2016 USA Tour - West Indies win series 1-0

Despite conceding more than 100 runs less thanks to good bowling performances by Amit Mishra, Ashwin, India lost the series as wet outfield resulted in abandonment of play. By virtue of win in the first match, Windies won the series 1-0.

Image Courtesy: espncricinfo site

2016 USA Tour - Windies edge India in high-scoring thriller

India made their debut in USA, by conceding their highest score to any opposition but redeemed themselves to score the highest chase ever in a T20I only to lose by a single. MS Dhoni was on strike off the last ball to Bravo, who turned out to be more skilful of the two.But, MSD didnt disappoint - highlights of his innings were:

• He scored 43  runs off 25 balls - strike rate was in his Top-20 of T20I innings
• He added 107 runs with Rahul in 49 balls. Rahul was the only one who scored faster than him in the innings.
• He agreed that he had executed the stroke wrongly after guessing the ball.

MSD also took the blame himself, despite his batsmen like Rohit, Kohli letting him down!And bowlers like Stuart Binny letting him down, MSD praised them for pulling back the innings from a possible target of 270! Only he can do this!

Image Courtesy:espncricinfo site

2016 West Indies tour - Rain prevents India's continued run of No.1

India dominated the series so much that they rose to No.1 in ICC Test rankings (coupled with Australia's loss to Sri Lanka). The rain gods however decided to put an end to the good times and the final test was washed out so much that only one session was played! India finished at 2-0 but it could have been 4-0! How many such chances will Kohli's India get again?

Image Courtesy: espncricinfo site

2016 West Indies Tour - India go up 2-0

India went up 2-0 in the mismatched series againt West Indies, even after baffling team selections (Dhawan and Rohit included at the expense of Pujara). Bhuvi was one exception to the rule who took five wickets to ensure the quick demise of Windies in the first innings. Ashwin scored yet another century while Saha decided to make one of his own. All in all, the Indians won another match and look set to wrap up 3-0 by next test.

Image Courtesy: espncricinfo.com

2016 West Indies tour - Great Windies escape

Even the staunchest of India's supporters would have been embarassed at the way India dominated the test match in the first two days of 2nd test match. But, rain and dogged batting by the hosts allowed them to escape from the test unscathed. The Indians did nothing wrong except hitting the final nail of the coffin.

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2016 West Indies tour - Kumble and Kohli start their stint

Anil Kumble couldnt have asked for an easier start to his stint as Indias head coach - a tour to West Indies that need not be straight-forward but gives the management chances to experiment a bit. Let us see how it pans out.

Image courtesy: espncricinfo.com

The team looks no different to the previous overseas test tour. The keeper slot is iffy after Dhonis retirement but Saha has the confidence still. Both teams are coming after their respective T20 leagues - will it have any impact on the run-making?

India will win the series 2-0 is my prediction but the Windies can turn the series upside down if they put their mind.

T20 World Cup - India crash out thanks to no-balls

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India were one of the top favorites to win the T20 crown at home (in a tournament that was quite open. They crashed out in Mumbai despite the heroics of Virat Kohli with bat and ball. While the batsmen did well to post a challenging score, the bowlerslet the team down with two crucial no-balls(and the catch on boundary line). Windies came out swinging literally and despite losing Gayle early, showed enough depth to win easily.

West Indies series - debutants give India 1-0 lead

India gave the opportunity to two players for making their debut in the first test of the Farewell Series of Sachin Tendulkar. Both debutants had done well in the recently concluded ODI series against Australia, one of them in fact was named the Man of Series then. Both grabbed the opportunity given to them and ensured that the 199th test of Sachin Tendulkar finished as early as the third day itself.

It augurs well for Indian cricket that Mohammad Shami has come through at this time with a potent combination of swing and pace. Though he may not be express pace, the difference that he can conjure up compared to that of Praveen Kumar will be critical for Indian teams fortunes during their South African sojourn later this year. If Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav can pick up their form, the Indian bowling will be a tough force to reckon with.

On the batting front, the void created due to the retirement of VVS Laxman has still not been filled yet. Sourav Ganguly's position has been taken up by Virat Kohli (who will now move into the No.4 position of Tendulkar). Rohit Sharma had not taken his chance earlier (through a freak injury) while his colleagues like Rahane and Raina were preferred earlier. This time, he was ready and his 200 in the previous ODI was a good dose of inspiration. Though he could not repeat the double century at Kolkata, his innings and partnership with Ashwin took India into the comfort zone. With Rohit's debut, the Indian batting lineup for South Africa looks like - Vijay, Dhawan, Pujara, Kohli, Rohit, Rahane/Raina, Dhoni, Ashwin. Quite a strong lineup in fact.

Credit must be given to Ashwin also. Though he performed well with the ball, his contribution to the partnership with Rohit was equally important. Ashwin seems to have all qualities of a No.7 batsman and he should be groomed for the allrounder role (as we have mentioned earlier on this blog). All in all, a good result for the Indian team at Kolkata. Everything to look forward at Mumbai where the Master will be playing his last (and 200th) test match.

World Cup 2011 - The Spin Gambit

It has become a regular feature to watch some of the teams start with spin during this World Cup. If one notices closely, these are countries who do not have enough firepower with the new ball. Countries like New Zealand whose best bowler is Dan Vettori or West Indies with Suleiman Benn opened their bowling in their matches against Australia and South Africa respectively. The supporting attack is not good enough for either teams to take wickets or contain the runs scored. Thus, the team management decided to slow down the pace of the ball to increase their chances of taking wickets. Even a team like Bangladesh, which has three left-arm spinners, has refused to take the bait of adding more slow bowlers in their team - maybe that is why they struggled to put it across (153 - 138 in Castrol Index).

It came as a surprise then that the South African team also followed the same manner and started the bowling with Johan Botha. In fact, the team had three spinners in their team - a first for a team that prides on pace and speed. It was probably the lack of a good third bowler that made the Proteas think on the lines of having a three-prong spin attack. The Castrol Index of South Africa was 164 against 107 of West Indies - if only the team had a bowler like Ntini (in his prime) or Shaun Pollock, the difference would have been much more - such was the domination of the team. Morkel also does not benefit by the low bounce - a disadvantage for him especially since he thrives on the bounce his height can generate.

Australia has no such worries - their fast bowling trio of Lee, Tait and Mitch have been gunning past their opponents after the initial hiccups in the warm-up matches. Notice the domination in their match against the Kiwis (182 to 83 in Castrol Index) - Vettori had no answers to the might of the Oz even though his team was high on determination after the earthquake back home. The return of Bollinger will be a dampener though. Vettori might have had thoughts of early breakthroughs after seeing the Australian batsmen struggle against spin in the early matches but this one was different - there was no help to the trundlers on the Nagpur pitch negating the opening gambit.

Pakistan's attack looks balanced with bowlers like Shoaib, Razzaq and Umar Gul at the beginning, followed by Afridi and Ajmal. They have followed the traditional strategies teams have followed over years and that was good enough to result in a performance against the Kenyans that was dominating, to say the least (227-83).

Starting with spin might be good against teams that are relatively weak against spin but against the home teams  it is a recipe for disaster. Hence, the team management would do well to take the horses-for-courses approach in future matches.

Related articles

• World Cup 2011 - India thump Bangladesh (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)

Season of the underdogs in test cricket

Image by geoffandsherry via Flickr
Test cricket is always interesting - this is the statement on everyone's lips these days. The underdogs seem to have a good time going for them recently across the world.


It all started when NewZealand visited India after being beaten 0-4 by Bangladesh in an ODI series. No one gave them a chance (myself included) but after two test matches, the scoreline shows 0-0. What must India be thinking now?

Staying in the sub-continent, one is witnessing Srilanka's painful experience in the post-Muralitharan era. As if Gayle's triple century was not enough, the Lankans have capitalised in their first innings against West Indies and looks like they might follow-on.


England (yes, we will call them underdogs in a series against the once-mighty Aussies Down Under) has been making all the right noises in their warm-up matches - dominating their opposition and scaring the selectors to choose a 17-member team for the test series.

In the Gulf, Pakistan managed to draw their first test match against No.2 South Africa. Pakistan, the team that can lose to Zimbabwe one day and then beat Australia the next, has shown signs of comeback. One wonders how long it will be this time.


Will there be a return to the normal order next week? One wonders if the rule of the underdogs will be for a long time. What do you think? 

Related articles

• Second India-New Zealand cricket Test ends in draw (topinews.com)
• Gayle makes 300 as Windies dominate (guardian.co.uk)
• Greg Chappell not sold on all-pace attack (cricinfo.com)
• ICC clears Kamran Akmal for selection (espncricinfo.com)

Sachin Tendulkar and other legends

The Little Master WikipediaYet another research report was done recently by a set of researchers in Australia on the best batsman in the history of cricket - the result was a known one. The best batsman in the world was Sir Don Bradman.
There were changes in the remaining batsmen based on their averages. But, there is a fundamental flaw in this process, as per my thinking.

Why are we trying to include Bradman in the calculations and comparisons. Everyone who is living and dead, old and young, veterans and newcomers, have acknowledged the fact that Sir Don is the greatest of all batsmen in test cricket.



Why dont we then, compare the other batsmen against Don, rather than trying to measure all of them with arbitrary values?

I tried to do the same exercise pitting the best batsman in modern times, Sachin Tendulkar, against the Don.
To find out the matches or the opponents where Sachin failed against, I did a comparison of their %runs scored against %innings played. That is, if a player played against a specific country for 20% of his overall number of test innings, he should have scored 20% of his overall number of runs. If the difference is 0 or a positive value, it means that the player had a performance that was comparable to his overall numbers. If it was a negative difference, this showed that the player fared badly against the country or in that situation. Lesser the negatives will determine the greatness of a player. It takes the average out of the equation since I am not worried about the not-outs - just taking the innings played into consideration. I like to call this as the 'DoP' value (Difference of Percentages).

What were the results? It turned out to be quite interesting. There are some limitations in the approach taken, however - I will mention it as we go along the comparison process.

Sachin's consistency across the years has been a wonder to look - only 2 years (2003 and 2006) has his performance been not satisfactory, 2003 seeing him play only 5 matches. 7 of his other years has seen him dip slightly - a real marvel at his tendency to be consistent throughout his career. Bradman, on the other hand, showed interesting figures - 3 of his years having the dip (though to be fair, 2 years saw him playing only 2 and 3 test matches in the year) with 3 other years showing a smaller dip.

Bradman played only 4 countries during his life-time (India, South Africa, West Indies, England), scoring 72% of his runs against his traditional rivals England, while playing in 70% of the matches overall. Against West Indies, he scored 6% of his runs while playing in 10% of his tests - a difference of 4% on the negative side. The average also dips by more than 20%. Here, one has to say that the number of matches played against WI was only 5 - hardly a sample to compare.

Tendulkar, on the other hand, has negative differences against NewZealand, Pakistan and South Africa (more against the latter two countries) - he has a chance to make the numbers better later this year against NZ (at home) and SA. He has a positive difference against the other four countries (Australia, England, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh) & 0 difference against 2 others (Sri Lanka, West Indies). South Africa has been among the top-3 ranked teams during Sachin's playing lifetime. Even though NZ and Pakistan have not been consistent in their performances in test cricket but have managed to keep Sachin down.

Bradman has a negative difference at home, compared to his performances away - quite interesting really. He seemed to relish the English conditions more than the ones at hoome. Similarly, if one looks at Sachin's performances across the world, he has again shown a good difference in Australia and England, 2 places where the conditions are quite different than at home. South Africa, again, has resulted in Sachin's performance going down a bit - a reflection of the talented bowling attack that the Proteas have had over the years. Just like the Don, Sachin averages in the negative at home also!! His performance in Pakistan, West Indies and Zimbabwe have slightly dipped as well - one can argue that Sachin has played against Windies when they had better bowling attacks than now.

I have done similar charts with 3 other players who have scored the highest number of runs in the history of cricket - Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting and Rahul Dravid. The countries where they have scored less against as well as the countries they have scored less in, are compared.

This chart shows the performances of the four current greats against all opponents.Dravid against Australia, South Africa seems to be on the -ve side while Lara has a greater negative against India and NewZealand. Ponting has a difference against India but not very high.

This chart shows the performances of the same batsmen in all countries. Ponting in India, Lara in Australia, Dravid in Sri Lanka are the major differences.

Verdict: Each have their weak points but overall, Sachin has a good score against all countries but Ponting seems to have the better score playing in all countries.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Spin | A new measure for cricket greatness? | Andy Bull (guardian.co.uk)
• Sachin shortlisted for ICC People's Choice Award (thehindu.com)

T20 World Cup - Australia crush West Indies

Australia served a warning to their semi-final opponents with a clinical win over the Windies.

T20 World Cup - India find the Windies too hot to handle

Image via Wikipedia

MS Dhoni has proved so far to be an astute captain. He has always given his team members fair chances to prove themselves. But, very quickly into the game against the Windies, he must have been wondering if the choice to continue with Jadeja was worth it. Another chance was let down by the left-arm spinner who seems to be selected more for his bowling rather than all-round skills (proof was that Harbhajan was sent in earlier while batting). If Jadeja had shown better skills while bowling, it would have brought back the confidence to himself and his captain - but, it was not to be.

The other question on everyone's mind was the reasoning of MSD to go with the spin-oriented attack. If that was the intention, why not go with a specialist like Piyush Chawla? Does it mean that the think-tank has no trust on the backup pace bowler, Vinay Kumar? If so, why is he there in the squad at all?

Of course, many more questions come to one's mind - why is Zaheer Khan's intensity more while playing for Mumbai Indians than for his country? The leading bowler was giving away runs as though he was a newcomer, not like the seasoned bowler he is. Why was Rohit Sharma not given a bowl, especially when he had performed decently in the recent IPL.

West Indies played with more hunger and that sealed the game for the Indians. The batsmen again did not know how to deal with the bouncing ball. This was known at the last edition of the T20 World Cup but nothing has happened so far that has tried to find a remedy to the problem. Given the lesser capabilities of the Windies bowlers, the match became close but not good enough to win.

Of course, the BCCI must be blamed for the Indian batsmen's showing as well. By making them play on pitches without life, the batsmen are in no position to practice the horizontal shots. Without time between the engagements, there is no way they can practice these shots. Yusuf Pathan is struggling with the short ball and I dont think he has any time to work on this, in the near future.

The Aussies have thrown a lifeline to the Indian team by scoring a thumping win over the Sri Lankans. But, in my frank assessment, the Indians do not deserve to qualify for the next round by its showing in the Super 8s. The next match is in St. Lucia - favorable ground for the Indians but they need to win by a large margin to go through (provided Australia defeat the Windies - which looks very definitely on the cards).

Related articles by Zemanta

• India's chances at the 2010 T20 World Cup (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)
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• T20 World Cup - Australia give India a good hiding (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)
• World T20 Cup squad for India (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)

T20 World Cup - Sri Lanka teach Windies a lesson

Mahela Jayawardene led Sri Lanka to a score that the Windies had no chance of getting close.

T20 World Cup - easy for Windies

Though the bowlers made it hard for Windies, the batsmen gave everything away on a platter.

UDRS controversies

The DRS system seems to be getting into controversies gradually.

During the trials, the Indian team did not like it during the trials in Sri Lanka. Is it the reason why it was not used in the previous series nor the next one against Bangladesh?

Sri Lanka was not happy with the decision not to use, probably because they did well with the UDRS system.

The ongoing test between Pakistan and Australia saw multiple challenges with varying degrees of success - commentators like Ian Chappell were not so convinced about the accuracy of the technology.

West Indies, who faced the system last series, also were not so keen about the system.England also do not know how to use the system!!!



Is it because teams do not know how to use the UDRS effectively? Interesting times ahead with the UDRS.

What is your  say on the UDRS?

PS - Watch the India-Bangladesh series live in the US here.

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.

India lose first match at Super8

West Indies took revenge on India at Lords after 26 years with a convincing performance. The Carribeans were hungry on the field and the pitch helped the bowlers to take early wickets. Bad shot-selection also contributed to the Indian demise. Maybe, India should have bowled first in the match, after winning the toss.

India recovered thanks to the heroics of Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan. The captain, MS Dhoni, took extra time to ensure that further wickets do not fall. The dot-balls hurt India badly at the end. They were clearly 20 runs short.

While bowling, the Indians could restrict Chris Gayle for a low score. But, a lesser-known batsman like Lendl Simmons hurt them, which was exploited to the hilt by Dwayne Bravo. Harbhajan Singh was able to restrict the scoring but not get any wickets. Similarly, Ishant is turning out to be a liability.

India's chances at the World Cup now rest on winning both the matches against England and South Africa. Will they be able to do it? Million Dollar Question.

West Indies in England

The Windies in their avatar post-Lara, seem to be coming up short in most of the matches they have played during their English tour. The test matches were almost a whitewash, with the exception of Chanderpaul and Bravo stitching up a string of partnerships. Chanderpaul, during his marathon stints, managed to create some new records but it was visible that he was suffering from the typical subcontinental ailment of concentrating on his own performance rather than the teams'. When he was left with the tail for company, instead of shepherding them he chose to do a Steve Waugh - giving them strike to the best bowlers of the opposition, even if it meant that they would have to play the second ball of the over. Clearly, the Windies tailenders are not known for their batting, let alone their bowling. But, Chanderpaul would refuse to see the situation repeatedly in the series - his main intention was to score a century rather than save the test for his side.

For those who have watched the earlier series between England and West Indies (where the Windies blackwashed the English 5-0 twice), it was clear that the Windies cricket has come a full circle. David Moore, the new coach of West Indies, has a lot of work to do if he wants his team to compete with the other teams in test matches. Going by their current form, the Windies will be able to give a good fight to the Bangladesh and Zimbabwe teams. Added to their on-field woes, the battle between Chris Gayle and the Board has seen the team lose concentration off it as well. As has been the recent trend, the team seems to be a combination of individually brilliant (but inconsistent) players rather than a team. How the mighty have fallen - in fact, still falling, one would say.

Peter Moores of England might be feeling a little better than his compatriot but he would be the first one to agree that he was lucky to get a easy opponent first up. His own team suffered from players missing out on form or fitness - Flintoff being the latest to join the bandwagon. Yet another captain was chosen - Paul Collingwood - after Vaughan (resigned from ODI captaincy), Strauss (dropped on form), Flintoff, Trescothick (playing county still, with no hopes of getting an English recall) were unavailable for the post.

The test squad seems to be a decent one with a settled batting attack - the bowling seems to be the one that gives them more worries. It was the magic of Monty Panesar that won the series for the English. Steve Harmison has still not found his old form - which must given the Management more worries (added to the fact is that he is suffering from hernia). The emergence of Ryan Sidebottom and Matt Prior in these circumstances is heartening for the English selectors.

The English ODI squad seems to be more of an experimental one - the selectors apparently have decided that they would like to see all the possible contenders for the team, before deciding on a core group that can be relied on. That probably justifies the selection of orthodox test players like Alastair Cook and Monty Panesar. Stuart Broad and Michael Yardy are playing in the team just because there are no other decent players available for selection - that itself conveys the strength of the bowling attack.

Nothing could be gauged from the Twenty20 Series - which was rightly shared by the two teams. It was a slog-out between two countries that would give a headache to all the cricketing pundits trying to figure out which was the worse team of the two.

The Indians arrive in England for their test and ODI series - this will give a fair idea to Moores on where his new-look team stands in the international scheme of things. The weather would be much warmer and the wickets will give a little help to the spinners - this would make the Indians favorites (especially in the ODIs).

West Indies at the World Cup

West Indies, being the hosts, will try and emulate Sri Lanka (even though Pakistan and India also hosted the 1996 World Cup) by winning it. But, can they do it? Do they have enough fire-power? Usually, they are quite strong on home soil (even when they are losing to all and sundry everywhere). This time, Lara has been quite inspirational with the team - leading them to victories over India at home, finals to the Champions Trophy and DLF Cup.

Brian Lara, as mentioned, would love to retire on a high. For this, he has been motivating his team, alongwith Clive Lloyd to achieve greater glory and consistency mainly. The team has stopped depending on just Lara for their batting and that can be seen as an improvement. He favors batting second in most of the cases when he wins the toss. But, he has to solve the problem of inconsistency, as was seen recently.

Ramnaresh Sarwan is returning from injury. Would be interesting to see how he fares, though this World Cup will give him enough time to recover. He is one of the key batsmen for WI to fire
consistently. He would have to be the steady rock in the WI innings to take their team to safety.

Chris Gayle is the key for the WI team to fire from the word go. If he fires, WI will win the match. Hence, for the opposition captain, his wicket is the most precious. Also, his bowling is a big plus for WI - as is his slip-catching.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul has formed a good partnership with Gayle at the top of the order. Will have to tone down a bit to ensure that he stays till the end.

Dwayne Smith - God knows why he is in the team. When did he perform the last time? No one knows. But he has the "potential" - to hit one or two sixes, before getting out. His bowling and fielding are a plus - probably the reason why he is in the team.

Dwayne Bravo - he of the "slow ball" expert. His batting is still suspect, but his bowling to most of the teams would be dangerous. The Indians seem to have got hold of it now, but not after suffering so many defeats. Obviously, he is bowling on home grounds, isnt he?

Marlon Samuels - Fresh from his "mobile" exploits. But, a great guy to have in the team - who can strangle opposition team with his bowling (alongside Gayle). His batting is great but needs that consistency factor.

Devon Smith is the batsman who might not play many games. He is again a player who has shown potential but not translated to big scores.

Denesh Ramdin is the lone keeper. He also suffers from the same "consistency syndrome". Since there are no reserve keepers, guess he can breathe easy and do well.

Ian Bradshaw is the lead opening bowler, who can bowl 10 overs with the new ball with great
economy. A nice-to-have batsmen at the death.

Jerome Taylor has shown potential (not again!!!) with his fast bowling, but inconsistency attacks here also.

Corey Collymore is a steady performer with the ball, not the match-winning type. But, you can never count him out on home grounds.

Daren Powell's presence in the team shows the lack of choice in the West Indies team. He has not shown any results, but still makes it to the team. Will not get many chances in the World Cup.

Lendl Simmons has been on the fringes of the West Indies team, not doing much - though he is
supposed to be one of those aggressive batsmen!!! Lets see if he gets a chance to display his wares.

Keiron Pollard is an unknown as well.