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.

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.

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.

India dominate the match - Kanpur first day

What was supposed to be a 'more bowler-friendly wicket' turned out to be a graveyard for bowlers. Especially with Sri Lanka packing their side with 3 spinners, it proved to be a nightmare for their bowlers. Never have the Indian batsmen played so dominantly in their history. MS Dhoni did the right thing by opting to bat, after winning the toss. The first day, first session show his top-order performed in the first test was absent - to the misery of the Lankans.

Sehwag was dropped at 0 and made the best use of the chance - a century to him and a double-century opening stand with Gautam Gambhir set the tone for India. It was batting at its best. After the initial overs where he was circumspect, Sehwag opened out and his Strike Rate zoomed from thirties at one stage to more than hundred by the time he was out. Again, the bowling was at his mercy and only he could get himself out by a false stroke - this was evident by the way he stayed at the crease after his dismissal - a golden opportunity lost.

Gambhir continued his good run at the crease and reached his own century in the company of Rahul Dravid. The two continued the good work with a decent strike-rate (4 runs per over) to take India to 300 before Tea. Probably the fisrt time that a team had scored 300 in the first 2 sessions of a test match. He continued to accumulate runs after tea till a good catch by Murali sent him back for a well-made 167.

Rahul Dravid picked up the baton from Sehwag and started turning over the singles with Gambhir - he played his usual act while the stroke-maker made merry. The Wall is well and truly in full force - it will be a big hole to fill, if and when he decides to hang up his boots. He is on course to complete another century tomorrow - as is Sachin Tendulkar.

Sri Lanka suffered from their over-dependence on spin. Ajantha Mendis had his bowling smashed to all parts of the ground. The opening bowlers did not receive any support from the pitch to make any dent. If India gets its act together, the SriLankans are on their way to a loss in this test match. Obviously, a very early statement but Sri Lanka can do their best to prove me wrong.

The Session-dashboard does not show the exact dominance of the Indian team - because there is no points for dominating the match in such a manner. Each session is worth one point only and that is what India got in every session. The Lankans should get India out quickly tomorrow and hope for a good start. The pitch still looked good and I dont see any reason why the batsmen to follow Dravid and Tendulkar should not improve their averages.



Want to know how this works - check this blog post.

India start their fight for survival - 4th Day at Motera 2009

The SriLankan team started the day with a big lead and were determined to make it a huge one. Both the Jayawardene's started milking the bowling and the fours continued. It was quite strange to see the number of boundaries that were hit even on the fourth day. Without any risk-taking, the batsmen could score at a fair clip. The lead very quickly jumped to 300. The Indians had given up all hope of taking wickets - they were waiting for the Lankans to throw their wicket - which they didnt do. A world-record partnership (72-year-old world record for the highest sixth-wicket partnership in Tests was broken by the duo) shows the hunger of the two Jayawardenes - they wanted to ensure that the Srilankans do not bat again in the test match.

The bowlers were very tired by the end of the Srilankan innings and were very relieved that Sangakkara chose to declare - there was virtually no way they could get any wicket of SriLanka otherwise. It is high time the selectors think of the value Harbhajan is able to bring to the team and decide the road ahead - after Anil Kumble's retirement, the off-spinner was expected to don the mantle of the leading spinner. But, it has not happened so far. A stint in the Ranjis will do him a lot of good.

They declared the innings 334 ahead of the Indians - now, the Indian team had to bat the remaining 5 sessions to ensure that MS Dhoni's unbeaten run in test matches as captain continue. They have done it earlier this year and have the capability to repeat it. Will they actually do it?

Sehwag and Gambhir started as though they would clear the deficit by the end of Day 4 and give Sri Lanka a target to chase in the last 2 sessions. They were scoring at a fair clip till Sehwag decided to throw it away after scoring his fifty. He suffers bouts of impatience when slow bowlers bowl to him and this became his undoing once again. He just could not resist the temptation to launch every ball into horizon.

Rahul Dravid played well for his 38 before getting out to Welegedara again - in fact, it looked very close and he could consider himself unfortunate to be given out. Another good innings with an above-average strike-rate for Dravid. Gautam Gambhir had played an innings of almost 11 hours in NewZealand earlier this year - hence, he knows how the survival can be done. He did not waste any opportunity to score (going at a strike-rate of little more than 60).

On the final day, India need to play out 90 overs from Murali, Herath and the opening bowlers on a pitch that did not seem to have worne out too much. The odd ball was spinning and keeping low but the Indian batsmen knew that patience and shot-selection was very essential to go to the next test undefeated.

The session-win status is still very much in favor of Srilanka - the session-difference shows clearly the number of sessions that the Indians need to play well on the final day and draw the match. Another 144 runs separate the two teams, which should make the last day intriguing.

Indian test team announced for Srilanka series

The Selection Committee announced the squad for the India-SriLanka test series. Couple of surprises in the squad

• Sreesanth - Why he is in the team is a big suspense? He has played just one match (Irani Trophy) after his county stint. Of course, one more Ranji match where he didnt get any wickets. More than his form, his temper and temperament is a big question. Of course, if Zaheer and Ishant back & 3 spinners in the squad, he will be a backup option.
• Vijay - Maybe the selectors want to give him more big-match experience as well as backup for any injury scares to Sehwag and Gambhir.
• Badrinath - Similarly, backup option to the middle-order. Dont think he will play as well.

3 of the squad have no chances to play the test match in normal course.

The choice of spinners - there are 3 of them - will be Harbhajan and Amit Mishra. Though, I would prefer Pragyan Ojha instead. Looks like he will be the one dropped.

The Indian team would start as the favorites - for that, they will have to leave the Oz series debacle behind.

Match and Series to Australia

The Indian team was eager to draw level with the Aussies at the beginning of the 6th ODI at Gauwahati. MS Dhoni took the bold decision to bat first on a surface that looked like it would give the bowlers some early support (as well as the early start) only for his batsmen to give up their wickets. MSD, in his pre-match session, had mentioned that he was not looking too far about the series. In fact, after the match, he need not look anywhere but his team. Inept batting performance cost the team the Mohali match while chasing.

Sehwag and Gambhir were beaten by the swing, Sachin and Yuvraj by the bounce. Raina couldnt keep his chip-shot down and India were staring at a sub-50 score!!!

MSD, just like he had done earlier against the West Indies, along with Ravinder Jadeja set up about repairing the innings until a bad decision by the umpire sent him back. Praveen Kumar, like he has been doing this series, made his batting count. In fact, he took the score to 170, more than anyone would have imagined at the beginning. Doug Bollinger bowled well to pick up 5 wickets - India continued their tradition to give debutants very good chances to create an instant impact.

Australia, for a change, missed couple of half-chances and one clear catch (of Praveen Kumar). They also seemed to have missed a trick to get the Indian batsmen out quicker than they eventually did. Even then, they had the match (and the series) in their pocket.

The wicket, though, had seemed to have eased out and India's fielding was 2 short (Munaf and Ashish Nehra are notorious for their bad fielding - batsmen know how to convert ones to twos if the ball goes in their direction). The score required was probably 50 runs less. The only way to win the match was get quick and early wickets.

The opening bowlers could not get any more than the wicket of Shaun Marsh. Harbhajan came to the attack and dismissed Watson and Ponting. But, the runs were obviously less to defend. The wicket of Cameron White came too late in the game to make any difference.

This series showed that the Oz team was far ahead of the Indians in the mental game - what with missing most of their first-choice players and still finishing ahead of the Indians. The Indians obviously can learn a lot by watching their opponents and apply it to their game. The upcoming series against Sri Lanka will show whether they have learned or not.

Sehwag century in Australia

I was thrilled at the way Sehwag gave it back to the Aussies in a way that the Aussies usually do, in this 2003 MCG Test match. He scored 195 on the first day and ensured that India opened to great strength after their Adelaide victory...Alas, the rest of the team couldnt add to this innings and India collapsed to a loss against Australia to allow them tie the series at 1-1. WHAT AN INNINGS!!!

When Sehwag got out trying to get to his 200 by a SIX, we were left thinking whether it would have been possible for him to get more than 200, if he had remained not-out at the end of first day (He would eventually get to 300+ against Pakistan in 2004). India was cruising at 278-1 when Steve Waugh got Rahul Dravid and then Sehwag got out to make it 311-4 (India finally made only 366!!!).

I think Sehwag invokes similar excitement at the crease as Srikkanth used to in his days. But, Sehwag has been getting bigger scores compared to Srikkanth and is better equipped technically. Of late, viewers have started switching off their TV sets once Sehwag gets out (atleast I have done it couple of times), since excitement levels comes down several notches once he is out of the crease.