End of an Era.!!! GOD quits ODI's

Hi Cricket Lovers

23rd December will be remembered as a day when the GOD of Cricket announced his retirement from ODI's where his 18,426 runs is almost 35 % more than Ricky Ponting's Aggregate. He has so many records to his name that I will have to keep writing this blog for the next few days to list all of them. I will not go on listing them but will always think of him to have unparalleled place as one of the best ODI cricketers in World. As many cricketing greats have rated Don Bradman in Test cricket as the best i will rate Sachin with the same pedigree in ODI's.

When Sachin started playing ODI's on Dec 18th 1989 versus Pakistan and scored a duck even he believed that it will be his last innings in the shorter format but when he showed his class in only his 2nd Test innings with a brave 59 against the likes of Wasim Akram, Imran Khan and Abdul Qadir. I was just 7 then so don't remeber watching him play but i did saw him first on TV playing during his Maiden Aussie tour in 1991-92 when I saw him play against the likes of Mcdermott and Ried i really felt that this guy was good.

I still remember him paying attacking innings when he was asked to bat against the kiwis in 1994 for the first time when he score a 49 ball 82 and won us the match effortlessly. I guess it was the turning point of his career and also India Cricket. He never looked back after that. I still remember the days when I and many other cricket fans just watched cricket because of Sachin and we used to lose our hopes of India winning the match. India in the 90's rarely won when Sachin did not play well. I can never forget his last over versus the South Africa in the Hero Cup semis which he won for us even when they needed only 6 to win off the last over. Not to forget the back to back centuries in the Sharjah cup(1998) against the Aussies to beat them hands down.

By 2003 when he single handedly took India to the World Cup finals but could not make the dream of Indian repeating the 1983 heroics again he had broken almost all the ODI's record till then. I still remember him feeling so dejected even when he won the Man of the series trophy. I always thought that it was a brave decision on his part to not represent India in the 2007 T20 World Cup with Dravid and Ganguly also opting out too. It worked wonders as the Young Indian team under MS Dhoni won the inaugural T20 world cup in style.He had to work hard in the next 2 years till 2009 but still was good enough to play but then year 2010 came when he became the 1st Man in ODI's to score a double century with an unbeaten 200 against the strong attack of South Africans. He amassed 1562 runs in that Calender year which is the record which no other batsman has come near till date.He also deservingly received the Cricketer of the year by ICC for 2010.

He anyway had sparingly played ODI's till 2011 World Cup where he again was back to his best with centuries against England and South Africa and a Match saving 85 against the Pakistanis in the Semi Finals. I still remember being the audience with my brother, the pin drop silence of the Wankhede Stadium (2nd April 2011) when Sachin got out on 18 off 14 balls. It was very silent for at least the next 10 overs or so but when we saw that 6 hit by Dhoni and then Sachin being carried on the shoulders of his team mates all around the ground it was a wonderful experience.

Sachin could have announced his retirement from ODI's as soon as he score his 100 international hundred but was waiting for almost 9 months to do the same I am not sure but it could be anything but his everlasting love for this Game of Cricket. Speaking for myself alone here i wanted him to play in the 2015 World Cup but he wishes Indian Cricket to have enough time from now to fill his place with a replacement and be ready to defend the title in 2015. I am surely going to MISS him in ODI's as i still think he had some more to give to Indian Cricket even though his form off late has not been that good but that happens with every cricketer in their career. Adding to that none of them has had a career spanning over 23 years of cricket with over 33k runs in all the forms of cricket.

I wish him luck for the upcoming Home Test series against the Aussies and hope we see him back in form and retire from this game on a high.

Cheers to that !!!!!

I will be back with more.

Till then Bye.

Ind vs Eng Test Series Preview

Hi Cricket Lovers,

As you all know 15th November will mark the start of 4 test series India versus England where the India team get a chance to take a revenge of the last years humiliating 4-0 defeat it suffered in last years Away series against the English team.The probable starting XI for both the teams are as follows

India-1. G Gambhir, 2. V Sehwag, 3. C Pujara, 4. S Tendulkar, 5. V Kohli, 6. Y Singh, 7. MS Dhoni, 8. R Ashwin,9. Z Khan, 10. A Dinda/ I Sharma (if fit), 11.P Ojha

Eng-1.A Cook, 2. N Compton, 3. J Trott, 4. K Pieterson, 5. I Bell, 6. S Patel, 7. M Prior, 8. G Swann, 9. T Bresnen/ S Broad (if fit), 10. J Anderson, 11. M Paneser

 This series is a chance for Gambhir and Sehwag to prove that they still are the best opening pair in the world. Both have not been able to score a big hundred since Jan 2010 and Nov 2010 respectively. Then again Cheteshwar Pujara will  try to fill the void of Dravid in the team. Sachin will also look adding to the 100 centuries since last scoring one in Jan 2011. Kohli has been the most prolific batsmen for India in the ODI format since the 2011 world cup scoring centuries every 6-7 matches he plays. Yuvraj will be tested physically after his return to the Test side almost a year recovering from a life threatening Cancer.

 MS Dhoni will have this series to show his worth after suffering 8 consecutive away tests in England and Australia. Ashwin and Ojha have been in good form since the Home series against the Kiwis and have been bowling well in tandem. I think they will be testing the English batsmen the whole of series as the pitches are sure to be tailor made for spin. English Batsmen have shown there weakness to spin against the Pakistanis in the just concluded UAE series. The fast bowlers will have not much to do except for taking the new ball shine off and get some early wickets when the ball is swing at the start of the innings.

England squad will be missing the services of the tearaway fast bowler Steven Finn and also might be missing Stuart Broad if he is not able to prove his fitness before the start of the test. All of Cook, Compton, Trott and Pieterson have shown a glimpse of their form in the three practice matches Nick Compton will look to fill the shoes of Strauss as Cook's partner while Kevin Pieterson who is considered to be the best player of spin in the English squad. Greame Swann and Monty Panesar will look to spin a web on the Indian pitches but given that Indians are very good playing spin i guess they won't be as much threat as the Indian duo will be to the English batsmen. I think the Swing Bowlers like James Anderson and Tim Bresnen while the fast bowling of Finn will be more threat to the Indians if they are able to use whatever assistance they could garner out of the Indian pitches in this series.

My predictions for the series, English Team by the look of it might not be able to register a win this series where i see  a 3-0 (or a 2-0) score line will be the final result i foresee. A 4-0 whitewash is on the cards only if the Indian batting line up fires while the English are not able to handle the spin that well. If this happens it will be a sweet revenge and a fitting reply to the 4-0 loss they suffered in last years away series.

I will be back soon with mid series review of both the Aus-SA and Ind-Eng series soon.

Till then
Cheers!!!

P.S
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Australia vs South Africa Tour Preview

Hi Cricket Lovers,


9th November,2012 is set to be the day when the current number 1 test team (South Africa) and the Aussies will fight it out in a 3 test match series in Australia. Starting with the 1st Test at Brisbane and ending in Perth on December the 4th.



My probable eleven for the upcoming Gabba test is


Australia (possible): 1 Ed Cowan, 2 David Warner, 3 Rob Quiney, 4 Ricky Ponting, 5 Michael Clarke (capt), 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Peter Siddle, 9 James Pattinson, 10 Ben Hilfenhaus, 11 Nathan Lyon.


South Africa's team seems settled, and will not like to change its composition from their England series.


South Africa (possible): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers (wk), 6 Jacques Rudolph, 7 JP Duminy, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Morne Morkel, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Imran Tahir.

I hope this series will meets all the expectations of a cricket fan and we have a cracker of a series with the major players from both sides contributing. I feel Aussies will feel a bit low with the loss of Shane Watson and the new speedster Pat Cummins who was in form in the last few matches i have seen him bowl. I feel the Ricky Ponting will also have a point to prove to the Aussie selectors for keeping him in the future plan for test squads at the least.


As far as the proteas are concerned AB de Villiers will be very keen to show he is fit enough to keep and also significantly contribute with the bat.. Aussies have started playing the mind games by the story of a courier reaching the team with the master plan of tackling all the South African players with Amla being the most targeted and sought after. I hope Kallis and Smith show their class and give us an awesome series to remember as make the real cricket fan come to see tests again.


My predictions for this series is that the proteas will retain their Top spot as the ICC test side and win this one with a 2-1 margin.



I will be back with the preview of the India England series soon.


Till then

Bbye

T20 World Cup Review

Hi Cricket Lovers,

As predicted in my preview, few players like Gayle,Narine, Mendis, Kohli, Ajmal and Sakhib al Hassan did really well in the tournament. This tournament started with the ouster of Minnows at the very early stages while Windies who emerged eventual champions had a slice of luck when they got through to super 8's due to a rain marred game against the Irish team. The target which the Irish team gave Windies wasn't a hard one but you never know what could have happened if they had got rid of Gayle and Samuels early on.

The West Indians were also lucky in reaching the semis when they beat the New Zealand team in a Super Over even after scoring 17 in their super over. If not for Southee had bowled that 1st Ball no ball which went over the boundary for a six things could have turned out differently for them. Still, once they reached the semis and the way they annihilated the Aussies and the Sri Lankans no one for sure will doubt that they are now beginning to worry top class teams like Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and India that their team has revived and they are in no mood of stopping.

Sri Lankans really did made use of the home conditions to their advantage and made sure they had their say in the crucial semi-finals against a strong Pakistan T20 team. Ajantha Mendis started his comback to the lankan team with a six for , unheard of for a T20 game and also ended the tournament with the 15 wickets to  his name. Even the Sri lankan captain Mahela Jayawardhene emerged the 2nd highest run scorer with 243 runs to his name. Sri Lanka had every thing going their way till the 12 th over of the 1st Innings when Samuels had some other plan in mind. His knock of 78 of 61 balls in the end made the whole difference.

Shane Watson was deservedly given the Man of the Tournament award for scoring 249 (highest) and taking 11 wickets (2nd highest) while the Man of the final was Marlon Samuels for his brilliant 78.

The next cricket tournament which is starting on the 13th of October is the Champions league T20 where the top 10 T20 teams of the world will fight against each other for the becoming the T20 Champions. My bet is on the South African team Titans or the Chennai Super Kings to win this edition.

I am also eagerly awaiting the India-England and Australia-South Africa tour starting Novemeber. will surely be back with previews of both the tours soon.

P.S
I have also launched my Facebook page please do like it by logging on FB
the link for the page is CricGyaani

Till then Bye
Cheers!!!

World Cup T20 Preview

Hi Cricket Lovers,

First of i will like to express my happiness for Yuvraj's successful comeback to international cricket. As predicted by me India won the Test Series against the Kiwis quite convincingly though they faltered during the final overs of the only T20 which the Kiwis won by a solitary run. Leaving that aside i want to now talk about the T20 world cup which is going to start on the 18th of September and the finals will be held on October the 7th in Colombo ,Sri Lanka.

There are a few teams which have a great chance of winning this world cup. First let us look at the 4 groups which have been formed at the group stage. Group A has India, England and Afghanistan, Group B has Australia, Ireland and WI, Group C has the hosts Sri Lanka,South Africa and Zimbabwe while Group D has Pakistan,New Zealand and Bangladesh. The group which is the most unpredictable according to me is Group D.

Th next stage of the World Cup will comprise of 8 teams (Super Eights) where each team will play 3 matches and India will most probably be playing Australia,Pakistan or Bangladesh (could happen) and South Africa and will have to win at least 2 of the 3 matches to have any chance of qualifying for the Semis. According to me the top contenders for this years edition are South Africa, India and my Dark horse for the tournament will be the unpredictable Pakistanis as they have a knack of ding well in this short form and they have a very good spin attack(Ajmal, Afridi and Hasan) which could be a potent force in this World Cup. India too boasts of a good bowling attack this time with R Ashwin and Pathan back in form. Virat Kohli has become one dangerous player whose wicket will be sought after by all the bowlers in this edition.

The players who will shine this time will be batsmen like Gayle, Warner, Kohli, Yuvraj, Sakhib al Hassan, Amla, AB de Villiers, Ross Taylor and Mohammad Nabi from Afghanistan. In the bowling department the players like Ajmal, Ajantha Mendis, Irfan Pathan, Patt Cummins,Steven Finn, Vittori, Steyn and Sunil Narine will make there mark by bowling some outstanding spells.

Its very hard to guess or predict who will become the Ultimate champion but going by the things which have happened over the past 2 year since the 2011 world cup its very hard to pick. I would still put my Money on India or South Africa to overcome this hurdle and emerge as a champion.

I will be back with more updates.

P.S
I have also launched my Facebook page please do like it by logging on FB
the link for the page is CricGyaani

Till then Bye
Cheers!!!

India vs Sri Lanka Series Review

Hi Cricket Lovers

As I had predicted in my previous blog India emerged victorious in the ODI and T20 Series against Sri Lanka by winning 5 out of six matches they played there. Much was written about the way the pitches in Sri Lanka were new hence it did not behave the same as it has done in the past. Sri Lankans have always had a good home record but Indian team time and again has always come on top mainly due to there ever so strong batting line up which consist of Gambhir and Sehwag at the top followed by Virat who has not even played 100 ODI but feature in the top 5 best ODI batsmen according to the ICC rankings. Then comes in a Solid ODI palyer Raina followed by the Captain Cool MSD. Leaving aside the talented Rohit Sharma who has not delivered for India at the International stage since his good showing in the Caribbean last year even Manoj Tiwary has grabbed the opportunities he has got (very few when compared to Rohit) with both hands

This Series has been a blessing in disguise for Irfan Pathan who was lucky enough to be the part of the Indian Squad only because of the injury to Vinay Kumar. The left arm seamer was instrumental in taking top order wickets and was also successful with the bat on two occasion when he was involved in an important partnership which helped strengthening the middle order despite failure of Rohit Sharma who was not able to reach double digits in all the matches he played. Sri Lankans tried hard but could not show much consistency in all the three facets of the game.

What more i can say about Virat Kohli as he added another 2 centuries in this series and finished with 296 runs and ran away with the Man of the Series award  i want you read my previous blog dedicated to him for being  Virat Kohli--- The Next Big Thing for India Cricket. He with 13 centuries in just 87 innings he is by far the fastest to reach as many centuries by a long margin. He is the best bet for breaking Sachin's ODI record of 49 centuries (as of today) soon if he keeps scoring them at the same pace.

Now talking about the Team Selection for the New Zealand home Test series and T20 World Cup there were a few surprises. One was the return of Yuvraj Singh after he has won the battle with Cancer and the others being the inclusion of Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh and Lakshmipati Balaji in the T20 team. Rohit Sharma has been dropped from the Test Team after repeated failures but was retained in the T20 squad which i think is a mistake. I think Ajinkhya Rahane should be the one replacing him in the squad.

I think Laxman has got a good platform in this series retire from Test Cricket on a high and i think he should do well at familiar home condition in the absence of Rahul Dravid who announced his retirement from Test Cricket just a few months ago.It will also be nice to see Sachin back in the Squad after a long resting break after the IPL. My prediction for the NZ series will be that India will win both the Test and T20 series with a comfortable margin as I think the Kiwis are not in form of their life at the moment.

Will be back with more updates.

Till then

Cheers!!!

Preview of India Vs Sri Lanka Series

Hi Cricket Lovers

Sorry for being away from writing as was busy with work related stuffs. Still there was no indian cricket happening after the IPL till now though we saw an unfamiliar occurrence when Australia were whitewashed 4-0 in an bi-lateral ODI series which again tells us that they are losing their Top ODI team status. England and SA have shown more consistency in this format in the last 6-8 months. Even Sri Lanka has gained some form after the disastrous last year when they overcame ever-so unpredictable Pakistani team in both the Tests and ODI's. Also, Return of Gayle in the West Indian team was a blessing which helped them win an ODI series against a new look New Zealand Team by a comfortable margin of 4-1.

In a couple of days the Indian team after a long hibernation (4 months) from International Cricket will be playing 5 ODI and one T20 against Sri Lanka. The Indian team will be sans Sachin Tendulkar but will have the services of Virendra Sehwag with Gautam Gambhir at the Top of the order. Followed by Virat Kohli,Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni in the TOP 6. Then the all rounder spot will be full-filled by the Lucky Irfan Pathan who got the chance after Vinay Kumar lost his place due to injury. Irfan will be followed by Ashwin, Rahul/Pragyan, Zaheer and Umesh Yadav .

Others left in the team are Manoj Tiwari,Ashok Dinda and Ajinkhya rahane all of whom might get a chance or two in the next few matches as Dhoni would like to give everyone a much needed match practice as that would be helpful for getting used to Srilankan pitches before the upcoming T20 world cup (sep-oct2012).

While the Indian Team looks good Sri Lankan team is not looking bad as well with the likes of Dilshan, Mahela, Angelo Mathews and Thissara Parera doing well in their recent matches against Pakistan.

I think this series will be a Tough one for India as they will be playing together after a long time while Srilankans have momemtum with them but I still think India will win both the series. I wish them all the best and this series will also help the selectors in pinpointing the performance of some who are in the list of 30 players in the probable players for T20 World Cup. One more good news is that Yuvraj has been named in the list of 30 hence hope he is fully recovered and match fit well before time.

I will be back with more updates soon.

Till then Bye.

Cheers!!

New ODI Rules

Hi Cricket Lovers

After MS Dhoni's luck did work till his team scored a mammoth 190 but the luck did not work for his team as KKR were able to chase down the score by the last over of the match. A fitting end to a final worth watching. ICC has made recommendations to make some changes in the ODI format which will be tested in the upcoming ODI matches . The changes are as follows

• The bowlers will now be allowed to bowl 2 bouncers in an over.
• Now there will be only one more power-play in the innings which has to be completed before the completion of 40th over.
• Maximum number of fielders allowed to be outside the 30 yards circle will be reduced from 5 to 4
• 2 new balls from both the ends will be continued

I think allowing the fast bowlers the luxury of bowling a 2 bouncers an over will be  a good addition as this will make bowlers now use it as a run saving options in addition to peppering new batsmen with it. It will also make the matches more interesting when the bowling side will have the luxury of just fielding 4 players outside the 30 yards circle which then will make captains thing more on field placements may even force them to have innovation field placements within the 30 yards circle.

I hope these changes will improve the overall ODI formats and bring the audience and increase TV viewership which has started dipping with the advent of T20 and IPL gaining more entertainment factor.

On other note I think Kevin Pieterson to retire from international T20 and ODI's means he wants to extend his IPL career and concentrate on Test cricket rather than representing England in the upcoming T20 WC and ODI tours. What are your thoughts?

Will be back with more updates.

Till then 

BBye...

Luck and MSD

Hi Cricket Lovers,

When i had predicted at the start of IPL that Chennai,Mumbai,Delhi and Rajasthan will be the teams who will reach the Top 4 and till yesterday i was sure that I will be only 50% right with my predictions but then again something miraculous happened today. A strong RCB side who just needed 30 of 25 balls lost the match by 9 runs which made Chennai the 4th team to qualify for the qualifiers.

I don't know what it is but i think this has something to do with MSD ( Mahendra Singh Dhoni) and Luck ,which some time i think have the same meaning :). When CSK lost its last match to the Kings XI  in their last league match there were very few people who believed that they will be in the Top 4 as for that to happen every thing which was to happen for them to qualify seemed very distant.

But as we know just like it has happened so many time for Captain Dhoni whose luck seemed to have lost the same sheen it had till the day Indian Team won the World Cup has gained momentum in last few days.The things which CSK needed for it to ensure it reach the qualifying stage happened one match after the other. First of all DC beat RR and then the DD team defeated KP. and Today again DC against all odds were able to defend a modest total of 132 against Gayle and company.

Will his luck again help CSK complete the Hattrick... it will be revealed very soon. Lets see i don't want to predict now ...!!!!!!!!!!

Luck has always favored MSD, it all started with a freak decision of letting Jogindar Sharma bowl the last over in the Finals against Pakistan which led to his T20 WC triumph in 2007. There have been so many occasions when Dhoni has come on top after being in such bad situations for Team India as well as CSK that i have lost count of it. I hope that this luck never runs out till he is the Indian Captain.

What do you guys think?

Do comment !!!

Will be back with a new topic when i can think of it soon.

Till then Bye

Virat Kohli--- The Next Big Thing

Hi Cricket Lovers,

As promised i am writing about Virat Kohli who has become the next big thing in Indian Cricket. While so many Indian fans were waiting for Sachin's 100th Century he was accumulating tons after tons and became the fastest player to score 10 ODI centuries in just 80 innings (84th Match).Off late, He has become the most consistent Indian Batsmen and even risen up the ICC ranking to join MS Dhoni in the Top 10.

Virat Made his debut for India in 2008 versus Sri Lanka and soon showed that he had a temperament of becoming a good batsmen. Virat has played a big role in India's rise in the ODI status and was a very important member of the team when India won the world cup in 2011.

Virat along with Gambhir has been the two prominent names in recent times when it comes to chasing down a big total. Who can forget the World Cup final when Gambhir scored the Match winning ninety and who can forget the recent 100's from Virat when India needed to score 320 within 40 overs to stand a chance of reaching the VB series final and the Mammoth 183 he made against the Pakistanis when India chased down a huge target of 330 with overs to spare.

Virat's performance down under was so good that the Indian Selectors rewarded him the vice captaincy for the Asia Cup where he showed his class by outperforming other batsmen an finishing as highest run scorer of the tournament. This show he can take additional responsibilities at such a young age of 23 years.

I think he has a good  future ahead as long as he keeps his head down and concentrate just on cricket and not worry about anything else.My prediction for Virat is long as MS Dhoni is Captains India he will be his deputy and can take over the reign once MSD retires from ODI cricket. Virat needs some more time to establish himself as a Test Player for India but he has showed a great character in the Aussie tour by being the only centurion in the test series that he has a potential. I hope he becomes one of the greatest cricketers of all time.

IPL is on but has not shown much promise till now. Will try to write on some IPL related topic soon if  this IPL 5 starts showing some promise.

Till then Bye

Cheers!!!

Sachin's Century of Centuries!!!!!!!!!

Hi Cricket lovers

Sorry for not updating you guys for the last 2 weeks. I was fed up with India's pathetic displays over the past few weeks but when India came to Dhaka they were thinking of starting with a clean slate and change their lost faith among the Indian Fans.

All the Indian Fans had been waiting for Sachin's 100th 100 for nearly an year. All the while Sachin has come close to the achiving this feet at least 7-8 times but some way or the other he had been deprived of it. 16th March was the day when he just told him self that enough is enough today is the day he wants to create history.

That day it felt like no one was capable of getting him out. He was playing as if he had pledged to make a ton before he was at the crease. Sachin and Virat had decided midway through the inning s that  a target of 260-270 will be a competitive one going by the slowness of the pitch. That was the reason why Sachin was slow till he reached the magic figure.  After India lost the match when their bowlers were not able to defend a score of 290 many critics felt Sachin slow batting was the only reason for India's loss. In my opinion there is no reasoning behind that logic as it was the lackluster bowling performance the Indians which was the main reason behind their loss. If they were even half as good as they were in the previous match against a stronger batting unit of the lankans they would have easily won the match. All the bowlers were wayward giving away easy runs to the Bangladeshi batsmen.

Out of Sachin's 100 centuries 25 have resulted in India's Loss and people start saying that whenever Sachin's score a century India loses but what we fail to recognize is the fact that when India lost the matches when Sachin's score tons what were the other 10 in the team doing. Just for an example 13 out of the 25 times the 2nd highest scorer of the match did not even cross a 50. 18 of those 25 centuries were made batting first which tells us that it is our bowling who has been a major culprit when we lost the match. Why don't critics let Sachin decide when he wants to retire. I think i know Sachin that much that i can say that the day he feels that he is not contributing towards team success he will retire for sure. Personally i want Sachin to play in the 2015 WC where i will go and watch him Live Down Under.

My next Article will be about the Next Big Thing which the Indian ODI Team has got by the name of Virat Kohli.

Till then Bye

Dressing Room Rift .....or Just Media HYPE??

Will this Alleged rift in Dressing room cost India the place in the Finals?

This tour Down Under has been a long one for the Indian Team. What started with the hope of India's best chance to win a series in Australia has seen a lot of downs for the Indian Cricket team as it lost the series 4-0 and this performance was termed as one the most pathetic display of test performance since the 1960's.

This long tour has taken the toll of many players and going by the performance of senior players like Sachin and Viru who have not been able to give any impactful performance in this series till now has made Dhoni make comments during the post match press conferences which makes us believe that the dressing room atmosphere has changed and is not good at all. His decision of rotating openers, i.e playing any 2 of the Viru ,Sachin and Gambhir has received flak from the former Indian and even other cricket legends. Nobody but dhoni approved of this rotation policy because he thinks that playing those three together will decrease the fielding standard hence costing 15-20 runs every match.

I tend to agree with his stress on giving youngsters more chances but that should never be at the expense of the creating discord in the team. I dont agree that what was working in the World Cup cannot work here with Sachin and Viru opening and Gambhir coming at 3. This was the trio which worked during the WC and i have a strong belief that this can work right now also. I know that Viru and Sachin are not known for their fileding but we still can shield these fielders by positioning them inside the 30 yards circle at position like square leg and other strategically place positions where they have minimum of work to do. As they are good sli[ catchers they can act as one during the 20 overs of power-plays. I feel Dhoni is a bit harsh when he compares Gambhir's fielding ability with these two as he is just 30 yrs old and when it come to running between the wickets he can be considered a good runner too. His form was not good during the test series but he has overcome his shortcoming and now playing more confidently.

Giving rest to one of them every 2 matches also takes away the much needed batting opportunity in match situations hence hampering the form he may be in or may get into. I am also not able to comprehend the Dhoni is justifying the decision as even the youngsters like Raina, Jadeja and Rohit is not capitalizing on the chances they have got till now. Even Ashwin and Umesh have not delivered to the extent which is needed from them to contribute towards team wins. So now we are at the position that only chance we have to reach the Finals is to win at least 1 match out of the 2 with a bonus point which is a difficult task going by the way have performed till now. The best case sceneario is that they win bot the matches and become the 1st team to qualify for the finals.

If the team as Dhoni suggest has not rift plays to there potential they can win the last two match and wait for the last match to see whom the will play in the finals.

Keeping that in Mind
I wish the ream the best of luck for the next 2 matches

will be back with more updates

Till then
Bye

CB Series till now

Hi Cricket Lovers

Indian team started on a good note till the 15th Over of the first ODI at the MCG carrying on their form of series levelling win in the 2nd T20 Internationals but then the bowlers started bowling jaded and started leaking runs to the Hussey brothers. They gave away nearly an average of 10 runs per over.

It seemed like the bad form of the Indian team will continue from the 4-0 whitewash it suffered in the Test Series when the batting unit collapsed and was not able to chase down 216 in 32 overs. It all turned around when India faced Sri lanka and with the bowlers restricting the Sri lankan team to a modest total the Indian team chased the score down rather easily with 20 balls to spare. Ashwin deservedly won the Man of the Match as he was good with both bat and ball, While he was able to garner turn and bounce on the Perth wicket scalping 3 Sri lankans and also scored 30 runs to guide India through to victory.

The Next match between Srilanka and Australia was a tense affair with Australia managing to keep there nerves in the final stages of the match and scraping through a 5 run win by taking the wicket of the lone ranger  Angelo Mathews who single handedly took Sri lanka so close to the target of 231 which seemed a modest one. If you thought this match was thrilling then the next match between India and Aussie was even more pulsating. In a high scoring match it was Captain cool MS Dhoni who despite his slow start was able to gather  momentum and hit his only boundary which was a huge six over long on when his team needed most and scoring 13 runs of the last over to win the match with 2 balls to spare. Gambhir won the Man of the match for his cool and calm 92 announcing that he is back in form.

If you all thought this was good enough you were treated with another humdinger where India and Sri lanka met at Adelaide and the match ended in a Tie with MS Dhoni again coming to the rescue of the Indian team by scoring 3 runs of the last ball to finish off the match with no side feeling a bit out of luck. MS Dhoni was given the man of the match for innings which showed once again how cool he is. Both teams will be happy with a tie with India rising to be at par with the Aussies on the points table just lagging behind on net runrate. Till now this CB series has got back to us that even ODIs can be exciting and it might help reviving the fans back to there old watching ways where they keep filling the stadium in match of such high quality.

Hope the thrill continues and wish that the Sri lankans also make it hard for the Aussies to remain on top of the table. If that happens i guess it will augur well for the competition as we are only 1/3rd way through this series with 10 more matches to come.

Will be back with more updates.

Till then Bye

India Australia Series Review

Hi Cricket Lovers 

Even before the start of this test Clarke had made it clear that they will not take anything less then a 4-0 win over India and that's what Australia showed us how to employ their skill at the most to achieve what they intend to.

The test started with Clarke winning the toss on a wicket which looked a much better wicket to bat on compared to the last three pitches.It all started well for India as they were able to take 3 top order wickets by lunch time but when Ponting and Clarke came on to the crease it seemed like India were facing their Nemesis again. These two have been the thorns in the way of the Indian bowlers who did not seem to find a way to get this pair dismissed quickly. This pair amassed a record 386 run partnership before Clarke was dismissed. The way these two have batted throughout the series they never looked in any trouble except for Clarke who had a bad start to the series at Melbourne.

Ponting looked comfortable even though he had not scored a century for 36 innings. He has 544 runs runs to his name while Clarke had 626 runs to his name thanks to a double and a triple century to his name. While Indian team and only 2 major contributors to the batting where the youngster Virat scored 300 while Sachin was mere 13 runs behind with 287 runs. While bulk of the runs Virat got were from the last 2 tests with him being  the only Indian player to score a ton with Sachin missing the chance of scoring his 100th Ton twice in the first 2 tests.

Australian Bowling attack was young but potent with Ben Hilfenaus leading the wickets tally with 27  followed by Siddle with 23. While Zaheer and Umesh Yadav were the next 2 in line with 15 and 14 wickets to their names. None of the two spinners had a bit of success in this series till the last innings of the test when Nathan Lyon too 4 top order wickets and even accounting for Sachin's demise in what can be his last innings in Australia as a Test Player. Only two positives came out of last test for the indians were the century scored by Kohli showing that this young player has a potential to become a good test player while Wriddhiman was really good behind the stumps hence giving indian selectors a good back up for Dhoni in the future series.

Preview of the 4th Test @ Adelaide

Hi Cricket Lovers

Leaving behind the Perth Test Debacle where the Indian Team could not manage to outscore Warner innings of 180 we can only think of one positive thing which came out of this test for the Indian team. It was the bowling of Umesh Yadav on the 2nd day where he bowled his heart out to pick up his maiden 5 wicket haul. All the batsmen failed barring  Virat Kohli whose inning of 75 in the 2nd innings showed that he has some test potential in him.

I think it would be a blessing that Dhoni will not be playing the last test as he was banned by ICC for slow over rate for the Indian Team in the Perth Test. It might be good for him to get a break before a long T20 and ODI series start where he can focus on the strategies he is going to adopt in the upcoming series while sitting in the dressing room watching his team play without any pressure in the last test at Adelaide.

Hearing from the reports it seems that Adelaide pitch will not be as Bowler friendly as the last three have been. Hence, there is a possibility of the Indian Batsmen showing what they can do as a batting unit. All this though will depend on how well they start this test. If they all stay positive i think the Indian team has the capability of turning things things around and gather a momentum which they can carry through the rest of the series in which they still have to play 2 T20's and at least 10 ODI's before the finals which again will be a best of 3 affair.

SCG Test Match Review

Hi Cricket Lovers

Sorry for the delay. I was away from Cricket for almost a week due to some personal loss. leaving that aside there was still cricket going on in Australia.
SCG was hosting it's 100th Test and All cricket lovers were betting on Sachin 100th International ton and that would have meant a tally of 5 consecutive tons in first innings of New Year tests for him.

When India won the toss and elected to bat on a bright sunny day it seemed like a very good decision but the things did not work out as planned hence due to a very good bowling effort from the Aussies and some rash stroke-play from the Indians they skittle out for a meager total of 191 on a bright sunny day. It looked to be a even contest till Zaheer Khan was able to take out the 3 top order wickets by the end of 9th over at the score reading 37 but when the 2 experienced players like Ponting and Clarke survived the early stint of the Indian fast bowlers and ended the day without any more loss the match started turning in their favour. Day 2 totally belonged to the Aussie captain who played through the day completing his maiden double hundred. Ponting departed at 136 which was his first Test century after 36 innings. This innings said that he still has something left in him to give back to his country in Test matches. Aussies lost only 1 wicket for the loss of 622 runs till they declared with Michael Clarke at the score of 329 not out. This was a surprise for most of the viewers as most of us would have thought Clarke could have at least tried to over take Mark Taylor's mark of 334* if not break Brian Lara's 400*.

Clarke thought otherwise and declare which gave them 9 sessions either to bowl out India and win the match chasing if need be. In the Indian 2nd Innings all the focus shifted to Sachin's 100th century which was stopped by none other than the triple century maker Clarke with his slow left arm spin. He was able to bowl a delievry which draw Sachin into a stroke and turned enough to take an edge which ricocheted off Haddin into the hands of Hussey at 1st slip. Most of the SCG crowd turned silent for a moment but then gave Sachin a standing ovation for the innings which might be his last at SCG in Tests for India.

After that India started losing there way and got dismissed about 68 runs short of making Australia bat again. The comeback pacer Hilfenhaus was the main wrecker of the Indians with 2nd 5 wicket haul of the series. Clarke was a unanimous decision for the Man of the Match while Australia have take an unassailable lead which will mean that India can at Max draw this series by winning the last 2 tests. The upcoming Test at Perth will be the most testing of All for the Indian as history suggest the pitch will be fast one with a lot of grass on it. The media are calling the pitch to be 'the Green Demon' which is very fearsome as it sounds.

As of now I think if the Indians have to show how good fighters they are they should repeat there performance at Perth from 2008 and defeat the Aussies using the Pace attack which is bolstered with Zaheer finally making it to Perth this time around. Umesh and Ishant will be very potent on this pacy and bouncy pitch for sure if they maintain there composure for all the days where they bowl their hearts out.

That's all for now.

Till then Bye

Boxing Day Test analysis using Impact Index

Happy New Year 2012 to all Cricket Lovers

First of all i will give you all people a brief introduction to Impact Index as to how it is calculated.Jaideep Verma is the creator of Impact Index

 I have been associated since May 2011.

source : Impact Index Methodology

Impact Index, unlike every other cricket statistical system in the world, is completely transparent in its workings. It is possible to do all these calculations manually too, at the back of an envelope, once the system is understood. However, to save time and energy, we have automated the entire system and are in the process of running all cricket data through it. A simplified step-by-step list of its mechanism is given below, in case you want to understand how it really works. This methodology is for limited over matches. 1) Based on the innings totals, a base figure is generated for the match. This is measured in runs, for all players (batsmen and bowlers and wicket-keepers). 2) Every performance in the match is thereafter measured against this base figure (as a ratio). One IMPACTpoint is procured when the performance is equal to the base. That is seen as merely the par performance for the match. 3) For a batsman, IMPACT points are garnered for a) Runs Tally b) Strike Rate c) Pressure d) Chasing and staying not out in the second innings. e) Partnership-Building. 4) The Strike Rate IMPACT can go into negative or positive depending on his strike rate vis-à-vis the base strike rate in the match. 5) The Pressure IMPACT only measures pressure that comes from fall of wickets. It kicks in when a batsman comes in to bat in a tough situation (as defined from how many wickets have fallen) and crosses the base runs. Tough situations are defined as per the base runs. 6) For a bowler, IMPACT points are garnered for a) Wickets (the top 7 wickets and the last 3 have different values, in most cases, as per the circumstances of the match) b) the Economy Rate (again, calculated against the base economy rate of the match - in T20 matches, the economy rate has a slightly higher value, as per the circumstances of the match)  c) Breaking Partnerships (its limit is set by using a multiple of the base) d) Building Pressure (taking quick wickets within the base). 7) Catches, stumpings and credited run-outs all get extra / IMPACT points (a fraction of the base). The winning captain also gets an addition to his IMPACT (again, a fraction of the base). Wicket-keepers get flat points for doing an assigned job. 8) All the above points are measured against the base figure, and are therefore ratios of the base in some way (which is fundamentally why they are measurements and not ratings).

Given below are the overall Impact Index of the players on the scale of 0-5 (only exceptional performance sometimes go above 5). The green tick symbol (√) signifies awesome performers while the red cross( × ) signifies the below par performers for the test match. Yellow exclamation (!) means Average performance in comparison to the top performers.

We all know that the key contributors for Australia in the Match were Ricky Ponting,Michael Hussey, James Pattinson, Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle while for India it was just the duo of Zaheer Khan and Umesh Yadav. It was after a long time it was seen that two of its fast bowlers were the major contributors to the what could have been a well fought victory if the at least 2 of its batsmen performed as well as they had done in this match.

Ben Hilfenhaus score of 5.79 showed that he deserved the Man of the match award ahead of Pattinson. Another reason behind that was the fact that Hilfenhaus had not played for Australia since Ashes last year and  to be the main reason behind Indians losing their last 8 wickets for just 68 runs. Pattinson score of 5.18 was also helped by his knock of 37 not out in the 2nd Innings which helped Aussies build a lead which was tricky to chase down on the pitch which was assisting fast bowlers. Though Pattinson really bowled well in the final innings when his fiery pace bowling softened the master blaster a bit which then resulted in the master giving away his wicket to a wide delivery from Siddle. Ricky Ponting scored twin sixties with the 2nd Innings score being significant because of the state of play he came at while Aussies were reeling with pressure at 2/17 then soon at 27/4 and then he built a partnership with Hussey whose 89 was the highest impact innings (3.5 out of 3.88 came from his knock) of the match.

Umesh Yadav was the best performer with a score of 5.42 from the Indian side attributing to the 7 wickets he took in the 2 innings. He was fiery keeping up his pace throughout the match. He got pressure building points during both the innings as he was responsible for taking quick top order wickets. Zaheer also added 7 wickets to his name which resulted in a score of 5.15. It was an exceptional performance considering that he had returned straight from an Injury after a long break of 4 months without any practice behind him with just a 2 first class matches and the tour opening practice game.

As i said earlier if any 2 of the batsmen (say Sachin and Sehwag) performed and scored while chasing it would have meant with India would have won the MCG test after 30 years since the last time they won here.
A positive start from Sehwag like the one he did in the Chennai test against England when he scored a quickfire 83 of just 68 balls which resulted in India chasing down a stiff target of 387 very easily would have helped a lot.

There were a lot of below par performances from both the teams with the worst performance coming from the new off-spinner Lyon who just took a solitary wicket in the match. Shaun Marsh's return from injury was not very good as was Laxman's and Virat's performance in the match. Ishant's bowled really well in the first innings but luck did not favor him at all and he went wicket-less.

The wicket keepers Dhoni and Haddin both performed well behind the stumps but did not contribute well with the bat.

Hope you guys like the section and will keep updating the post match analysis like this for the SCG test after its over. Will continue with my end of day reviews too for the SCG test where everybody is waiting for Sachin who averages an astounding 221 at this venue will try to complete his 100th Ton in the 100th Test at SCG which will be an icing on a cake for all the cricket lovers.

Till tomorrow
Bye