Finally, the Revelation

Ah! Finally the day has come. India has won a series overseas after a gap of four years and won a series in Sri Lanka after 22 years. Here are some of the things that I felt clicked for India in this recently – concluded series and made them a formidable team.

The ‘Aggressive’ mentality: India had not won any overseas Test series, and had hardly won any Test match against any strong team. Morale was down. In the middle of all this was MS Dhoni. Who was termed as Captain Cool in ODIs was blamed for lack of decisiveness in the longer format. As a result, he retired from Tests after the fourth Test in Australia and in came the rock star of the Indian dressing room, Virat Kohli as captain. And he brought a swagger into the team. He was determined to play the ‘aggressive’ brand of cricket and promised to bring vigour to an uninspired team. But whether that will work was not fully tested as the assignments he got were only of one Test. His first full – fledged assignment as Test captain was the tour of Sri Lanka. It presented to him an opportunity to prove his leadership as a captain. And how it worked! Apart from a few minor glitches, it worked wonders. Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra were in top form, and were successful in restricting the runs as well as taking wickets at regular intervals. Ashwin specially was in top form, picking up the highest number of wickets, 21 in 3 matches. Ishant Sharma too, was really good with the ball, constantly bowling bouncers and making optimum use of his Herculean height. He perhaps went too far with the aggressive attitude and was charged with a one – match ban for giving a send – off to some of the Sri Lankan batsmen. Well, something better than nothing.
The five – bowler theory: Virat Kohli actually implemented the aggressive mentality by bringing in five specialist bowlers, which worked wonders for the team. Even if substantially, this did add pressure to the inexperienced batting order and sometimes did fail. If not for some batsmen who stuck around and drove the innings, the results could have been entirely different than they are now.

Better fielding: Now, you can say that this was expected of this young squad. But in this series, they upped the ante, especially the slip cordon. And in them, Ajinkya Rahane is a name worth mentioning. He took an astonishing 8 catches in a match, setting a record. So, as a result, most of the wickets were ‘caught and bowled’. And the bowlers were indeed happy. In fact, of Ashwin’s tally of 21 wickets, 14 were catches. Of those, 4 were caught by Rahane.

People may debate that Sri Lanka was a comparatively easy team to beat as it is in a period of transition. But for all those who say this, India is also in a period of transition. And there were moments in the series from where even Sri Lanka could have won, but the Indians fought back on the basis of their merit and talent and clinched the series after trailing 1-0.

I wish good luck to the Indian team for the upcoming South Africa series starting from the 2^nd of October, which is at home. This is where the mettle and skill of this developing team will be tested to the fullest.

The Spectacular Fall of the Indians in the Gala at Galle

Its monsoon in the subcontinent and the new sporting season has just started. Every sport has just begun full- fledged. So has cricket for India. After what you can call a short break, India began with a short tour of Bangladesh. Though the hosts were defeated in Tests, they spectacularly trounced the Indians in the ODI matches. After that came a home series against Zimbabwe, which India obviously won. The next tour and their first comparatively strong opponent was Sri Lanka. This was, or rather is, Virat Kohli,s first full – fledged tour as captain of the Test team.

The first Test was held at Galle. This iconic ground, always known to be a happy hunting ground for the spinners, was no exception this time. The pitch was a beautiful turning track, a paradise for spinners. So Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra would be the trump cards for India.

India went into this tour with a different interface, one that of aggressiveness. And abiding by this strategy, the Indian team went into the first match with five bowlers (Four bowlers are the generally preferred option).

Now let’s turn to the match. The Sri Lankans, put to bat first on a damp wicket, surrendered meekly to the power of Ashwin. R Ashwin recorded his best Test figures, 6- 46 and bundled out the hosts for 183. Thereafter, the Indian batsmen also performed very well with Shikhar Dhawan scoring 134, Virat Kohli scoring 103 and Wriddhiman Saha supporting them ably with 60 runs. As a result of this, India scored a massive total of 375 and amassed a lead of 192 runs. And after this, at the end of the day, the Indian bowlers again showed their magic, reducing them to 5/2 at stumps. An easy Indian victory seemed on the cards.

But as they say in cricket, every match is played to the very last ball and no one knows what will happen at the end of the match, what will turn in whose favour. And that exactly happened in this match.

From where they could have easily won, one will be astonished to see the Indians threw their own easy win. After the hosts were reduced to 5/2, Dinesh Chandimal put on a valiant and consequently match-winning knock of 162 with able support from Mubarak, Thirimanne and Kumar Sangakkara, who is incidentally playing his last Test.  Here too, the bowlers displayed some vigor, with Ashwin picking up four wickets once again to take ten wickets in a Test match for the third time in his career, though he went for some runs. The Sri Lankans put up a score of 367 and India needed 176 runs to win the match.

But it was not to be. The factor which had troubled the hosts in the first innings troubled the Indians in their second innings, and that was spin. What Ashwin did for India in the first innings, Rangana Herath did for Sri Lanka in the second. Picking up 7 wickets for 47, he single – handedly gifted Kumar Sangakkara a dramatic win in his last match.

Perhaps, the India was over- confident after dominating the first 3 days of the match. Or perhaps it was Sri Lanka’s grit and determination, which clung on to the one chance that they got and sealed the match. Whatever it was, it was a humiliating defeat for India. Moreover, they lost the match on the 69^th Independence Day, which must have been excruciatingly painful for Virat and Co. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, might have won one of their most dramatic wins ever, and certainly their best win in the past two or three years.

If India already one down, it makes the second Test a do-or-die match as it is a three-match series.

Personally, I certainly hope along with millions of Indian fans that India wins the next match as it certainly has the potential of a match-winning unit.  

Photo sources: www.gettyimages.com, zeenews.india.com, www.rediff.com, www.firstpost.com, tribune.com.pk.

India Makes it Six Out of Six

Today, something historic happened on the world stage. India defeated Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval in the World Cup 2015. India has always been the better team while playing Pakistan, especially in the world cup. As a result, it has never lost to Pakistan in World Cups. This match was no different. It is interesting to analyze what worked in favor of India today.

Great cricket is all about a team performing well in all departments. At the end of the day, India proved to be a better team in all prospects: batting, bowling, fielding and Captaincy. Here is why I think so.

Batting 
Traditionally India’s strength has always been its batting. Today was no different.  Shikhar Dhawan, who had been struggling since a while, fired in this match. Virat Kohli, who had been given the responsibility of carrying the team through, executed his role perfectly with a swashbuckling century. Suresh Raina also provided the shots while Kohli was anchoring the innings. While scoring the runs, they maintained their wicket. This resulted in the formation of two important 100- run partnerships. The team also played risk- free without getting tempted to fire big shots during the mid-overs, while consistently maintaining the run rate. Pakistan, on the other hand, could not build a solid partnership barring a 68 – run stand between Ahmed Shahzad and Haris Sohail. Even the potentially dangerous Shahid Afridi got out for a measly 22. Misbah, as always, was the lone ranger, with a solid 76. Pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals which cost Pakistan the game.

Bowling
Indian bowlers have constantly been criticized for their performance recently. Bowling is often cited as India’s weakness. More so, on the Aussie conditions. However, in this match the bowling became one of India’s strength. Instead of restricting runs, they decided to go for the wickets and it paid off. The bowlers kept taking wickets at regular intervals, which eventually whisked the match out of Pakistan’s hands. Pakistan bowlers on the other hand could hardly maintain that pressure on the batsmen. They did well in the end, though, picking up wickets. If those wickets had been taken earlier, the result might have been different. The only silver lining was Sohail Khan. He captured five Indian scalps on World cup debut.

Fielding
India already is a very good fielding unit. They did well in this match as well. They created chances out of nowhere, even getting some of them. As a result, Pakistan was under pressure. Meanwhile, in Pakistan’s innings, the fielding was fairly good, but Umar Akmal, who was keeping wickets even when he wasn’t a specialist, missed a chance of Virat Kohli which cost them the match.

Captaincy
Dhoni’s captaincy proved to be superior again. Apart from winning the toss, two of his decisions paid off well. First was to review the Umpire’s decision on Umar Akmal. And second was to send Raina earlier in the order.

A champion team is one which does well in all areas: batting, bowling, fielding and captaincy. India played like a champion today and won. The tradition of crushing Pakistan on the World Cup pitch remains intact.

A look at the History of the World Cup

Welcome to the second biggest single – sport event in the world! The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Four years ago, it was held in Indian subcontinent. This time around, it has crossed the Indian Ocean and has come to Australasia. Yes, this time, it is being held in Australia as well as in New Zealand. The World Cup was held here last time in 1992, the year that Imran Khan’s Pakistanis lifted the Cup. The World Cup has travelled a long journey, and hopefully the journey will be unending. The World Cup has started from today, with the New Zealand – Sri Lanka clash kicking it off. 

So here is a look-back at the journey of the World Cup. Let’s see how the idea of the World Cup took fruit.

The Start of the World Cup

The man who dreamt of the World Cup was Kerry Packer, who was the owner of Australian TV Channel 9. He contracted well – known cricketers from around the world and paid them huge sums of money to play for his channel. He formed two teams – Australia and ‘Rest of the World’. Ian Chappell was the captain of the Australian team. Tony Grieg was the captain of the Rest of the World team. It consisted of famous players from England, South Africa, Pakistan and West Indies. It was called World Series Cricket (WSC). These players were banned from playing for their country. That is why; there was not a single Indian player on this team. Of course, that rule was relieved afterwards. Taking Packer’s idea a little forward, the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to organize the World Cup in 1975. Most of the countries which played Test cricket regularly till 1975 participated in the First Prudential World Cup. It was held in England, which is where cricket started.

The First Prudential World Cup: 1975

The West Indies were one of the best teams at that time. Its squad consisted of the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding in the bowling department and Clive Lloyd, Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge among others in the batting line – up. As a result, the West Indies won the First World Cup by 17 runs by defeating Australia in the final held on the 21st of June, 1975.

 

The Second Prudential World Cup: 1979

The second Prudential World Cup was held in the English subcontinent again. We can say that this is a carbon copy of the first World Cup with some minor changes. The name of the World Cup was the same, so was the venue. And so was the winner. West Indies was again the winner. The only changes were; instead of Australia, there was England in the final along with the West Indies. Another change was the exit of East Africa and the entry of Canada into the World Cup.

   

The Third Prudential World Cup: 1983 

Things and fortunes were about to change for India.

It would have been a miracle if anyone had even thought of India winning the World Cup. Even though it had the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, and Sandeep Patil in their team, they were not so good a team in the fast paced ODI format. They were a decent Test unit. Cricket had come to India because of the British. Oh, and what they did in that British land! The World Cup was played in the English subcontinent for the third time. Zimbabwe had entered the World Cup this time. West Indies, once again, were the favorites to win the Cup and make it a hat – trick of World Cups for Clive Lloyd. But thing were about to change. And how!

 

The finals of the World Cup 1983

What a peculiarity! The strongest team in world cricket, the West Indies on one side and one of the weakest cricket teams at that time, India on the other side. But still India won. They won because of they were lion - hearted. The ability to put everything into a match is one of the reasons because of which India won the Cup.

 

Fourth Reliance World Cup: 1987

The World Cup shifted from subcontinent to subcontinent. This time it shifted from the English subcontinent to the Indian subcontinent. With the new venue, came the new winners. Australia won the Cup for the first time in 1987 by beating England in the final.  One more significant change was that the duration of a match changed from 60 overs to 50 overs. India made it to the Super Six Stage of this World Cup.

 

Fifth Benson and Hedges World Cup: 1992

Imran Khan’s Pakistan won this Cup after losing their first two matches and then winning all their remaining matches continuously, right till the final. Pakistan defeated England in the final. This World Cup was held in the Australian subcontinent. India finished seventh in this World Cup.

 

Sixth Wills World Cup: 1996

The World Cup returned to the Indian subcontinent once again. Sri Lanka won this World Cup and a third Asian giant in World cricket after India and Pakistan emerged. India made it till the semifinal stage of this Cup.

 

Seventh World Cup: 1999 - An era of domination begins.

This Cup was held in the English subcontinent and in Holland (present day Netherlands). England was one of the favorites to win this Cup and Australia was just a possibility. England never made it to the final and Australia lifted the World Cup for the second time in 1999 by beating Pakistan in the final. India made it till the Super Six stage of this World Cup.

Eighth ICC World Cup: 2003

This World Cup was held in the African continent, mainly in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Australia and India were at their peak, and were considered favorite. Incidentally, the final was played between the same two teams, with Australia making a landslide victory, to equate the record of two consecutive World Cup wins with the West Indies.

Ninth ICC World Cup: 2007

Australia continued their invincible run at the World Cup, by remaining unbeaten for two consecutive World Cups by beating Sri Lanka in the final. This World Cup was held in the Caribbean. India had a first round exit in this World Cup.

 

Tenth World Cup: 2011

Both the World Cups returned to India: the tournament and the trophy. India lifted the World Cup after 28 years after beating Sri Lanka in the final on the 2nd of April, 2011.

Now the World Cup has just started. I’m analyzing India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as the favorites to win the World Cup. I will be following the World Cup extensively. On 15th February, India will start its campaign against Pakistan, which is always a high – profile game because of the political tension between the two neighbors. So, India will have to give their best from the very start of their title defence.

How England got stumped in their own backyard

All the people in the world were thinking that India had become lost as a side and that Dhoni should be replaced as captain after India lost 3-1 to England in the Test Series, which, according to my information, is happening for the third time that India have been washed out overseas. They had not even shown inspiration in the last two tests. God knows what had happened to the India that won the second Test at Lord's. But, history was going to be re-written. India made changes to the coaching department, bringing in their go-to man in trying times, Ravi Shastri. Even the bowling and fielding coaches were "rested", giving way to Indians Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar.
Boy, and what magic it worked. India defeated England in their own backyard, clinching the series 3-1.

The First ODI

The first ODI was washed out without a ball being bowled as rain interrupted the proceedings.

The second ODI:

This looked like the vintage, all- conquering Indian team. India put up 304/6 on the board, thanks to a 100 off 75 balls by Suresh Raina and 52 off 87 by Rohit Sharma. In response, England were shattered, with nothing going their way.And, as it happens, spinners usually struggle on foreign wickets,which support pace bowling. But, in this match, the Indian spinners spun a fine web around the English batsmen, bagging 7 of the 10 wickets. As a result, England folded up for 161, handing India a victory by a massive 133 runs by D/L method. India lead the series 1-0.

Third ODI:

England were looking to redeem themselves after their first ODI debacle, but none of that happened. India, who won the toss, put the English to bat first. Again, similar to the first match, the spinners dominated the proceedings, taking six of the ten wickets. There was one bowler who stood above all and that was India's frontline spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin, taking 3 wickets and giving away just 39 runs in his 10 overs. England crumbled to 227 all out. In response, India played well, with Virat Kohli playing his highest score on the tour so far, 40 and Raina made 42, Ajinkya Rahane made 45, and the most significant contribution came from the young man Ambati Rayudu, who made 64, and deservedly bagged the Man of the Match award. Ashwin did not get it because Rayudu had also taken a wicket while bowling his 2 overs. India won by 6 wickets with 42 balls remaining and lead the series 2-0.

Fourth ODI:

Dhawal Kulkarni made his debut in this match. England had now lost hope, because the maximum they could do on this series now was to salvage a draw. But even that draw could not be salvaged. A distraught England team just did not show any interest to play, except for Joe Root who made 44 and Moeen Ali who made 67. England folded up for 206. In this match, though, the pacers showed what a pace - friendly pitch can bring about in them. Mohammed Shami took 3 wickets by giving away just 28 runs in 7.3 overs. In response, India, riding high on confidence, lost just one wicket in what resulted in a dream innings for Ajinkya Rahane. He made 106, his first ODI hundred while Shikhar Dhawan made a spirited 97. India won by 9 wickets with 117 balls to spare. India was now aiming for a whitewash, already leading the series 3-0.

Fifth ODI:

This was when England final,y woke up. Not wholly, but substantially. They kept losing wickets at intervals, but Joe Root kept on going and was ably supported by Jos Buttler who scored 49 and Alistair Cook, who scored 46. Joe Root himself scored 113. As a result, England scored 294, their highest on this tour. India could not hold England this time. They folded up for 253, despite a spirited 87 from Ravindra Jadeja and 53 from Ambati Rayudu. Now, the series stood 3-1, giving some sense of relief to the English team.

So, this is how this great series went. It was raining R's, the first match by Rain, the second by Raina, the third by Rayudu, the fourth by Rahane and the fifth by Root.

There is still one match remaining on this tour, the lone T20I. So, play on, people!

When God Retires....

On 16th November 2013, an unforgettable event occurred in cricketing history. Just one day after his historic debut 24 years ago, the God of Cricket retired from all formats of competitive cricket. Sachin Tendulkar, one of the greatest players of the game of cricket bid adieu to Cricket. There are unbeaten records to his name. Some examples are:
1. Most number of runs in the history of cricket. (34,357 runs)
2. Maximum number of international centuries. (100 centuries)
3. Most number of matches played by any player. (664 matches)
There are many more. This blog is too small to accommodate all of them.

Sachin Tendulkar was a young lad, 16 years old when he made his debut for India. He started playing cricket at the age of 11, as a punishment from his brother Ajit Tendulkar. There, at the coaching club, he met Ramakant Achrekar or Achrekar Sir, Tendulkar’s first coach. From that moment, he fell in love with the game. He would go to Shivaji Park every day, first batting in three different nets, then batting for some time, then taking throw downs from his friends and then batting again in different nets before finally hitting the sack.
You might have read the word ‘batting’ in the above lines many times. This was Sachin Tendulkar’s life. Batting, batting and batting. Yuvraj Singh has written in his book, that first his life was cricket, cricket and cricket. Then, after cancer, his life was cricket, cricket and cancer. It was similar with Sachin, just there was no change in the three words.
The magic that started right from his debut innings when the little boy faced the fierce attack by Wasim Akrams, Imran Khans and Waqar Younises of the world; and continued till his last innings at the Wankhede. What happened in between is possibly the biggest history created by any individual on a cricket field. When the Little Master retired there were tears in everyone’s eyes. But the tears were of joy, not sadness. He had inspired a generation of players and people, inspiring them to play for India and giving them the belief that Indians can beat other countries in their own backyard, not only at home.
This is his retirement speech:

Now comes perhaps the biggest question in Indian cricket history: Who after Tendulkar? There are many talented young batsmen in the Indian squad, like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara in Test cricket. But none of them can fill the boots of Sachin Tendulkar. Many fans have said that Virat Kohli is the replacement for Tendulkar, but Virat Kohli is still struggling in Test cricket. Some say Cheteshwar Pujara, but he still has not been tested on foreign soil and not even in One-Day cricket. Some say Shikhar Dhawan, but he is still in the start of his career. And some say Rohit Sharma, but even he has just started his Test career. We will have to see how these batsmen fare in the upcoming South Africa tour.
Rest assured, I bid adieu again to Sachin Tendulkar for inspiring so many generations of people. As it is said, God can retire from the field, but he will never retire from our hearts. 

The Mumbai Indians’ massive win over the Delhi Daredevils

When the fans of Mumbai came to the Wankhede on 9th April 2013 for the match, they expected home boy Sachin Tendulkar and legend Ricky Ponting to blast up the innings against Delhi. But this is what they saw:

Ricky opened up the batting with Sachin Tendulkar after choosing to bat first. He came on strike. He defended the first five balls of the first over, and wanted to go over the fielder to relieve the pressure, but instead popped it into the hands of Mahela Jayawerdene. Ponting dismissed for a duck. In came man-in-form Dinesh Kartik.

Tendulkar ran a run, Dinesh on strike. He hit a shot, but Sachin was desperate for a run. Kartik said no, but too late. Mahela saw this confusion, and hit a direct throw to direct Tendulkar back to the pavilion. When the umpire went for the review, Sachin, being a good judge, already knew that he was out. More disappointment for the Mumbai fans. In came Rohit Sharma.

Dinesh Kartik and Rohit Sharma put on a solid partnership which had three stages: Delhi dominating, to both the teams having an equal share, to Mumbai dominating and Mumbai maintained that position till the end of the match. Back at the game, Dinesh was smashing the bowlers for sixes, fours, everything. He reached his fifty in no time. It was as if he was well on his way to a century, but he misjudged a Morne Morkel ball to hand his wicket in to Jeevan Mendis on 86. The danger man gone.

In came Pollard. He got out on 13. In came Ambati Rayudu. In the one over that he played, he scored 21 runs. The bowler was Ashish Nehra. Then Rohit Sharma reached a magnificent fifty. He remained not out on 74. The Mumbai Indians reached a mammoth score of 209. Delhi needed 210 runs to win.

On the first ball, Unmukt Chand would be very disappointed as he was at the receiving end of an unbelievable catch by Ricky Ponting which defiled all age and logic. He was 40, but that catch barely showed that he was 40. Then Delhi collapsed like a pack of cards to be bundled up for 165. Mumbai enjoyed a 44-run win over DD. Mumbai also reached first position in the IPL standings. Good for Mumbai! Go Mumbai Go!!!!!