6.4.06

Cricket: The Indians continue to impress.

India romped home to series win with three matches still to be played. The English team is far from the genuinely good One-Day teams that we see. I believe Australia (pretty obviously), New Zealand and South Africa are good fighting One-Day units. Pakistan on there day are very exciting. India has done well. The other team sub-continental Sri Lanka, never found the replacement to the players who left after taking them to World Cup glory in 1996.

Pathan on rock and roll.

The Indian opening bowler has himself into good habit of picking up early wickets. I saw him struggle in the one day series against South Africa when Graeme Smith took him apart. He has since then climbed back out of the hole and looks good on current form. He has shouldered the responsibility with both bat and ball so far so good. There have been criticisms of him for dropping his pace a little. It is not about the pace one bowls but about the place one’s bowls. The McGraths, Ambrose, Pollocks have been great One Day bowlers and these are not tear away fast bowlers.

Pietersen is as good as first three letters in the name.

I think Pietersen is some sort of a dream spell and needs to be shaken up into reality. It is imperative that every English batsman should consider himself to be playing at number 10. There is no back up to follow. Pietersen fell and the match slipped out of England in double quick time. The situations were not the most ideal, but these are opportunities never the less. He has been a bit of let down for me as far as this English team is concerned. This brings another fact into light that many who have done well all over he world have struggled against India in India. A few examples would be that of Lara, Warne, Murali, and Ponting and now I would add Pietersen to this list.

The spinners weave the magic.

The Indian spinners look very very potent in these conditions. They also look potent against the English how tend to struggle against spin. By the way, it is not only spinning that they struggle against. Yuvraj and Sehwag took wickets, which only helped easy the matters. Yuvraj took a great catch of Collingwood, which helped India to take control. Harbhajan then got into the act. He used his guile to set up Pietersen’s wicket. He kept on turning the bowl and fed Pietersen the sweep shot. Then after India opted for third power play, he invited Flintoff to play over the top. Flintoff obliged with not so clean strike for a four. Then Flintoff took a single and Pietersen came to strike, while attempting a premeditated stroke he was fooled by Harbhajan and offered Yuvraj a catch he would not have missed in his sleep. The end of Pietersen. Flintoff tried to hoick Yuvraj and Dravid took a very sharp diving catch to sent Flintoff packing. Geraint Jones played a good hand even though he seemed to be hampered with some injury, before being run out.

India starts well.

Sehwag and Dravid gave India a very good start and practically nullified any chance of English denting the Indian top order. Sehwag then holed out in the deep to a ball, which he could have hit anywhere if he were to be informed. The Pathan came in and managed to control his desire to hit over the top. He collected some runs and managed to build one more solid partnership. He hit Blackwell out of the park and then tried one shot too many was stumped when Blackwell out thought Pathan.

A mini collapse.

Pathan’s exit was followed by that of Dravid who was foxed by Flintoff. Kaif who is finding it difficult to meets ends was sent by packing by a very good catch. He is no short of form and penurious when it comes to luck. I think the team can help him by introducing him on top of the order where he gets time to get into some sort of run making form. I hope he will not be dropped after that. Yuvraj and Raina got their heads down and took India to the doorstep of victory. Yuvraj in this form can commit no crime. His edges find the boundary and all the luck is running for him. He is a brilliant One-Day player and India will certainly do well if Yuvraj gets a decent score.

Captain Dravid.

He is in control, takes educate and calculated gamble. He has players that pull off his plans and the result is for all to see. He explained his reason of delaying the power play. He hung the carrots in front of the opposition and flogged them a series victory. He is a winning as well as performing captain. He has the right foresight for the game. He is leading the front from the front and looks as much as in control as he looks while batting.

There are more challenges ahead.

The latest victories have come against teams that are looking to rebuild. I would like to see them perform on the same intensity levels when battle lines are drawn against better opposition like New Zealand and Australia. However, so far so good.

It has been a very emphatic wins with youngsters pushing the cart on the track to good victories.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was a great effort from whole team and spinners did well to restrict runs and take wickets.with Rahul not here in next two Robin might get chance and some more youngsters might get a chance to play in remaining matches.Hope they do well.

RPM said...

There is still concern with Sehwag and Kaif and how they can come back to form. Should we include them in the 'dead' matches so that they can play under lesser pressure, or should we drop them and get some new faces some match time?

Tarun said...

@ Nagraj: Yes how the youngsters cope up will be intersting to see.SO will be the fact that Viru will be captaining the side.
@ RPM:Why change a winning combination?

Sudeep said...

I also think Kaif shld be promoted in the order.. give him a chance

Dawn said...

Yes I did read this ....amazing...hope the consistency remains..

cheers

Invincible said...

England should be made to bite the dust as 7-0.
I m skeptical @ resting Dravid though, not for him but for Sehwag wud get a life whereas he is struggling to find a form for an year now !

Tarun said...

@ Sudeep:God, I thought I was all alone in this world who did not want Kaif out of team.I was just wondering if it was time to give Ganguly a look in.
@ Dawn: Lets see.
@ Sesh:Me too looking forward to his captaincy.
@ Invinci:Hi Invinci...Sehwag not firing is a bit dissappointing though

yogi said...

Hey, Pietersen has been the only standout performer.. In tests, he was decent & o'er here he has been good. One could argue he shud've converted them to 100s, but he'd provided solid base..

Tarun said...

@ Yogi:Thanx for coming in :) Yes.Pitersen has been good but England could have been very competitive if he had shown a beter control over his shot selection.