Search results matching tags 'England' and 'Sachin Tendulkar'

WC 2011 Special: Interpreting India's plans for Netherlands

cnarula — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:53:00 GMT

When you look at India’s itinerary in the World Cup, it clearly dawns that they are the most favoured hosts of three. Of course it helps when one of the BCCI’s top administrators is the tournament commissioner and the resultant is a sizeable gap between most of their six first-round matches. As if that wasn’t enough, the Men in Blue play(ed) Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands within their first four games. Add that with the complexities involved in Group B, wherein England and South Africa can’t get their form right, West Indies are still only getting started, Bangladesh aren’t upsetting anyone and Ireland are fulfilling that promise, and it is easy to understand why India are sitting pretty at the top of the table. A hard-earned win in Dhaka, a sensational tied game at Bangalore and a decently won one at the same place make up India’s results so far. It is not to say that against the Netherlands at Delhi, the tournament will start in earnest for them. But, perhaps, the urgency with which the other teams have been playing their cricket will begin to show up. Three days later they head to Nagpur to play South Africa and then onwards to Chennai to take on the West Indies eight days later. The game against the Proteas will be an important one in terms of deciding who finishes the group on top, for naturally by then, India would have already qualified for the next stage. It will only be too good for retaining spectator interest and the television ratings, yes. That is what the ICC wanted after all, it is good for business. But the fact of the matter is India will not hit their straps until the knock-out stage lest they lose either of their last two matches. When one talks of near-urgency only with regards to the three days between games four and five, it is to say that MS Dhoni and his men have had a leisurely stroll in the park. Maybe it won’t hurt them, for the billion strong fan community will keep the players honest. Yet, in a championship of this magnitude it is not really advisable to have this much gap in between proper competitive match-ups. There is a simple reasoning behind it. How do you tell what players have retained their form from the match gone past or indeed lost a bit of it? How much can you tell by innumerable practice sessions and indeed how many such nets can the team undergo? There is a best side to it all that any niggles carried by the players aren’t relayed from one week to another. In that light, it allows for a fully fit squad to come across a relative lowly opposition, a game where an upset maybe going a tad too far and a tough win would be asking for much. See it any which way, the Dutch will only want to put a strong display themselves at the Feroz Shah Kotla, giving India the best opportunity yet to experiment with their line-up. That word – experiment – allows for a host of permutations and combinations. In their particular case, the Indian team should really be looking to test their bowling prowess. S Sreesanth was off colour against Bangladesh and Piyush Chawla has done enough in the last two games to be benched for the rest of the tournament. The latter’s woes with line and length against Ireland must have been heartening for R Ashwin, albeit it was his team getting the hit. If Chawla had done well at Bangalore, there is no way on earth he wouldn’t have played on the Kotla pitch – where the bounce is always a big doubt and slow bowlers come into play early. Now that he is pretty much out of the equation, Ashwin should make his World Cup debut. For any plausible reason, if he doesn’t now, then there is no other time to do it and see what his worth is. The only way Chawla can get to play is when the word ‘rest’ comes hand in hand with experimentation. The think-tank might want to give a game off to their prime bowlers and such is the selection of this Indian squad that Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and Harbhajan Singh, can all be rested against the Dutch. Even so, Dhoni will take the field with two fast bowlers and two spinners, his preferred line of attack so far. And once used, this word can be abused really. You can also want to rest Sachin Tendulkar’s old legs or Virender Sehwag’s hurt rib, and give a chance to Suresh Raina. Let him not be rusted and keep the others on their toes. Moreover let him be prepared if injury or ill-luck comes the team’s way later on, for the path to the crown will only get tougher from here on. Perhaps this would have been one-game where even the skipper would have wanted for an extra wicket-keeper in the squad, just allowing him enough breathing space. Having said all of this though, Gary Kirsten would do well to remind his wards of the threat Ryan ten Doeschate and company posed to England at Nagpur. For coaches have no off-days, nor are they allowed experimenting much with their role-play. They have to keep watch all along and make sure no harm comes forth even in matches where snoozing ought to be a necessary option.

WC 2011 Special: Interpreting India's plans for Ireland

cnarula — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 16:03:00 GMT

When the fixture list for this tournament was drawn a long time ago, the India-Ireland encounter was just another of those matches where the minnows would line-up against a powerhouse team, hoping to have a good day. If they did, it would just about make an impression of the progress they have made since the last time they played on the big stage and if not, well, no one would care much about it. Fifteen days into the 2011 World Cup and this is just not another game against the minnows. Blame it on Kevin O’Brien’s girlfriend, for she wants him to chop off that pink-mop on his head. Any man who denies such a judgment on his appearance has to be brave and the way he stood up to the English challenge of 327 was but a mere reflection. None of those sixes were miss-hits or unimaginative swipes out of desperation. In fact, the most laudable part of his innings came after he had accomplished scoring the fastest hundred in a World Cup. There was still time, runs, balls and wickets to play for a win, even the English knew that. It could yet have gone wrong for his team but the sanity to close out dangers and mental toughness to cut out risks to pursue the finish line was the most refreshing part of the entire chase. Of course he wasn’t alone in pulling off this coup. Alex Cusack, John Mooney and Trent Johnston were equally firm in finishing the chase the right way. In fact, one could pretty much write down the entire Irish eleven from that day here, such was their valour. It showed the steely resolve of this cricketing dwarf to push against its weight and make a desperate bid to stand up to be counted in the big league. Beating England might have been part of that grand plan all along. So when captain William Porterfield shot off a warning to India ahead of the Sunday clash, you would want to take him seriously despite his deep-purple coloured head. The thing about that upset from a further Irish point of view is twofold. While it does embolden their spirit to hunt for two more wins in the league stage and stand a good chance of making it to the quarterfinals, it also puts added pressure on them. And truth be told, despite all their heroics, they are still minnows in the right sense of the word. Can they handle the pressure of dealing with a second team that is pursuing world champion dreams, two matches in a row? The big difference will be the insane atmosphere that will accompany this match. As compared to a near empty stadium, with the cheers of their own entourage being the loudest, they will now play in front of 34,000 fans who will be bleeding blue. It isn’t the easiest proposition in cricket! Even so, it won’t be an easy task for India either. The tournament seems to have come a long way but having played only two matches so far, the co-hosts seem to have been hardly visible. It is an odd thing to say about a cricket team from this country, but that is the weird truth. They played first in Bangladesh and the hoopla of watching on television rarely transpires onto the field these days. Then the second game was a loss in more than just a point given away. That they couldn’t defend 338 properly ought to have been a slight dampener in the minds of those fans who already have them crowned champions. Yes, it was a dream batting wicket but world champion sides do not leak that many runs that early in the tournament, or ever. Period! The one argument here would be that sometime earlier Australia made 434 yet lost in that ODI game. It is right in the sense that it was an extra-ordinary game that at Johannesburg against South Africa and perhaps the one at Bangalore against England will also go down in history as one, if it hasn’t already. But therein lies the point: India wouldn’t want to play another extra-ordinary game again so soon, especially against Ireland of all. They would happily do with an ordinary game, and by that one means, rounding off a simple, without frills win over their opposition. You can almost understand why MS Dhoni and his boys would want so. Games against Ireland and Netherlands in such tournaments are testing grounds for a change in combination and after their hallowed tie in the last match, there is an ever more need to be testing out all their options before sterner tests against South Africa and West Indies come along. The big riddle continues to be the three pacers versus two spinners conundrum. It can’t be said that satisfactory results were achieved against England, for Piyush Chawla is your fourth bowler and he went for runs at a pretty bad time in that game. It would make the case for trying out R Ashwin, but would India want to opt for two off-spinners? The answer has to be yes now, for it is no at a later stage, then what was the point of having him in the squad in the first place? Ashish Nehra being match fit again only adds to the situation. He too can come in for Chawla but again, the Irish might find his pace more to their liking than spin’s slower variations. In that scenario, whom would you want to drop – Zaheer Khan is an absolute no-no, Harbhajan too and that leaves out only Munaf Patel. And to be honest, he hasn’t done that badly just yet. One possible answer could be playing five bowlers – and countering the extreme batting conditions at M Chinnaswamy Stadium – but the Indian batting is the one thing that is working even more smoothly than a well-oiled machine. As it goes, don’t fix it if it isn’t broken!

World cup 2011 - A Bengaluru thriller

aroundthewicket — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:17:00 GMT

Phew!! What a game it was? A tie, only 4th in the world cup and it was an exciting game. Dhoni won the toss and as expected decided to bat first on a flat track. India got off to a flier with Sachin and Sehwag. The Indian top order looked in great touch again as India scored runs at a fair clip without losing wickets. Sachin Tendulkar scored yet another hundred, his 47th in ODI’s to guide India to a mammoth 338.

Sachin received ample support from Sehwag and Ghambir. It was a brilliant innings by the master. He paced his innings to perfection and made sure that the scoring rate never dropped. Initially he took a back seat while allowing Sehwag to take the charge. When Sehwag was dismissed Sachin upped his scoring rate to make sure the run rate was never compromised. Yuvi and Dhoni took India past 300 but once they were dismissed, India lost wickets at a heap to be bowled out for 338.

England began their chase in the right earnest as they kept their rate above 7 an over till a brilliant catch from Munaf ended Pieterson’s innings. Strauss though continued to dominate the Indian bowling; the introduction of spin had no impact on the English captain. Chawla dismissed Trott for 16 leaving England on 111/2. Ian Bell joined Strauss and kept the run rate going with sensible batting. They picked their gaps effectively as Dhoni was running out of options. The biggest turning point of the match came when Yuvi struck Bell right in front and the appeal was turned down. Dhoni after insistence from the bowler decided to refer the decision.

The replays showed that the ball was hitting in line and was crashing on to middle stump. Everyone including Bell knew that it was out but since the batsman was more than 2.5 meters forward from the stumps, the umpire in the middle (Billy Bowden) reinstated his decision. This shocked everyone including the English players in the middle. The rule did not make sense as the ball was hitting the stumps half way up and probably cost the game for India in the long run. Bell though continued his batting along with Strauss and almost batted India out of the game until Dhoni brought back Zaheer for one final time.

Zaheer though bowled brilliantly answering his captain’s call by nipping out 3 wickets in quick time, leaving England reeling. The 3 wickets included Andrew Strauss who played one of the best innings in a world cup scoring 158, his highest. Strauss never allowed the Indian bowlers to dictate to him and was very cool and collected in accumulating the runs. Bajji too joined the party as a wild slog from Prior found Raina at mid on. The Indian team now looked poised to win the game. With England needing 29 from two overs and Bresnan and Swann in the middle, Dhoni tossed the ball to Chawla. The English lower order weren’t going to give up easily as they crashed the Indian leggie for 15 runs in the over leaving 14 more to get in the last. Chawla though dismissed Bresnan with the final ball of his over.

Shahzad joined Swan in the middle and hammered a 6 of the 3rd ball of the Munaf over to help England tie the game. It was a great game of cricket but I would say that in the end Strauss would have been disappointed and Dhoni relieved. The Indian captain though did not hide his frustration at the end of the game as he said that the bowling needs to improve. He also added that the batting cannot score 350 in all the games. It was a brilliant game with two great hundreds and I felt that neither of them deserved to be on the losing side. So a tie was probably a fair result. The Indian think tank needs to figure out the ideal bowling combination for their next game against the Dutch which can be a potential banana skin game for the hosts.

Lanka progress and Fab Four decline

dcsiva — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:57:00 GMT

As England wrap up a final Test win against South Africa, with that cynical little man back in action, Sri Lanka win the series against India. Straight Point breaks out a statistics analysis against sleepy Fab Four supporters to argue that the Fab Four are in permanent decline not just in a temporary dip:

i wanted to put stats of other two (sehwag and gambirs) but i dropped the idea coz figures were embarrassing to compare...

if you further break it series per series basis...i.e. starting from Oz series to SA to SL series or breaking it from last 20 innings to last 15 to last 10 to even last 5 innings...

whichever way you wanna look at it...i am sure that...the decline will appear more continuously downwards...almost like a pattern...indicating that the fall in form is not temporary...or sudden...as we are being made to believe...

I'm not sure I'm awake yet. Mohan meanwhile sees a silver lining in Tendulkar getting injured---Badrinath gets a recall. But as Ottayan points out, the Vir-Gati opening combination that Tendulkar would have disrupted means that Badrinath is unlikely to play.

Lastly, a quiz from Patrick Kidd to help wake me up.