SACHIN...U will be missed !!!!

Hi Cricket Lovers,

10.10.2013 was the day when Sachin aka GOD of Cricket announced that he will retire after playing his 200th Test versus the West Indians which starts on 14th of November. I will miss him and so will the 1.25 billions Indian fans all across the globe and not even them even so many foreign players and fans are going to miss him.

I would like to just list the top 5 Test and ODI innings i have seen Sachin play since the first time i had seen him play in 1991-92 Australian tri series till the last test he had played against the Australians.

Top 5 Test Innings

1. 136 versus Pakistan at Chennai, 1999
2. 114 versus Australia at Perth, 1991
3. 241* versus Australia at Sydney,2004
4. 155* versus Australia at Chennai,1998
5. 193 versus England at Leeds,2002

Top 5 ODI Innings

1. 98 versus Pakistan at Centurion,2003
2. 200* versus South Africa at Gwalior,2010
3. 117* versus Australia at Sydney,2008
4. 82 versus New Zealand at Aukland,1994
5. 143 versus Australia at Sharjah,1998

I m sure you all won't be debating much about the top test innings i have mentioned in the list but i am sure many will ask about the 82 which Sachin made against the kiwis in 1994. This was the innings which transformed the regular no. 4 for the Indian team into one of the most prolific opening batsmen in the ODIs till now. He score a blitzkrieg 82 off just 49 balls which at that time many experts said that pitch was not the kind where a player can score runs with the ease with which Sachin did and then on wards everything for Sachin as an ODI player changed.

Sachin has with his name a lot of records which will not be that easy for many to eclipse. Few records which will be the hardest to break on the top will be 100 international centuries then 62 Man of the Match awards and the and 50,000 runs first class runs when you combine first class tests ODIs and T20 together.

As a Sachin fan I wish and so does all his fans that he scores at least one century to sign off from this remarkable career. He now knows that he is leaving the Indian test team at that stage when he thinks there are players like Kohli,Raina,Pujara and Rohit who can take his place in the team and there are some other new talents which are emerging who give Sachin confidence that the Indian team will not be weakened anymore even if he leaves the team. Nobody at this stage is capable of replacing the master blaster but will surely be able to take strides towards achieving that goal by performing at the  highest level now that we will have a vacant place in the Indian XI after the West Indian series.

I hope Sachin at 40 still has so much to give to Indian Cricket. If he takes break from cricket for a year and comes back into the system where he becomes a coach/mentor at NCA for all the new batting talent and other cricketing gyaan which he can give away to all the players who have the capability of representing the Indian colors in any form whether it at under 15 , 17 or 19 level or even at India A level. I think this kind of role will suit him. He could also become the team manager for the team to the 2015 world cup which is scheduled to happen in Australia.

Please feel free to leave your comments/opinions in the thread below.

will update more after the 200th Test.

Till then

Cheers

The New Young India!!!!

Hi Cricket Lovers,

Sorry for not writing for a while. Most of it was because of the shadow of Match fixing scandal which had overshadowed the game of cricket during the IPL. I was happy that my favorite team,i.e Mumbai Indians won but was not sure about how this Indian team will react after this scandal. I was apprehensive but somewhere in my heart I always felt that Indian team has it in them to overcome all such controversies and focus just on Cricket.

Dhoni being what he is left aside all the questions being raised to him by the media regarding the scandal but let the team performance speak for themselves. Right from the first warm up match when India gave 333 runs to the Sri Lankan team everybody thought we had lost everything mentally too. No body knew then what was to follow will be so similar to the success which Indian team had in '83 and '85 when they won world cup and the world series of cricket one after the other. Things were very different then.

This time around Indians started with a bang chasing down 333 against the Lankans very easily and then thrashing the Australian team by 243 runs by bowling them out for a meager 65. Against all  odds the new opening combination of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan worked wonders and two centuries partnership in two games from both of them meant that India became the first team to qualify for the semis with wins over  the  strong South Africans and the dangerous Windies team. Even the Bowlers responded well this time with Sir Ravindra Jadeja claming a five-for agains the Windies. Jadeja finsished the tournament with 12 wickets and proved once again he is a very good ODI palyer and is there to stay as an All rounder in this young Indian Cricket team.

Coming into the Finals Indians had not lost a single game and wanted to show the world that they are the world no. 1 ODI team. Dhoni rightly said at the presentation ceremony ,quote " I said 'we are the No. 1-ranked team, let's play like that" and i think that's what they did tonight. Every single player in the team was focused at giving their best and when this happens results always show. India ended this tournament winning 7 out of 7 matches including the 2 warm up and never looked like losing a game till England needed 20 of last 16 balls in that all imprtant Ishant Sharma's over after which the game turned its head after an Ishant-Ashwin combination took 2 wickets in 2 balls.In the end, Indians won by 5 runs.

I think this is the New Young India which plays its heart out each and every match and is committed to be and remain no. 1 team in all the formats of this game. Dhoni has now registered win in all the tournaments there are right now and have also lead the Indian team to become no. 1 in ODI as well as Test Championship race too. Only thing which i think he will now want to accomplish is to defend the world title at the 2015 World Cup in Australia.

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I will keep posting updates

Till then
Bye

4-0 Scoreline inevitable?

Hi Cricket Lovers,

  As discussed in my previous post Ind vs Aus Preview we saw that it was Indian batting turnaround led by Dhoni's Masterful 224 at Chennai followed by Pujara and Vijay's Partnership at Hyderabad which was again followed by a dominating innings of 187 by the debutant Dhawan. All this was complemented by the spinners Ashwin and Jadeja performing well above expectations to a position where India have clinched this series with a comprehensive 3-0 margin.

  This series also seen the ouster of Gambhir and Sehwag as the opening pair. Sehwag was shown the door by giving Dhawan and opportunity which now has made his comeback to the Indian test side as an opener a question mark. If Sehwag shows some  symptoms of coming back to form i think he can still fit in the Test Team as a middle order batsman but for that he will have to perform really well with all the limited amount of opportunities he gets leading up to the South African series coming late Oct-Nov of this year. With Ashwin showing the improvement while Ojha doing what he does best and the surprise package what Jadeja has turned out during this series by outfoxing Clarke 5 times has somewhat cemented his place of an allrounder. Bhuvaneshwar's performance in the ODI's against England prompted the selectors for trying him out against the aussies and he has really shown us what a swing bowler like him can do in the limited opportunity he has got in the spin friendly condtions of the three tests so far in this series.

  For the Australians except for Clarke who has been in form of his life for the past 18 months or so no other aussie has been able to show the resolve which is needed by a batsmen in the spin friendly conditions one can encounter in India. Notwithstanding, the Aussie coach's 'Homework Gate' created a hole in the Australian team by dropping players like Watson,Johnson,Khawaja and Pattinson from the playing XI. Even the return of Watson to the squad in the 4th Test at Delhi with Clarke's back causing problems I don't see any improvement in the team's morale going into the final test and hence given the weakness the Australian Batsmen have shown aaginst the Indian spinners it is hard to avoid the 4-0 scoreline.

  Everybody now will be waiting for the Delhi Test to bid Farwell to Sachin as it will be his last test match on the Indian soil. I hope he finishes on a high with a Century to his name. I wish him all the best for that and Hope he represents India for the South African series where i hope he will play his 200th Test Match and signs off his international career with a Century again.

I will be back with some preview of IPL 2013 soon.

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Till then
Cheers!!!! 

India vs Australia 1st Test Preview

Hi Cricket Lover,

I am back after a 2 month break and yet to recover from Sachin's retirement from the ODI's. Check my Last Blog.The past few months have not been good for Team India as a whole where they lost the first Home Series to England by 2-1 after almost 28 years and then also lost the ODI series to our arch rivals, Pakistan. Though a bit of pride for Team India was brought back when we were able to beat the English Team in the ODI Series and move past the Proteas to move to No 1 position as the Top ICC ODI team.

Moving on to the upcoming 4 test series which starts on the 22nd Feb in Chennai and set to finish on the 26th March in Delhi. Australians have already announced the playing XI with Moises Henriques getting his baggy green cap. The Australian XI looks like Warner, Cowen ,Hughes, Watson, Clarke (Capt),Wade (WK), Siddle, Starc, Pattinson and Lyon. It will be very interesting to see how the opening pair of Warner and Cowen will face the Spinners as we are sure to see the Indian making ample use of the slow and spinner friendly pitch at the Chidambaram Stadium. I think that the Indians should give a chance to Harbhajan to and go in with 5 bowlers.

According to me the Indian Squad for the 1st Test should look like Sehwag, Vijay, Pujara, Tendulkar, Kohli, Dhoni (Capt/WK), Ashwin, Harbhajan, Kumar, Sharma and Ojha. If Dhoni opts for Jadeja then Bhajji will loose his place which i don't want to happen. It would be a gamble if Dhoni decides to go on with only Sharma as the pacer and add Jadeja in as it could backfire on him. There was a lot of reverse swing during the practice games which happened in Chennai and thus giving a debut to Kumar might be a good idea as he is a good swing bowler. If i have to say I will surely rate him as one of the best swing bowler India has produced after a long long time who is capable of bowling long spells as hi did during the just finished ODI series against the English team.

I feel this test is the best chance for team India to start on a winning note and gather a momentum which then will help them get even better results in the next 3 tests of the series. This series might also mark as the last series Sachin might be playing in India against the Aussies hence he will certainly want to show the world he is still the best in the world when it comes to facing the Aussies even if he is going to be 40 soon. This series will also be a last chance for Sehwag to prove that he is still the most destructive test opener World has ever seen. Ishant Sharma will have to lead the pace attack in the absence of Zaheer but looking at the form he has shown in the previous series I think he can do it for sure.

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Cheers

Bye till then