And the Sojourn Continues...

Well, maybe it is a little late to be talking about this topic, as enough has been written as well as said about this one. Nonetheless, it never gets old.

A fresh breath of life

It was a refreshing Test season. Sure, it was quite a bit long. But, it was still one of the most scintillating seasons of cricket, particularly Test cricket, in recent years. Even for a team like India, which has absolutely dominated its opponents in its own backyard, it was an engaging experience. And much more importantly, this grand home season of Test cricket breathed a fresh ease of life into the beleaguered format that Test cricket had become, facing dwindling interest and low attendance. This season also hoisted India to the top of the Test rankings, and with a long limited-overs season ahead, this mace is set to remain with the land of Hanuman for a long time to come.

India vs. New Zealand

First up was New Zealand. A strong team, but one that tends to lose momentum at crucial intervals. This series was a crucial one for newly-appointed captain Virat Kohli, to justify his claim as an inspirational leader. And that he did. India romped to a series whitewash, with their captain in red-hot form. There was a short pause to the Test cricket, because of an ODI series, after which action resumed against England.

India vs. England

This series was a special one for me, as it was my first experience inside that little world that goes by the name of the Wankhede stadium. Team India, as well as its captain, were on song, resulting in drawn first Test and a 4-0 whitewash. The spin twins, Ashwin and Jadeja, were spot-on, as they were in the previous series. The consequent limited-overs series resulted in the only series loss for India this entire season. But what it also witnessed was the emergence of young man named Kedar Jadhav; and the resurgence of an old faithful, Yuvraj Singh. It also has to be noted that the Test series produced India's second triple-centurion, Karun Nair, the first, of course being the great Virendra Sehwag.

India vs. Bangladesh

There was the one-off Test against Bangladesh.This match was historic in its own right, as it was the first India-Bangladesh Test carried out on Indian soil. The result, however, wasn't as historic; India trounced Bangladesh by 208 runs.

India vs. Australia

Then came the cherry on top of the cake. The Border-Gavaskar trophy. This climax to the Test season was the most engaging of all. Two firsts happened here which hadn't happened in the season gone by: India lost a Test match; and Virat Kohli did not score a double hundred in this series. Both the teams swung back and forth, both by sessions and words, but it was India who had the last laugh, at least where it was important:on the field. This series was a standout because of a fact which was quite unprecedented in India: In this series, the Indian pacers came to the fore, specially Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma, also Bhuvaneshwar Kumar in the last match. This series also brought India's first male chinaman bowler to the limelight - Kuldeep Yadav. This was probably the best Test series played on Indian soil in the past 7-8 years. With the conclusion of this series, India extended its unbeaten run at home.

Something to look forward to...

The differences that were created during this intensely-fought series have since ceased to exist, as the IPL goes beyond geographical barriers of the nations.
This season, particularly this series, has fed an elixir of life to the ailing old man that Test cricket has now become, prolonging its life even further.

Yeh Das Saal Aapke Naam

Ah! Here comes India's annual festival! And like most of our festivals, this one doesn't occur on the same date every year. But unlike other festivals, this one isn't ancient. In fact, it just turned 10 years old.

Yes, I am talking about the decennial celebration of the world's first-ever T20 league, the IPL. And as we gear up to welcome this festival once more, I can only ponder and exclaim in wonder at the lightning-speed at which this phenomenon has spread across the world. 

Even the most hardcore Test cricket purist will have to admit, albeit forcefully, that T20 cricket has struck a chord with a fan from every age-group. The IPL has simply amplified this in our over-populated, cricket-crazy nation. 

There is a second side to this coin, though. The glitz and instant glamour of this world has left the door open for the unfortunate practice of match-fixing and rendezvous with bookies having criminal tendencies.Young players get instantly attracted to such short-term infatuations, as was seen with some young players in 2013.

Even though this problem cannot entirely be sidelined, a more efficient administration can help restrict such incidents from occurring. What may not be under the control of these good administrators, and is a good thing, is the impact the IPL has on Indian cricket, largely. More players are being produced by the IPL than the traditional first-class establishment. The IPL is also a vital test of form for already-established players. On a much broader spectrum, it has established India as a financial superpower, which is an unprecedented phenomenon. Never before did India see itself as a truly global frontrunner.

So, as India gears up to welcome what was described as "the best cricket league in the world" by RCB captain Virat Kohli, I hope this season throws up some unexpected surprise packages. I hope that it inspires the same amount of confidence in players and fans alike. So, let the celebrations be on a different level altogether! Because, as it was said by the IPL promoters themselves, "Yeh Das Saal Aapke Naam". 

  

Yet Another Masterclass!!

This World T20 is setting up contests like no other. The epic clashes, the challenges and that feeling of glory after you have taken the team past the line is being seen more in this World T20 than perhaps very few world events in the past.
Particularly, India is throwing up surprises and contests like no other. And the latest addition to this flurry of matches was the symbolic quarterfinal against Australia played at Mohali.
First off, this was the first time in this tournament that India were playing on a batsman-friendly wicket. Not that this was a challenge, though. The batsmen who were out of form had a quality opportunity here to get their stream of form up and running. In a way, it was a win-win situation for the both the teams.

The Early Shivers
Australia chose to bat first after winning the toss. The openers Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch absolutely smashed the Indian bowlers Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah. Even Ashwin, Dhoni’s go-to man in these tense situations, went for 22 runs off his first over. As a result, India were hammered for 59 runs off the first 6 Powerplay overs. It looked as if Australia would trot to 200 runs, but it was not to be.

A Brave Fightback
The Indian bowlers backed up their abilities to restrict Australia to a score of 160, which means India gave away only 101 runs in the 14 overs remaining after the Powerplay. Though, Australia had some consolation in the fact that they had achieved the par score of 160 on a tricky pitch.

Again, Some Early Jitters
Now it was India’s turn to bat. The Indian opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan failed yet again despite playing on a pitch that was helpful to them. Suresh Raina, too got out very early, edging one to the wicket keeper off a Shane Watson delivery. On the crease were Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli. Yuvraj Singh, though after some time, twisted his ankle and was hopping. In spite of this, he showed great character and determination by continuing playing. Though, he got out after scoring 21, holing one to Watson off Faulkner. It was a very tense situation, both for the entire nation and its only hope, the pair of Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Here Starts the Master ClassVirat Kohli got an able partner in MS Dhoni, taking quick singles and doubles, a thing that he wasn’t able to do with Yuvraj Singh due to his unfortunate injury. Anyways, this partnership slowly steadied the sinking Indian ship.

The Last Few Overs
The figure came up to 47 off 4 overs. Veteran Shane Watson bowled the 17th over, giving away just 8 runs. Here, the ‘just’ is only in accordance with the situation of the match. Moving on, 39 need of 3 overs. This James Faulkner over is where Virat Kohli showed his true class, hitting Faulkner for a massive 19 runs off that over. Perhaps his fast friendship and frequent discussions with Chris Gayle in the IPL helped. Now the figure came down to 20 runs off the last 2 overs. Still quite a difficult figure to achieve. Here, too, Kohli was the savior, hitting Nathan Coulter-Nile for another 16. He practically handed over the winning runs over to his captain in the last over. Dhoni, being the quintessential finisher that he is, finished off the match with a four, not a six, for a change. Virat Kohli was undoubtedly the Man of the Match for his brilliant, match-winning, amazing, fabulous, fantastic, stunning, breathtaking, dazzling……. (I’m at a loss for words) 82 off just 51 balls.

To be frank, I had goosebumps after the match got over. I had gone cold all over. That was the amount of high-level cricket that had been displayed in front of my eyes.

The Future Is Near
Now India face the West Indies in the semifinal, to be held on the 30th of March. I certainly do hope that India make it into the final and consequently win the title too. I wish Team India all the best!!

Hat- trick does the trick!

Yes! What a match that was. There was everything in it- suspense, twist, anti-climax, climax, thrill. It was like a classic Agatha Christie mystery. This match still made it just a little bit easy for India to qualify for the semis. Though it still is a long haul, just a little bit easy.

Batting Below Par
India batted first. Some of the top order got starts, for example Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, but none of them carried on. Hardik Pandya was a surprise at no. 5, but he did his job, that of hitting the ball out of the ground, hitting 15 runs in 7 balls, with three boundaries. The batting was a bit under par. Even Suresh Raina, the top-scorer of the Indian innings, was looking low on confidence and bite. For a change, Virat Kohli did not convert his start into a half century. India still made 146 runs on a different Chinnaswamy wicket, a par score according to Sunil Gavaskar.

The Giant-Killers Brandish Their Weaponry
Then came the Bangladeshi batting. Though opener Mithun was dismissed early by Ashwin, it was his partner that was the real threat. Having a reputation of coming good against India time and again, Tamim Iqbal went about his usual business, hitting the first ball of the innings for four because of a misfield by Jasprit Bumrah. Then sabbir Rahman and Tamim Iqbal stitched a good partnership, almost putting the game into Bangladesh’s hands. And lo and behold! Enter Sir Jadeja! He dismissed Iqbal on a ball that was delivered at such an angle and speed, one could be mistaken that the ball was coming from Lasith Malinga. Nonetheless. Dhoni just peeled the bails off, giving no time to Taim to react. Then came their star for many some millennia, the great Shakib-al-Hasan. Though just fourteen runs later, Sabbir was dismissed off a wide ball by Suresh Raina, coming on for just the one over. Here, though the credit goes to MS Dhoni for his brilliant presence of mind and observation. The moment Sabbir’s feet left the ground, and mind you, this was just for a millisecond, Dhoni touched the bails with the ball in a flash. Here, I think is where India came into the match for the first time. Here too, there were some hiccups. Bumrah dropped a lolly by Indian fielding standards, and was having kind of a hellish day on the field, both with bowling and fielding. Ashwin too, dropped one but this was comparatively difficult. Ashwin also accounted for Shakib now, getting him to edge one at slip. Mashrafe came and went. Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim were at the crease, both good batsmen. They started playing their shots, and it was looking as if India were going to lose a T20 match for the first time against Bangladesh. But it was not to be.

The Over Before The Final Over
Bumrah was given this over. He just stuck to his basics and did what he does best; bowling yorkers. The result being, of the 17 runs required off the last two overs, he gave away just six, thus putting pressure on Bangladesh.

The Final Over
The final over was bowled by Hardik Pandya. Many cricket pundits would have banished this decision and confirmed Dhoni’s removal from captaincy. Still, Pandya was a risky but necessary choice. He had given 20 runs off his first two. And here, was holding the reins of the hopes of 1.32 billion people in his hands. And, he went for 9 runs off his first three balls. 2 runs required off 3 balls. He would have gone for more, had Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah not been over-confident. They mistimed his two wide full tosses, and went straight into the hands of Shikhar Dhawan and Ravindra Jadeja respectively. 2 runs off 1 ball. Two new batsmen at the crease. 1 run and the match would go into the super over. Veteran Ashish Nehra and Ms Dhoni began to talk to Pandya, telling him how to best handle this pressure situation. It was feeling like the climax of an amazing action thriller. Dhoni even removed one of his keeping gloves, in anticipation of collecting and throwing the ball. Keeping all the advice given to him in mind, Pandya bowled one outside the off-stump. The batsmen just edged, it bounced, going to the keeper. The batsmen were a little slow to move. Meanwhile, Dhoni, as soon as he received the ball, sprinted towards the stumps and dislodged two of the stumps along with the bails, thus winning the match for India by a ridiculously close margin of 1 run.

The speciality of this match was that till the last over, everything was in Bangladesh’s control, until the last over changed it all. Overall, what a spectacular match it was! 

The next match against Australia will decide who goes into the semifinals. If this match is not won, all work done till here will go waste. So, India, put your heart into it and let’s win this cup for India again!

And the score is 11-0!!

You must be thinking; this title belongs to football! But read it right, it indeed is for a cricket match. Through this, another question arises. Even for football, this is insane! Just wait. I’ll explain.

A Humbled Team
All the highs before the World T20 were humbled. India had just been defeated by New Zealand, by a huge margin of 47 runs, and that too while chasing a paltry score of 126. Sure, the pitch was doing things, but it wasn’t unplayable. This meant that the high profile encounter versus Pakistan was a do-or-die match.

A Positive Start
Pakistan, on the meanwhile, were riding high after demolishing Bangladesh by 55 runs in their first match, with ‘Boom Boom’ Shahid Afridi, Mohammed Hafeez and Ahmed Shahzad all coming good with the bat. So this match-up was indeed very interesting, in which, for the first time, India were under more pressure than Pakistan. Don’t get me wrong, India – Pakistan encounters are never devoid of pressure and intensity, but this time Dhoni and Co. had their entire World T20 campaign. A hypothetical loss against Pakistan would virtually destroy their title hopes, and far worse, the flak faced back at home would be unbearable.

Frenemies
So the match was held at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata, with India’s Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Virender Sehwag and Pakistan’s Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Imran Khan representing a symbol of peace by assembling onstage as friends. Many celebrities from the film fraternity were also present.

India, bowling first, bowled well and on a viciously turning Eden track, restricted Pakistan to a score of 118. Still I think India would have finished off the innings much quicker and to a lower total had they played an extra spinner, say Harbhajan Singh, instead of the extra pacer. Anyways, that didn’t happen.

A Win Notwithstanding Obstacles! 
Now came the run – chase. It was not a 230-odd target, but given the track, 118 was much like a 200. India were shaky to start off, losing Rohit Sharma very early. Then entered Virat Kohli. He is the hero of our story here, but he was dormant in the beginning. Perhaps he was preparing for the run chase ahead. Sami then struck with two wickets consecutively, dismissing Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina. Yuvraj Singh then came on strike. Here is where I think that India actually started to play the game. Searching for the quick single, the occasional double and the consequential boundary, India were chipping away at the score, much like a rat nibbling off a cake. Slowly but steadily, the required run-rate decreased, and finally came below run-a-ball when Virat hit a six and a four in the same over. Yuvraj Singh was caught going for the biggie, but he had supported well and had brought India to the doorstep of victory. Dhoni came when hardly ten runs were left and he hit the winning runs. When 7 runs were left to be taken, he hit one of his signature sixes over long-off, and levelled the scores. Just by nudging the ball towards the on-side, he finished off the match. Virat Kohli was very rightly adjudged Man of the Match for his march – winning 55 off just 37 balls.

Because of this win, two major positives came out for India: Firstly, they maintained their unblemished record of 11 wins in World Cup and World T20 matches, which means Pakistan haven’t been able to beat India in an ICC-organized, all-nation participating event since 1992, and believe me, that 1992 team was the one that won the World Cup.

So I hope India do win their next two matches against Bangldesh and Australia and qualify for the semis.

Till then, goodbye and follow the journey #CupTak!

Asia Cup the VIth

Hurrah! India won the Asia Cup for the sixth time! Now, instead of writing about all the matches in turn, I will give an overall view of the entire tour, from India’s perspective.  Frankly speaking, I expected India to lift the Asia Cup. The team composition was excellent, they had won back-to-back series, therefore the morale was high, no major injuries worried them, and most importantly, their bowling was firing from both ends. Not only the spinners, but also the pacers. In short, it was a perfect combination. In contrast, Pakistan’s batting was not quite up to the mark, in their bowling, they had only Md. Amir firing. As for Sri Lanka, the team was quite inexperienced, except for some known names in the form of Dilshan, Malinga, Perera, Kulasekara to name a few. I felt that in this tournament, Bangladesh was the only relatively balanced side other than India. Sure, they had the home advantage as all the matches were played on the same Sher-e-Bangla pitch, but still their performances were worth noting. And the UAE. Who can ever forget the UAE? As expected, they were the favourite whipping boys of each of their opponents. You can’t blame this on them. They still are a relatively developing country in cricketing terms, they will take time to improve. The fact that they played the 2015 World Cup itself was a big thing.
India were right on the money from the very start. They only stuttered a little in the match against Pakistan when the bullets of Md. Amir reduced them to 8/3. But thereon, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh carried on and chased down the paltry score of 83 set for them with ease. It was also heartening to see the Prince of Indian Cricket back among his famed shots. Dhoni also showed his true form, if only a glimpse, that the fire of the finisher within him has not still extinguished. Due to rain, the final between India and Bangladesh was reduced to 15 overs-a-side. India comfortably won that game, with the only weak link in their necklace performers, Shikhar Dhawan, firing a swashbuckling 60 runs off just 44 balls. Virat continued to essay his role of the mainstay with poise again, as he did in almost all the matches.

Though all the other Asian teams have much to ponder upon various problems within their unit, I see no major problems in the Indian camp.  Perhaps an injury here or there, but nothing to improve or think upon. All the players seem to have understood their role to perfection, and are working according to it with ease. India are, as Captain Cool MS Dhoni said in the “sixth gear.”
Let’s certainly hope that this “sixth gear” state of mind is helpful in winning the World T20. I do certainly hope that India lifts the World T20 Cup for the second time and brings those memories of the long-haired, inspirational and unorthodox captain back.  

And the Journey Begins....

Ha! That was one good series, wasn’t it? Gave a lot of us some meat to chew on, maybe some nails too. Recognize what I’m speaking about? Of course, the recently concluded India – Sri Lanka bilateral T20 Series.
This series was kind of a dress rehearsal for the upcoming World T20 to be held in the Indian sub – continent. It is a good thing that the Indian team is getting quite a few matches to play before the World T20, which of course is a morale – booster. It allows the team management and the captain to decide on the roles of the players in the team, which is ever – important.
Okay, let’s move on to the matches. India carried forward their winning combination from the Australia series. As the squad that was announced was common for the recent series, the Asia Cup as well as the World T20, it was pleasantly surprising to see Pawan Negi in the squad. The squad is a perfect mixture of youth and experience, with the old warhorses Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh all coming in from the Australia series. Virat Kohli was rested for this series.  As for Sri Lanka, it was a very inexperienced side to boot, with Tillakaratne Dilshan, Thisara Perera and Dinesh Chandimal being among the recognized faces. Dilhara Fernando was one of the seniors making a comeback. 
  
Though inexperienced, this side gave a tough fight to Big Brother, defeating India comprehensively in the first match. But thereon, it was India all the way as they cruised to two consecutive wins, the second one being the standout. India restricted Sri Lanka to its lowest T20 total ever, a paltry 82. Obviously, India cruised through the match.

 A particular standout from the second match, especially, from Sri Lanka’s perspective, was Thisara Perera’s hat – trick. He got Hardik Pandya, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh off consecutive balls to become the fourth man to achieve this feat in T20Is. Even the youngsters of Sri Lanka such as Dushmantha Chameera and Dasun Shanaka, who created an impression.

Overall, it was a good series for cricket. After suffering a few hiccups in the first game, India backed themselves to clinch the series. This win further consolidates India’s No.1 ranking in T20Is. Now, the next big thing in Indian cricket will be the Asia Cup, again a T20 series. So, revel in the T20 fervour, until the IPL. Cheerio!