In the Name of Cricket

13/01/2010

India vs. Sri Lanka Tri-series Final, Mirpur

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The Tri- Nation ODI series involving India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka has reached the final stage. The progress of the three teams through the tournament was on the predictable lines.

As anticipated, the toss and the dew had a bear hug on the proceedings and invariably the team bowling second ended up losers.

At the start, the Sri Lankan team appeared more charged up. The youngsters in the squad appeared more relaxed and confident about their abilities. However, as the tournament progressed, a couple of injuries have dented their enthusiasm.

The Indian team took time to warm up but has peaked at the right time.

The Indian bowlers though lavish in the initial stages have now meshed beautifully as a pack. Even so, their form is suspect as the format and opposition in the tournament has been such that they have never been truly under pressure.

Similarly, the batting has been coasting: the top order have imposed themselves and snuffed out any challenge, but their brilliance has left the middle order untested. Let us hope that they continue their dominating ways and settle the match in India’s favour.

The final between India and Sri Lanka may well be a testy one. Sri Lanka has been at the receiving end of some close matches against India in the recent past and India knows that they have been lucky to put it past Sri Lanka on more than a couple of occasions.

As a result, if this match goes down to the wire, frayed tempers could well be the order of the day.

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09/01/2010

$5000 fee cost Pakistan the Sydney Test

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PCB's refusal to pay Steve Rixon $ 5000 as fees cost them the Second Test against Australia at Sydney.

Steve Rixon claims Geoff Lawson contacted him in 2008 to correct the flaws in Kamran Akmal's glove work.Unfortunately, PCB refused to pay Steve Rixon $ 5000 as fees.

"Brad was great and if Kamran takes one of those four dropped catches, it's all over - Pakistan win the Test.
I wasn't asking for much, it was petty, but for whatever reason the PCB didn't want a bar of it. They deserve everything they get."

Now why did PCB refuse Rixon's services? Was it because the fee was steep or did they doubt Rixon's competence?

However, it seems churlish on the part of Rixon to claim 'they deserves everything they get'.

08/01/2010

South Africa Rules Reliance ICC Player Rankings

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - JANUARY 07: (L-R) A...

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The latest Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings reveals the ascendancy of South Africa cricketers.

For example, South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith returned to the top five in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, gaining seven places to fourth position following his 183 in the last Test match against England.

If that is not proof enough of South Africa dominating the rankings, Jacques Kallis has achieved the sixth position following his 32nd Test century.

Dale Steyn is holding on to the second place in the bowling chart with only Australia’s Mitchell Johnson ahead of him.

Another Protean pacer, Morne Morkel has leapt up eight spots to a career-high position of 16th place.

In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounder, Kallis still heads the list with Daniel Vettori of New Zealand in second place.

06/01/2010

Australia snuffs Pakistan.

A cricket shot from Privatemusings, taken at t...

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The much-maligned Australian bowling attack blew away the Pakistan batsmen and led their team to a 37-run series defining win.

An excellent rear-guard action by Michael Hussey set up the win for Australia. His 123-run ninth-wicket partnership with Peter Siddle, turned the tide and the Australian bowlers were good enough to get the Pakistani batsmen out in the pressure cooker atmosphere.

Followers of Pakistan cricket know that they are a temperamental side and their capitulation today was in a way expected.

Clearly as today’s events reveal, Ponting’s reluctance to put Pakistan in on winning the toss helped the Pakistani’s dominate the first three days. Instead, Australia chose to bat first and promptly collapsed for only 127 runs on a fresh and frisky 1st day pitch.

Pakistani batsmen followed up their bowling performance by making 333 in their first foray to the batting crease. Their bowlers then once again had the Australians by the scruff of their neck before Hussey and a benign pitch bailed Australia out.

As recounted earlier, the Australian bowlers used the pressure cooker atmosphere, exploited the inherent inconsistencies in the Pakistan batting line-up and snuffed out their challenge.

With this series win, the Australian media may give Ponting and his men breathing space. Coming to Pakistan, their cricketers yet again succumbed to pressure and without learning how to handle it; even Younis Khan cannot save them.

Ponting’s twilight?

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Since his 150 odd runs in the first Ashes Test at Cardiff, Ponting’s personal form has been at best modest. In addition to his indifferent form, the Australian cricket team has been floundering in a trough of inconsistency and routinely losing to teams that they would have whipped without much effort.

Starting with South Africa, teams that have never had a chance earlier come good in Australia. So much so even Australia’s series victory over West Indies created an impression that Australia was lucky to hold on to win the series.

Another factor that seems to have turned the tide against Ponting is the widespread condemnation that followed some really churlish and childish behaviour of his team. So dramatic was the change in the Australian public perception, one paper went to the extent of calling Ponting a “serial offender”.

All of this has increased the attention on Ponting and if one were to go by the Australian media, it appears that Ponting’s reign may well end sooner than expected.

In fact so intense has been the debate over Ponting that Shane Watson came to his captain's defence after play yesterday and declared, “We know exactly how Ricky Ponting plays. There's no doubt there's a big one coming really soon."

There is no denying the fact Ponting is still a great batsmen and a fielder, but he is certainly under pressure to turn around his team’s fortune because his captaincy record post Shane Warne has been patchy.

The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that despite all his vaunted powers as a cricketer, the Australian media has fused Ponting’s moderate form and the declining fortunes of the Australian cricket team together.

They have created a situation where if there is no dramatic turn around in Ponting and the Australian cricket team’s form, Ponting will have no other option than to leave.

Let us hope Cricket Australia is steadfast in their support of Ponting and look at finding the solution to the real problem in Australian cricket, i.e., lack of new talent.

(Just as this article was posted comes the news that Australia beat Pakistan by 36 runs thus scripting an amazing turn around. However, it remains to be seen whether the Australian media back off from Ponting.)

Sri Lanka fashion a comfortable win

59/365 Pickled Lips [Inspired by Pikespice]

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India vs. Sri Lanka Tri-Nation Series Bangladesh-2010

Relatively inexperienced Sri Lanka held their nerves and overhauled India’s’ 279/9 with nearly 12 balls to spare.

ODI matches in Bangladesh tend to favor the team that wins the toss and this match once again confirmed the truism.

India’s lackluster batting and inability to inflict damage to the Sri Lanka batting in the initial overs did India in their opening match of the Tri-Nation ODI Series.

Put into bat, India should have made more than 279/9 on an nonthreatening pitch and average Sri Lanka bowling. Nevertheless, it has to be said that Sri Lanka held their nerves to restrict India even when Yuvraj and Dhoni put on 99 runs for the 4th wicket.

Once again, India failed to up the tempo in the final over’s despite Yuvraj's brilliant innings and missed putting up an imposing total.

Though the Indian bowlers were ineffective and struggled with the ground conditions, they did a relatively good job of controlling the match until Thissara Perera smashed 36 runs off 15 balls to seal the contest.

The Indian bowlers also helped Sri Lanka, by predominantly bowling yorkers. Unfortunately, they lacked control and Sri Lanka capitalised on it to fashion a comfortable win.

With this win, Sri Lanka appears comfortably placed to make it to the final. India needs to rethink on their over-dependence on Harbhajan Singh and yorkers.

03/01/2010

The Bangladesh Tour- Tri-nation ODI series and Test series

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The Indian cricket team has reached Bangladesh for a month long tour that includes a tri-nation ODI series and a 2 Test series.

India’s tour of Bangladesh starts with an ODI series against their host and Sri Lanka. The ODI series scheduled between January 4 and January 13 involves India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka playing twice against each other.

Unfortunately, for Bangladesh, they are there to give a local flavor and it is likely that India will meet Sri Lanka in the finals on January 13 at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. However, given that both the teams have just concluded a high scoring ODI series in India, it remains to be seen whether India can beat Sri Lanka.

The Test series between India and Bangladesh follows the Tri-Nation ODI series.

India will play the 1st Test against Bangladesh on January 17-21 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong and the 2nd Test on January 24-28 at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

Bangladesh cricket has reached a stage similar to Sri Lanka of the 90’s, (albeit with a dismal Test record); Bangladesh needs to protect their batsmen.

Therefore, they will prepare pitches that will blunt the Indian bowling attack, so that the batsmen will, with a bit of luck, run up a massive score.

The objective is to boost their batsmens confidence. This may backfire if India wins the toss and bats first and runs up a massive score.

In essence, this will be a series where the batsmen will hold the aces, run-fest will be the order of the day, and surely, it will further enthuse the doomsday crowd.

Whether Bangla cricket fans will turn up to watch the Indian batsmen toy with their bowling is debatable.