“Depleted” Australia still scalp India

Irrespective of the outcome of the last ODI in Mumbai next week, the Australian cricket team has won the series.

What makes the win remarkable is that Australia were without many of their “big guns” – Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin etc. A spate of injuries in the first 3 matches saw Tim Paine (Haddin’s replacement), Brett Lee, Moises Henriques and Peter Siddle too returning home to Australia, further depleting the visitors.

India, on the other hand, were without Zaheer (and of course, Sehwag and Gambhir were unfit for a couple of games). They were playing at home, in familiar conditions and in front of an unabashedly partisan crowd. But I am unable to fathom why our top-order batsmen consistently failed to perform. Sachin was brilliant in Hyderabad and single-handedly scored half of the runs needed. But the remaining 10 players were unable to score the balance 50%- and we lost. In sport, there will always be winners and losers; ending up on the losing side is fine if the contest is well-matched. Admittedly, a  couple of games in the series were close, but clearly, our cricketing demi-gods have not delivered.

Indeed, cricket is a mind-game and the result proves how true this is. Perhaps lack of familiarity with some of the members of their “B team” did us in or maybe we can blame some of the many poor umpiring decisions. But how does one honestly respond to the question “if we lost to their B team, how would we fare against a full-strength Australia?”

Well played, Australia! The better team has indeed won.

An ICC final without a team from the sub-continent

I haven’t bothered to check the stats re when this last happened, but at a gut level, it sure hits you that the Champions Trophy final in 2009 will not have any participation from the sub-continent (or South Africa or the West Indies). While India and Sri Lanka exited even before the semi-finals, an under-rated New Zealand got rid of Pakistan yesterday to make the finals an ANZ affair.

To say that West Indies cricket is messed up due to contract issues would be stating the obvious. And I honestly have no clue as to why the Proteas imploded yet again. But I think this year’s CT also raises the larger question of bench strength in each of these three countries. Mohamed Aamer, Umar Akmal and Kandambi apart, there has hardly been any spectacular talent coming out of India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka in the last 12 months or so. India’s “young brigade”, comprising Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Suresh Raina, Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan et al has all but disappeared- or failed to deliver the goods.

Or is it that there has been so much T-20, that the younger cricketers cannot adapt to even the ODI format- and are consequently not able to deliver what is required?

India in danger of exiting Champions Trophy 2009

Pakistan has all but qualified for the semi finals, and unless we beat Australia and the West Indies, we’re pretty much out of the ongoing Champions Trophy tournament.

Even before the team left Indian shores, we knew it would not be easy, given that our bowling attack was depleted by Zak’s absence and our batting by Sehwag’s and Yuvraj’s absence. And yet, somehow, the manner in which we lost yesterday leaves a feeling of annoyance, or of betrayal. Barring Ishant (who had not been very consistent over the last 9 months), none of our bowlers made any impression. On a sub-continent type track that assisted the slower bowlers, Bhajji conceded over 70 runs in his spell of 10 overs- a dubious first for him. And although he is only a part-time bowler, Yuvraj has been so valuable recently that his bowling was missed.

We will find out tomorrow how we fare against the Australians, who, it must be said, have not been quite the disciplined, ruthless team that they have been for ages (never mind the 6-1 win over England). And speaking of England, they haven’t done too badly in the tournament so far, have they? A win over Sri Lanka and a solid performance with the bat at Centurion earlier today may well see them get the better of the Proteas as well… now, wouldn’t that be a surprise?

Kirsten’s performance mantra: sex before a match

Whether or not a roll in the hay the night before a match will contribute to the players’ performance is a moot point. But what the disclosure of Gary Kirsten’s dossier has done is to give the media (and opposition teams) lots of masala. Imagine an opposition fielder asking a batsman if he had a good time last night- perhaps a lot more crudely. And it would not even be called sledging! And if someone doesn’t perform well (in a strictly cricketing sense, I hasten to add), well, the mind boggles at the possible jibes that will be hurled at him.

Maybe testosterone levels will go up after a night of good sex and that will drive aggression and performance on the field. But surely, this advice could have been given verbally on a one-on-one basis or at least, not documented and disseminated, as it supposedly was.

Who knows- maybe a bowler being “no-balled” will come to mean something very different in the days ahead. Just as a “half-cock” shot might show up a batsman in bad light!

Wake up call or portent of what’s coming?

Yesterday’s inexplicable capitulation to New Zealand in the only warm-up game India has in the Champions Trophy is surely cause for worry. As expected, our bowling attack was not very incisive, and we allowed the Kiwis to post a massive score of 300 runs on the board. Dravid and Karthik started sedately, but soon raised the tempo and we were going along at a brisk run rate of almost 7 runs an over. Once both of them got out, it was pretty heavy weather. Wickets kept falling with metronomic regularity, and but for Abhishek Nayar and Amit Mishra essaying a fine rearguard action, India may not even have scored 150 runs. Even before they left for SA, our bowling and fielding were areas of concern; now, even batting seems to have become one.

Good luck, India!

The Indian cricket team is on its way to South Africa for the Champions Trophy, which sees the top 8 cricketing teams compete for the trophy.  India has Pakistan, Australia and the West Indies in its group, so getting to be one of the top 2 teams is not easy. Pakistan has a solid bowling attack- exactly what India seems to lack at the moment. And the Australians will have their tails high after creaming England 7-0 (technically, it’s still 6-0 at the time of writing and it may end up as 6-1, to be fair to England). And with the ICC leaving the door open for the Windies to field its top team if the issues between the Board and the Players are resolved in the next few days, they can’t be discounted fully either.

But what of India? The win in Colombo last week would have helped them get their confidence back. But the Wanderers is not the Premadasa. Indeed, at the start of the South African cricket season (remember it’s the southern hemisphere and summer is about to set in), pitches there will favor seam and fast bowling. And India is without Zaheer Khan. But that is exactly what champions are made of- when the chips are down and the world has all but written them off, true champs come right back- and knock the opponents’ socks off. So good luck, India!

Rahul Dravid- return of the prodigal

Some weeks ago, India’s cricket selectors decided to recall Rahul Dravid for the India- Sri Lanka- New Zealand tri-series tournament in Sri Lanka that starts next week and the subsequent  ODI Champions Trophy in South Africa. As with every team announcement, this decision too had former cricketers and selectors lined up on both sides- some rejoiced, while others bemoaned a supposed retrograde step that would hurt the policy of blooding youngsters.

Dravid is without doubt one of the most technically proficient cricketers India has produced. In my view, he still has a year or two of international cricket left in him. But two questions arise:

1. Can the team rely on just one or two players?
2. What happens once Dravid himself chooses to retire?

The first question is of more immediate immediate, if news reports related to the training & conditioning camp at Bangalore is anything to go by. In spite of not having played much cricket over the past 2 years or so, Dravid very easily got back into his groove . He showed his younger team-mates how to strike- and move out of the way- of rising deliveries (the one area that seems to be the achilles heel for the younger crop of Indian cricketers). But reportedly, the new brigade did not fare too well- even against not-so-fast bowlers on Bangalore tracks.

Sri Lanka will be fresh after their domination of New Zealand, while Vettori and his men will be keen to make amends and take something positive before they go to South Africa for the Champions Trophy.

The stage is surely set for an interesting contest.

It’s great to be back!

I’ve been plain lazy these last 3 months, and not blogged. Of course, during this time I changed jobs and was traveling overseas for a couple of weeks so I guess I have a half-decent excuse! But to be honest, I’d have to admit that sloth and lethargy did play a role too.

I am not presumptuous enough to assume that I was missed- although it would be nice to think I was.

In any case, a lot has happened over the past 3 months or so around the world and I shall now try and share my unrequited views on some of them.

India’s elections resulted in a perhaps unexpected win for the UPA. More importantly, a lot of the pre-election calculus about pre- and post-poll alliances was proved to be hype- or even irrelevant. The BJP and the Left were all but humiliated, while political stalwarts like  Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan were made to eat humble pie.  As was only to be expected, post-election introspection has resulted in finger-pointing and dirty linen being washed in public.

India’s much-vaunted T20 cricket team made a hurried exit from the T20 World Cup in England. With the exception of Yuvraj Singh, none of our other cricketers made much impact. The younger players were found out by some good short-pitched bowling and the same frailty continued to be exploited by the West Indies quick bowlers on India’s tour of the Caribbean soon after the T20. Happily for us, rain intervened and we squeaked through with a 2-1 win, courtesy the Duckworth-Lewis rule.

Michael Jackson’s life came to a tragic- and sudden- end just weeks before a comeback tour in London. Undoubtedly, MJ was one of the biggest performers in the world of music and dance and the world will miss him. I just hope the media stops trying to generate TRPs from the sleazier details of his life and lets his family get on.

After a spurt in the BSE sensex over a 6 week period starting mid-May, the volatility has returned to the equity markets.

Worries about a truant monsoon are gathering strength. Several parts of India have made up for the delay (if some reports are to be believed) and what began as a 50-60% deficit has reduced to a 5-10% deficit. But several parts of north India continue to reel under a heat wave, with both electricity and water in short supply.

Will pride go before a fall?

The Indian cricket team has done very well over the course of the past 12-18 months. Both at home and away, they have played well- and won with a high degree of consistency.

But they now find themselves in a pickle. At 79/3 (New Zealand declared its first innings at 619/9), India is in a fairly precarious situation. Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Yuvraj and Dinesh Kaarthick (Dhoni is injured and hence not playing) will have to play out of their skins and score runs briskly even as they preserve wickets. Conceding a lead of anything more than 100 runs will all but shut out chances of a victory- especially if the pitch starts deteriorating tomorrow.

I was struck by the team’s somewhat casual approach to its preparations. Yes, they had creamed the home side at Hamilton a week ago, but to reach the match venue just 18 hours prior to the start of the match and not getting used to the local conditions through practice smacks of arrogance.  Of course, what matters is how the team plays during the 5 days of the test match and not what it does at the nets- but even so, I thought the Indian team could have shown a little more discipline at Napier.

“Cricket, meet terror”

The unthinkable has happened. What many feared in private, but dismissed publicly as unlikely, given the Indian sub-continent’s passion for cricket, happened at Lahore yesterday. Terrorists attacked the bus ferrying the Sri Lankan cricket team to the Gaddafi stadium, injuring 6 or 7 of them and killing 5 of the security guards on duty watching over the visiting team.

The sheer audacity of the attack is chilling. Forget the similarities (or lack thereof) with the Mumbai attacks on Nov 26, 2008. Even more shocking is that any terrorist group would gather the courage to launch such an attack on cricketers- many of whom, in terms of pecking order, rank perhaps only after God.

That the cricketing world has gone into a tailspin is understandable. Questions are being raised about playing in Pakistan, whether the World Cup should be held in the sub continent at all (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are  the co-hosts) and now even the second edition of the hugely-popular IPL is under a cloud. To be sure, the IPL uncertainty also has to do with the Lok Sabha polls that were announced yesterday. Given that the polls will be held during April-May, the same time as the IPL, the Indian government fears that its security forces will be stretched. But when IPL’s second season will take off also depends on the foreign players actually turning up to play. Already, rumblings have begun, with various Australians, New Zealanders and Englishmen having spoken about their unwillingness to play in India. The sentiments are understandable, but it is important to keep in mind that the terror elements who perpetrated the attack in Lahore, appear to be very well-organized and may well have the wherewithal to execute similar attacks almost anywhere in the world.

Australian cricket team’s crisis of confidence

Ever since the retirement of McGrath, Warne and Gilchrist (and Justin Langer) in somewhat quick succession, the Australian cricket team has lost its cutting edge. Hayden’s recent retirement and Symond’s self-destructive moves haven’t helped either.

New talent has been blooded and in another year or so, Australia will have rebuilt its team. There is talent aplenty in the Husseys, Shaun Marsh, Michael Clarke, Mitchell Johnson and many others. But after the India tour and the recent loss to South Africa in both the test and ODI series, the Australian team’s self-confidence has been low. Even in today’s ODI match against New Zealand, Australia steadily lost wickets and ended up with a below-par 181 runs. But what was important was that they were unable to defend the total, although they did make early in-roads into the New Zealand innings (and there were a couple of bad umpiring decisions).

There have been flashes of dominance but of late,  the legendary team cohesiveness and “never-say-die” attitude that kept Australia at the top for more than 15 years, have been conspicuous by their absence, for the most part.

South Africa too beats Australia in Perth

Graeme Smith’s Proteas have beaten Australia in Perth. Set a stiff 413 to win, the South Africans achieved the target comfortably, losing only 4 wickets in the process.

Australia 375 & 319
South Africa 281 & 414/4

India beat Australia in Perth when they toured Australia last. The once-feared WACA pitch has now done the Australians in twice.

Perhaps the secret lies in the fact that visiting teams too now have pretty fast bowlers. South Africa has Dale Steyn, Ntini and Morkel, while India had Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan.

To some extent, Australia’s performance also reflects the team’s dependence on its “big guns”. Neither Hayden or Ponting scored as heavily as they are expected to. And the foundation of the new-look team- the Husseys and Michael Clarkes- did not deliver in this match.

Clearly, not a very happy situation for the Australians to be in. But then, the South Africans won’t view things the same way, will they?!

Hayden’s “third world” comment

I read with equal parts of amusement, amazement and anger the recent reports in the media that Matthew Hayden has attributed Australia’s recent series loss to India to “third world” conditions that resulted in frequent movements to the sight screens that in turn, delayed Indian batsmen facing up and hence causing a slow over rate.

I agree that delays in the batsmen getting ready to face the bowler do slow down the bowling rate. However, the manner in which India beat Australia in both games does not, to my mind, suggest that the games were close, or that, given a few more overs, a different result would have been likely. Jason K’s commendable debut notwithstanding, Australia did not have an effective slow ball attack and Ponting had little option but to use his faster bowlers to try and get wickets.

On a separate note, I am surprised Mr. Hayden did not seem to mind pretty much the same “third world conditions” when he turned out for the IPL last season. Perhaps he has been so affected by these “third world conditions” that he will not come back for a second IPL season. And he may want to exchange notes with team-mates like Michael Hussey, to find out why he seems to prefer playing in these “third world conditions” to playing in Australia (e.g. in the T20 Champions Trophy).

Australia gains more than India at the Kotla

Forget losing Anil Kumble to retirement. After having scored 600+ runs in the first innings and with 3 days to spare, India was not able to inflict a defeat on Australia in the third test that ended in at Delhi today. The Kotla was supposed to be a “spinning track” and one where India has won most of its recent matches. Australia does not have a full-time spinner, let alone a wizard like Warne or even McGill. And Ishant Sharma was playing in home conditions. And yet, we managed to let Australia dig themselves out of a fairly deep hole. Thanks to some pretty ordinary fielding, not only was India not able to enforce a follow-on, but we also let Australia bat right through to nearly the end of Day 4 and get to within striking distance of India’s mammoth first innings total.

The bottom line- Australia go to Nagpur with their confidence on a high after the severe dent at Mohali. India, on the other hand, must be a worried lot. If the Nagpur track is going to assist spinnersthis time (now that Shashank Manohar is part of the BCCI and there is no obvious rift with the Vidarbha Cricket Association), Kumble will be even mre sorely missed. One hopes Harbhajan has recovered from his toe injury and is match fit and that Amit Sharma will get better support from the fielders.

Anil Kumble retires- end of an era in Indian cricket

Today, at lunch on the 5th and last day of the 3rd test match between India and Australia at Delhi, Anil Kumble announced his decision to retire from international cricket at the end of today. That he would announce his decision to hang up his boots after serving Indian cricket for 18 years (and with 619 scalps, becoming the world’s third highest wicket taker in test cricket after Muralitharan and Warne) was expected. What was unexpected perhaps, was the timing. Most people expected him to retire after England’s tour of India that begins in a couple of weeks. But the injury he picked up at Bangalore and the cut on his left hand that he picked up on Day 3 of the Delhi test rendered him less than 100% match fit. And “Jumbo”, who always gave his 100% on the field, did not want to change at this stage of his career. He always put his team ahead of himself (remember him bowling in the West Indies with a fractured jaw or as recently as yesterday, running hard to take a catch to end Australia’s first innings, or his gritty batting in Adelaide about an year ago, or the century against England last year….?). He did not want to be in the team if he was not in a position to give his 100%. Ergo, he retired.

Kumble’s evolution into a highly competitive but gentlemenly cricketer spans nearly two decades. He began his career in England, a bespectacled 20 year old. He was never a great tweaker of the ball, and many questions were asked on and off about his effectiveness as a bowler. In hindsight, those kinds of questions were misplaced, given that he has ended his test career with 619 wickets. But that he brought it up in his last interview as an international test cricketer shows how hurt he has been by those barbs. He was appointed captain of the Indian test team just about one year ago, before India embarked on its tour of Australia. Captaincy too was late in coming to this thinking cricketer. He has been accused of being too conservative (and both against South Africa earlier this year and against Australia in the second test, when Dhoni stepped in as skipper due to Kumble’s injuries, Dhoni made inspired decisions that won him the tests)- but such comparisons are odious. Sachin too had a relatively indifferent win percentage a captain- and India had not quite got into the habit of winning on away tours. Perhaps Kumble’s muted displays of emotion came in the way of his being made captain 2-3 years ago. A consummate leader, Kumble remained calm and dignified even when everyone around him seemed to be losing their cool. Remember the Sydney test last year which has gone down in history for more than just cricket? Kumble was angry too- but he retained his cool and remained level-headed even as he talked tough to the BCCI about not going ahead with the tour. Who knows how India’s cricketing fortunes would have shaped had Kumble been captain under Guru Greg?

Be all that as it may. There is no denying that with Anil Kumble’s retirement from the game we have come to the end of an era. There will be newer spinners on the scene- people who turn the ball more viciously than Anil ever did- but it will be a very tall ask to expect anyone to fill Jumbo’s giant shoes in a hurry, After all, any such aspirant will need to take more than 600 wickets at an average of about 30 runs (and help India win as many times as Kumble has) before he can even comes close.

Anil- heartfelt thanks for all that you have done for Indian cricket. You will be missed. But hey, have a great retired life. I hope you will remain associated with Indian cricket- not just as a role model but also as coach, advisor and guide. And perhaps future selector.