Shining South Africans Fading Australians

The South Africans pulled off a magnificent victory coming from behind and have clearly wiped out the chokers tag associated with them. They were patchy in the first innings and I thought they let the advantage fritter away after taking three quick wickets on Day 1 and then conceding a lead of 94 runs. That was almost a situation from which very few teams have recovered and against the Aussies at Perth it was a tall order. They chased down 414 quite nicely and the batting of Smith and AB de Villiers was a joy to watch. Fine resolute innings from both these batsmen, who were ably supported by the top order, ensured a record-breaking victory.


I don’t want to take anything away from the South Africans but I think the Australian side is rapidly fading. They don’t have the ability to take 20 wickets consistently and have struggled in the recent past in both batting and bowling department. They have no bowler who is even half as threatening as McGrath and Warne. Hayden, Ponting and Symonds are struggling with their batting form. This is the second test they have lost to visitors at Perth.


We are going to see a change in the rank order of test playing teams pretty soon and Australia is not going to be at the top for long.

Champions at Chennai

All the people who say that Test match cricket is boring and is doomed for extinction, you should read the synopsis of the just concluded first test match between India and England. What an enthralling game!! We had all the ingredients of a perfect test match. Perfect wicket, perfect weather, tough and gritty performances and magical changes of fortune we had it all. If you ever wanted a script for an advertisement for Test cricket, here is an example. Who would have imagined that India will win this test match after they conceded a first innings lead of 75 runs and failed to bowl out England briskly in the second outing?

Secondly I think whoever doubted Sachin’s contribution in the second innings of a test match to seal a victory for India, should see this innings of his. He was in superb control throughout and he showed why he is still the master. He played a fluent innings full of confidence and I believe he was also influential in guiding Yuvraj through the patchy start. He must be vividly remembering that test match against Pakistan at the same venue in January 1999 when we lost to Pakistan by 12 runs after he got out. This time he shepherded the innings and ensured that he stood there when the winning runs were scored.

In my mind England lost the plot on Day 4 when after having built a substantial lead they failed to speed up the scoring. They did not impose their superiority on the Indians and as the scoring rate dipped to an abysmal low they also lost quick wickets. That allowed the Indians to get their chin up.

And then Sehwag came and played a blinder. When he is in that kind of mood, the opposition can just watch him play and pray that he makes a mistake. On the Sunday afternoon, I was switching between “Gone in 60 Seconds” and the test match. Partly because I am superstitious person as far as cricket is concerned and did not want India to lose wickets and partly because the movie had started before Indian innings. On the cricket channel it was “Gone in 60 minutes”. He clobbered the English attack out of the park and immediately put them on a defensive stance despite having a lead of over 350 runs. Such was the power and speed of his scoring that by the end of day four, the target was well within the reach of Indians and all three results were a possibility.

I think this Indian team is now building a reputation for itself and is certainly championship material. It has a perfectly balanced attack that can routinely take 20 wickets and a good batting line up that can take the gauntlet. The combination of Sehwag and Gambhir at the top of the line up makes all the difference. I would possibly rest Dravid and promote VVS to No. 3 and bring in a fresh new candidate in the next test match. As far as England is concerned I think they would have to think hard for their available options. Strauss, Collingwood with the bat were good but were not fast enough and Flintoff bowled his heart out for his captain. The rest of the bowling was pedestrian and made no impact.

Thank you England !!

As an Indian and a test match aficionado I am so happy that the English cricket team has agreed to come back and resume the tour and as I write this the first test match is under way.

I quite understand the state of mind of the players when they must have heard of the terror attacks on Mumbai. I was in a similar situation when I saw the WTC Tower 2 being blown away right in front of my eyes on live television. As a business traveler I had stayed at the Marriott in the WTC and the Millennium Hilton across the road and on numerous occasions I had taken the Path train to the WTC station. As I saw the terrible events, it dawned on me that this could have been any one of those days and that shook me. As time passes and one starts thinking rationally, one takes it as a part of modern day life and moves on. I guess the English team also must have gone through the same process. Change of the venues and the security audits were additional measures to ensure that India means business.

Thank you England and thank you KP. We respect your courage and the determination to not let the terrorism push us into the shell and defeat the spirit of humanity.

A Lazy Week

The past week or so has been very quiet on the test match front and I would like to share some other related topics that I have been reading about. The India-England ODI series has started but judging by the pace of the first three games, I would not be surprised if we win this 7-0. Anyways, I am not covering any ODI topics here.

The over rate controversy has been hounding Ponting back home and he is not smart enough to ignore the noise. As Dilbert says about the inDUHviduals, he opens his mouth only to change the foot. The best response from him would have been an improved over rate against NZ and that would have silenced the critics. We can expect his “Captains Diary” being published any day now. He is creating some news bytes every day to attract attention from Indian media. He took a jab at Gavaskar and then went on to praise Ishant Sharma very lavishly for his spell in Perth. On the over rate controversy, I read a very interesting blog by Comedian and satirist, Andy Zaltzman on Cricinfo. His suggestions are really very “out of the box” and I quite like the soccer like reduced-men proposal. The cricket administrators need to think positively and use the infrastructure that is available today like the computers and online score boards to improve the game for the spectators. You can read that interesting blog here. http://blogs.cricinfo.com/andy-zaltzman/?addata=blog_az_comms.

As I write this the first Oz-NZ test is almost nearing completion. Australia should win this test barring some miracles. Once again one got to see the fragile Aussie batting line up, but I don’t think the NZ team has the batting required to put pressure on the Australians.

PS: I finally had that bottle of Fosters yesterday.

Sydney Avenged

With India winning the Nagpur test match squarely and the series 2-0, I think justice has finally been done for that one dreadful afternoon in Sydney. The Australian captain and the team coupled with incompetent umpires had robbed India of a few wickets and possibly a win too. I would have settled for a draw as a fair result for that test match.

It is quite comical to read Tim Nielsen's comments on the 8-1 off-side field that MSD set to throttle the Oz batsmen. He is now talking about the spirit of the game. So my question to Nielsen is very simple. Since when did the Oz cricketers start thinking about the spirit of the game? Isn’t the spirit of the game violated when:

• Glen McGrath bowls a consistent off-side line to Sachin to dry up runs?
• Brett Lee tousles Gambhir's hair after the double century?
• Symonds refuses to walk when he nicks a fat edge in the Sydney test?
• Ponting comes charging from mid off to question the Not Out verdict on Sehwag?
• Jason Krejza removes a bit of leather from the cricket ball?
• Oz players resort to sledging involving all members of the players' family?
• And I can’t stop laughing on this one, a captain of the Australian state side throws his wicket-keeping gloves at a ball that was running past him very rapidly. Isn’t that against the spirit?

Mr. Nielsen please answer these questions with your hand on your heart and then talk about the spirit of the game. You cannot be having one set of rules when you win test matches and another when you start losing.

Personally despite all these happenings I am a very happy person because India is back to the winning ways. I had stopped drinking Fosters beer after the Sydney test in protest and I think now I can drink that bottle of beer once again with a smile on my face. :)

God alone on off-side..

“On the off-side, there is God and then there is Sourav.” This is how Rahul Dravid once described Dada. He could not have said it any better. For years the opposing teams deployed an army of fielders on the off-side and Sourav pierced that wall with pin point precision. All left handed batsmen are a delight to watch due to the natural grace that they have in their strokes. Dada’s off-side play was possibly several notches above the rest. The Nagpur Test was the last time when the “Fab Four” of the Indian cricket played together. It was the last test match for Sourav Ganguly and quite appropriately India won the Test match and the series. One also got a to see a final glimpse of Dada of the past when MSD temporarily handed him the captaincy after taking the 9th wicket. What a great thing to do! Both of them probably play the game from their hearts and therefore they don’t hold back anything.

Dada’s exit was as dramatic as his cricketing career. Almost scored a century in the first innings but got out against the run of the play on 85. He would have joined an elite club of individuals scoring a century on debut and in the last match. As things turned out, he did join an exclusive club, but of another type. He scored a Bradmanesque blob in his final innings. It was sad to see the figure of one of India’s finest captains walk back slowly to the pavilion.

Sourav brought spunk to Indian cricket. He changed the way we Indians looked at the opposition in the past. Under him we were not the underdogs who always looked at the other foreign players in awe and considered them superior. He played the game as an equal and was never bogged down with the status of the opposition. Therefore in his books it was perfectly OK to make Steve Waugh wait for the toss or to take his shirt off on the famous Lord’s balcony. He led the team by example and his tone-setting century at the Gabba on the 2003-04 tour of Australia will be remembered for a long long time. He was expected to face “sweet chin music” from the Oz pacers, but he came out and attacked every short pitched delivery aimed at his rib cage.

Controversies have also always followed Sourav on and off the cricket pitch. In his very first overseas tour there was an alleged incident where as a reserve player he is supposed to have declined carrying drinks to the team. His bitter showdown with Greg Chapell has been well documented.

I think Indian team is going to miss this great cricketer and a colorful person. He has made Indian cricket stronger and can look back with pride as MSD continues the Indian uprising. Well played Dada, it has been a pleasure watching you bat.

Jumbo takes off

Yesterday on the last day of the third test match at Kotla, Anil Kumble announced his retirement from test cricket. I must confess that personally I never liked Anil Kumble as a spinner. I never put him in the same class as Bishen Bedi or Shane Warne. He was more a medium pacer who had tremendous variation and control as opposed to a turner of the cricket ball. Having said that, I always admired Kumble for his humble persona and his meticulous planning. Be it with his game, photography or his general state of preparedness. He always seemed to be a studious person who went about planning with every bit of information that was known to him. His bowling too benefitted from this planning because he would think and plan each dismissal.

Kumble was also a die hard servant of the game. I still recall him bowling in West Indies with his jaw strapped in place with heavy bandage just because he thought India had a real chance of winning that game. His never say die spirit set an example for many young cricketers on how one should keep the game above personal achievements.

He goes out with his head held high and with the knowledge that the reigns are in the hands of another capable person, MSD. Well played Jumbo and hats off to you!!