• Spinners - R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Jalaj Saxena, Parvez Rasool. Since the Champions Trophy is being played in England, there is no need to have more than two spinners in the squad (especially when a lot of batsmen can bowl part-time spin as well).
• Medium/Fast Bowlers - Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Shami Ahmed, Irfan Pathan, Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Ishwar Pandey, Siddarth Kaul. It will be interesting to see which five bowlers will be selected for the tournament - my first preference would be  Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Irfan Pathan, Vinay Kumar, Ishant Sharma. The performance of Bhuvneshwar against the likes of Gayle, Dhoni has been remarkable while Umesh has shown that he has recovered well from his injuries. Irfan provides an all-round option to the team wile Vinay has been one of the top five wicket-taking bowlers in IPL. Ishant Sharma comes in mainly for his "experience" as well as his speed. Praveen Kumar can be a good alternative if the selection committee needs to look beyond Ishant.

The final squad will thereby be

1. M Vijay, 
2. Shikhar Dhawan, 
3. Virat Kohli, 
4. Suresh Raina, 
5. Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra
6. Rohit Sharma/Manoj Tiwary, 
7. MS Dhoni, 
8. Dinesh Karthik, 
9. R Ashwin, 
10. Ravindra Jadeja, 
11. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 
12. Umesh Yadav, 
13. Irfan Pathan, 
14. Vinay Kumar, 
15. Ishant Sharma/Praveen Kumar

Update: The team was announced and as predicted, no Gambhir and Yuvraj were there in the squad. Amit Mishra is present in the team in place of Ajinkya Rahane while my suggestions of Manoj Tiwary and Praveen Kumar were rejected :( Not bad to see that my thinking was very close with Sandeep Patil and his team :)

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.

Post-mortem of India's performance at CT

Champions Trophy - Group Phase (Updated)

After the initial set of matches the tournament is poised at an interesting phase. The favorites of before are on the verge of bowing out early.

Group A


Group B


The cells without color are the matches not played yet - that has my predicted favorites mentioned.

Let us see how the rest of the matches unfold.

India - Pakistan at CT

India meet Pakistan after nearly 2 years on the cricketing soil. Pakistan is desperate to defeat India while the latter is keeping mum because of various reasons. The absence of Yuvraj Singh makes it tough for the Indians who are already missing Sehwag and Zaheer.

India can win only if:

• Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni make a significant contribution with the bat
• Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh create an impact with the ball
• The youngsters prove that India is miles ahead on the fielding/catching front

Sachin, recently, is on a mission to prove that his contribution to critical matches are vital - looks like he has read all the works of the critics about his deficiencies & ready to prove them wrong.

Pakistan, on the other hand, seem to have everything working for them. The pressure of the match as well as that of their seniors (Younis and Afridi have been making statements on how Pakistan want to win this match so badly) will be a factor - can they convert it to a positive energy? Seems possible. They have a good balance in their team and look very positive - the recent T20 win must have boosted their confidence a lot. Only their inherent idiosyncrasies can bring them down.

This should be an interesting match for Pakistan's victory will almost guarantee them the spot in the Semi-finals (unless they fare very badly in the last match). India would want to start on a positive note.

Verdict - Of course, India !!!

Champions Trophy - Group Phase

The ongoing Champions Trophy will definitely throw up some surprises, as is the wont of these ICC events.

My picks on the outcome of the matches of Group A and Group B are as follows:

Group A


Group B



I might be biased towards India but that is what I feel might be the points table after the Group matches. Let us see.