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Session-dashboard - Tracking Test Matches as they progress.
Tracking T20 run-chases in an innovative manner - See here.
While the Indian senior team was dominating South Africa in the limited over series in South Africa, their Under-19 comrades outshone their opposition in the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand, Coached by the legendary Rahul Dravid, the team won the final convincingly to lift the Cup against the powerful Australians! Overall performane by the Indians dominated the headlines, especially the fast bowlers, middle-order batsmen and captain Prithvi Shaw!
Images from Cricinfo website
While this is great, what becomes important is how many of these players make it to the senior team - have a look at the team that won in 2008 - Virat Kohli, Jadeja, Manish Pandey have graduated nicely but not much is known about the other players. Hopefully, we should nurture this team properly and ensure we get maximum representations in the senior team soon!
After the South African tour, the Indian selectors picked virtually a second-string Indian team to participate in the tri-series with hosts Sri Lanka and neighbor Bangladesh. No room for players like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya. In came new faces like Washington Sundar, Vijay Shankar, Rishabh Pant, Mohammad Siraj, Shardul Thakur. With such a galaxy of new faces, India stormed to the finals and won the Cup, thanks to a cool Dinesh Karthik!
The Indian team closed out the international season with a memorable win and a dominating performance in the tournament, even with a second-string team. Kudos!!
All images from ESPN Cricinfo website
Clearly convincing wins by the Indians over Bangladesh by 6 wickets, 17 runs, 4 wickets in the finals and over the hosts by 6 wickets, Only one loss versus Sri Lanka in the first match dented the performance slightly!
Karthik fidgeted around in his case and changed the lengths of the eight balls he faced, to slap a quick 29 to seal the match and tournament for India.
Throughout the tournament, it was consistent performances by Washington Sundar, Y. Chahal, Shardul Thakur that caught the eye of the Indian fans and Management. It augurs well to see that the pool for the Indian team is expanding with new faces. If Vijay Shankar had contributed as well with the bat, as he did with the ball, it would have been brilliant. But, nevertheless, this tournament was a BIG gain for the Indians! Next is IPL, where I am looking for newer faces!
Thanks to their wins away versus Sri Lanka and at home versus the Aussies, India reached the No.1 position in ICC Rankings!
Sri Lanka series
The ODIs were closer as compared to the test series, thanks to the young spinner Akhila Dananjaya. India coasted while chasing - winning by nine, three, six and six wickets - and crushed the Lankans after setting a huge target.Openers Rohit, Rahane or Dhawan continued their good form while Pandya surprised everyone with his exploits with bat and ball. MSD showed he could still win matches for his country while Manish Pandey remained in contention for a spot in the middle order with Jadhav. Bhuvi took his first five wicket haul while Shardul Thakur impressed as a backup quick The spinners and Bumrah were terrific to hand India a sweep of the ODI series!
In Dhoni's hometown, Black Caps scored a total that was just beyond India's reach. Kohli, Dhoni left early, putting the onus on lower middle order. They tried their best, learning a lot in the process, but could not win the match. Dhoni asked for more patience, which is fair.
The Indian bowlers continued their good work to pull back the target but even that turned out to be tall by six runs for the Indian batting.
Kohli failed for once and MSD couldnt get going in a rare occurence. Hardik Pandya tried his best but that could only reduce the losing margin. NZ levelled the series but the Indians will be keen to come back and win the series.
After easily winning the overseas tour in West Indies, India come back home to host the Black Caps later this month. The Indian team was announced by the selection committee.The last day of the Duleep Trophy is still to be played as the squad was announced. Also, the India A team has to come back from Down Under - the selection could have been timed slightly better is the view. From the Duleep Trophy, what did we learn?
Cheteshwara Pujara has no rival in domestic cricket. But why is he given the second-hand treatment?Check what the coach thinks of him.
There is a big chasm of difference between Ashwin and his near competitor ( Pervez Rasool).
Similarly, Amit Mishra is not being pushed hard enough by Karn Sharma or Shreyas Gopal
Though there are options like Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey, Sanju Samson, the selectors wished to retain Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma based on potential and performances.
Anil Kumble will continue with Virat Kohli the same plan that MSD had successfully pursued at home soil earlier - look at the squad for an indication of the pitches we can see.But, how will Kohli as captain fare versus the master tactician MSD?Tough question and challenge!
Sourav Ganguly made an emotional return while Manish Pandey scored his highest this season. But, it was Mitchelle Marsh's performance in the match that made it easy for Pune Warriors to stop their losses.
RCBfailed against Deccan Charges on 10th April - 4 losses in the last 5 matches.
This is mostly due to the fact that the bowlers did not defend the score but more importantly, the strip was so good that Deccan batsmen could chase the score easily.
The top-order of RCB seems to be very heavy - especially if you have Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid in the Top3. Manish Pandey and Kallis seem to be the right opening pair for the team but Rahul is not the right No.3.
The Team Management would do good to give a chance to Srivats Goswami - he can do the role of a wicket-keeper (though Uthappa is doing a fairly good job in his role). He scored heavily in the recent ODI matches and hence would give a better balance to the team than Dravid. Though I hold Dravid in high esteem, he seems to be out of sorts in this format - it is better that he is rested for the remaining matches.
Of the four foreign players in the playing eleven, Kallis, Steyn, Ross Taylor and Cameron White would be the ideal players in the Top seven. Manish, Uthappa and Goswami will finish the remaining slots in batting. The bowling will be taken care by the captain Kumble, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar and Appanna. This will be a good balanced squad for RCB - containing the dashers as well as the steady batsmen. Of course, Virat Kohli is missing - maybe he might be swapped for Appanna.
This eleven will give a better chance to win the match against Kolkata and in the future games.
Mumbai won the Ranji Trophy today to win the title for the 39th time. It was one of the interesting matches (let alone domestic) in recent history. Two factors was very evident here - the crowd support in the Tier-2 centre, the sporting pitch on offer. These two ensured that the match was interesting on all days. Only if the BCCI were sporting enough to pre-pone the match to allow Rahul Dravid play the match!!! The last match that I remembered was the one where Haryana defeated Bombay in the final - Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar being the rival players who made the match memorable.
Manish Pandey has proved himself in the IPL by being the only Indian to score a century. He took couple of seasons in the domestic championship to display his wares. This season he is the leading run-getter for the country but his innings in the Final was proof enough that there is hope for the future Indian team. The teenager has so much of time to spare at the crease and approached the target with a very calculated approach. Only after his dismissal did Mumbai have any visions of victory. Surely a talent to watch in the coming days.
The Karnataka team had the bowlers with the highest number of wickets in the competition as well as the highest run-getter. They had not lost the first innings lead in any of the matches until the final. The young team displayed enough gumption to prove their mettle as runners-up.
But, the way Mumbai performed in this match (with their attitude) does not make them worthy winners. The way their senior bowlers - Ajit Agarkar and Dhawal Kulkarni behaved was disgusting to say the least - this from the players of Sunil Gavaskar's backyard was not expected. The lip-service that was given to the young Karnataka players was visible on national television for everyone to see - I am not sure how the BCCI has allowed such behavior to carry on in their domestic structure. The behavior carried on during the third day when the captain Robin Uthappa was given a colorful send-off. Competition is good but when combined with such a disgusting show of character, it does not befit the champion status.
Catch of the match - The star of the match, Manish Pandey, took a stunner on the field to dismiss Nayar.
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