Indo - Aussies One day Series (2009-10) - I

First 2 matches of the 7 match ODI series between India and Australia was finished with each team picking up a win. Briefing of the first and second matches are below:

FIRST ODI:

Ponting won the toss and decided to bat first which was a surprising decision as many would have thought about exploiting the conditions in a day match. But Ponting seemed to be determined to put a huge score on board and pressurize the Indians, which was perfectly executed by the Australian batsmen. Even though Australia lost the wicket of Shane Watson to an incoming delivery of Nehra, Ponting and new wicket-keeper Tim Paine mixed the caution and aggression to score the runs at healthier pace. Their job was made easy with Indians bowlers spraying the ball all around the pitch. Only one who were in control was Ishant Sharma who claimed the wicket of Paine when he scored exactly 50. White came in next but struggled a lot in adapting to Indian conditions but Ponting on the other hand kept finding the boundaries. Dhoni bring in Harbhajan to stem the runs but he was completely off-colour. Erring in both line and length, Ponting picked up easy runs. The man who done the job for Dhoni in the middle overs was Ravindra Jadeja with his clever use of crease, pace and length. He put the brakes for Australian run-rate and picked up the wicket of Australian captain Ponting with a gem of a delivery which was well flighted pitching in the leg stump and spun a little to hit at the back pad of Ponting which is in front of the middle stump.

But Hussey came in and played a typical Hussey innings which is scoring at a scorching pace with minimum risk. White too found his touch a little and compensated for the initial dot balls. He got out after his fifty but Hussey carried on and thrashed Indian bowlers in the death overs to reach a formidable score of 292, a tough ask on a deteriorating Vadhora pitch. Expect Jadeja and Ishant in first spell and last over no one bowled with purpose.

Indian chase for this mammoth total begin with boundary from the first ball of Lee. Sehwag didn't showed any sign of discomfort in his first international outing after 4 months. He picked up 2 boundaries in the first over of Lee but couldn't carry on as both Lee and Siddle bowled a tight line to free his arms and he eventually got out for 13 by trying to flick a ball to on-side which is moving away from him. Sachin too didn't long last sent back to pavilion by the brilliant catch by Ponting at short cover of the bowling of Watson. Gambhir and Kohli joined hands to rescue the Indian innings but couldn't score freely due to the disciplined bowling of the Australians. After getting into 20s, Kohli perished while trying to hit Hauritz for a 6. Gambhir on the other end, kept running hard and picked some boundaries. Dhoni came in but he too can't score quickly and when India took the batting powerplay, it has already lost Gambhir(68) and in powerplay overs lost Dhoni and Raina and there ended the Indian hopes. The last recognized batsman Jadeja was also out cheaply but Praveen kumar and Harbhajan Singh revived the Indian hopes with some beautiful stroke play. With Lee opting out of bowling due to a sore ankle, Ponting's headache started with each of his bowlers going for runs and India reached a position where the match was for India if it scores 29 runs off 12 balls. And Watson's next over was plundered for 20 runs. Last over was bowled by Siddle, who got back his senses and stick to the line and bowled the destructor-in-chief Harbhajan with that India's revived hopes ended and lost the match by 4 runs.

Indian batsmen can't take any good from this match except Gambhir because its Praveen and Bhajji who pulled back this game miraculously and fought till the end. And its a clinical performance from Australians from the moment Ponting won the toss except for the last 5 overs of the match when his bowlers took to cleaners.

Second ODI:

Again Ponting won the toss but decided to field first considering the dew factor in evening and he didn't consider the firepower of this Indian batting line-up on a flat batting track. Indians went into the acceleration mode and didn't took off it and scored a mammoth score 354 with Dhoni leading the charge with 123 ably supported by the two left handers, in the middle overs by Gambhir and at the end by Raina.

With Lee out of the game, Australian attack lost some of its teeth and Sehwag captured on it and played a little cameo at the top before getting out for 40 runs from 31 balls. Sachin lost his wicket by some brilliant bowling from Siddle. Yuvraj promised a lot on his return but perished to brilliant reflex catch by Hilfenhaus of his own bowling. Then Dhoni and Gambhir partnered together to kept the run-rate above 6 with very minimal risk. And unfortunate mix-up cost the wicket of Gambhir(76) who is well set. But Dhoni showed his ruthlessness in his batting in the last 10 overs which Australian bowlers will find hard to forget especially Johnson. He killed his short ball and banged a shot straight down the ground in consecutive deliveries. Raina joined the party towards the end of the innings and scored his 50.

354 is always a big total to get anyday and with ball moving enough under the lights made the life difficult for Australian batsmen. Praveen Kumar was completely a different bowlers when ball is swinging and he claimed 2 top order wickets of Tim Paine and Ponting. Ishant bowled a gem of a delivery which kicked off from short of length and surprised Watson with both pace and bounce only made him to poke the ball to first slip. With 45/3 in 10 overs match was almost in India's pocket but this is Australian team, we have to remember. But nobody was able to score at the asking rate and only contribution came from Hussey who was then castled by a wonderful delivery by Jadeja. When formalities are finished, Australians were bowled out by 254 handing Indian a 99-run victory.

Indians didn't put a foot wrong in this match and perfectly demolished the injury-hit Australian side. Except Hussey and Siddle nobody can take any kind of thing from this match in Australian side.

THIRD ODI - PREVIEW:

With Tim Paine, Hopes and Lee unavailable due to injuries, India starts as a favorites. Australian injury list was kept growing match by match with Lee being flying back home and he will be unavailable for rest of the series. This is a huge blow and Paine too injured. In this case, Shaun Marsh will open with Watson and may Bollinger will replace the erratic Hilfenhaus.

India has no such worries and a full strength squad is available for them. The match is going to be played in Ferosha Kotla whose pitch is keeping very low which means any team can win this match.

Players to watch out for:

Sachin: Still to play a big innings in this series, which means something is around soon.

Jadeja: He already bowled superbly in both his previous outings and with pitch is keeping low in Kotla, he can be dangerous with his arm balls.

Shaun Marsh: He caught the imagination in first IPL and now he is again to going to open. His success is very critical not only for him but also for Australia.

India's best chance

India bowlers especially spinners and RP Singh have done well to restrict England to a chaseable 154. It could have been worse if Jadeja didn't got that 2 wickets of Bopara and Peiterson at the right time this score could have swelled to 170. Jadega had a very good scalping 2 wickets, a catch and I have witnessed some brilliant fielding from him. He just fields like a man on some mission and his throws were like bullets aimed at the stumps. England seemed to be running away with the game when they were 70/1 @ 10 overs with both Bopara and Peiterson well set. The promotion of Maschernas didn't worked as he was just crawling for 25 from 27 balls. Unless for occasional very wide deliveries Harbhajan bowled well in the last overs.

Both Zaheer and Ishant got hammered but RP singh cleverly bowled his bouncers and contained from one end. I am off to watch the second innings. India has started well with Rohit and Gambhir ticking away the runs and it's enough to chase down 153.

More action awaits

The next phase of the T20 world cup has started with very less number of shocking exits. To many Bangladesh’s exit is too shocking than Australia’s. The way Aussies have played made them a deserved candidate for the elimination. They have been outplayed in both of their matches and no one would ever see them as vulnerable as they are now. And in the other group, Bangladesh who played upto their potential against their Asian rivals India seemed to miss the plot against Ireland and were thrown out of the tournament. In the other groups expected teams(Scotland and Netherland) were made their exit and made Super 8 into an exciting one.

So now the teams are again splitted into 2 groups: Group E(India, England, West Indies and South Africa) and Group F(Pakistan, Srilanka, Ireland and New Zealand). So to qualify each team must win atleast 2 matches and the competition seems to be tougher in Group E as there were no minnows. Each team was capable of beating every other team on their day. But with the exposure and team balance in T20, India and South Africa were seemed to go to Semi-finals. West Indies hopes are lies with Chris Gayle. If he fires, then they can win. There are times even if he fires, they will let down by their extra-‘ordinary’ bowling. So it’s like one man show. As far as England was concerned, they have a decent team and they have to put collective performance. Nobody in their team were seemed to be a match winner, who can take the game away from opposition single-handedly. But for India and South Africa they are in plenty, so both England and West Indies must play well to go to semis.

In the other group, the bigger teams can breathe easier as they have Ireland in their group. It will be tough fight between Pakistan, Srilanka and New Zealand. But having the kind of players readily suited for this T20 format, New Zealand seems to be favorite to move to semis easily. Srilanka too playing very well with their top order was firing and their bowling seems to be tighter than other teams. So they can make the semis by playing to their potential. But the most unpredictable of all the teams, Pakistan is in this group. They have match winners. But they don’t know what is meant by collective effort means and they are wasting Misbah by making him play in No.6 and No.7. If they really want to go to Semis they must plan purposefully and should stick by it. Ireland…. If they make semis, then that will be biggest happening in this tournament. Nothing to mention more.

It’s time to enjoy more quality matches. Stay tuned.

Rules over look Common Sense

Sri Lanka defeated West Indies convincingly alright. But there was a debatable decision by umpires Simon Taufel and Billy Bowden. Sarwan hit a lofted shot and Angelo Mathews caught the ball within the boundary ropes. But he was not in complete control of his balance and went beyond the boundary ropes. But he had enough common sense to lob the ball into the air before he crossed over the boundary rope. After crossing the boundary ropes, he saw that the ball he had lobbed is about to fall beyond the boundary, which would mean that he had actually thrown the ball to give the batsman 6 runs. So what he did, he again jumped and while he was in air, flicked the ball back into the play area. It was amazing display of presence of mind, under those tense circumstances. Umpires consulted the 3rd umpire as well and came to the conclusion that since the fielder was not in the ground, which touching the ball, it was not a six, even though the boundary lines had been cleared. Hence only 3 runs were awarded, which the batsman had run.

To me, the umpires' decision just didn't make sense at all. If umpires decision can be taken as it is, then consider this scenario. The batsman hits a lofted shot. The fielder on the boundary knows that it is going to clear the boundary. So what he does is, crosses the boundary ropes and when the ball reaches him, he jumps in the air and lobs it back into the play area. Or Worst he jumps and lobs the ball to another player, while he is in air. How would the umpires deal with such a scenario?

The umpires didn't apply common sense in the case of Angelo Mathews' acrobatic fielding. Even though he had lobbed the ball while in air, he should have come back to the play area before lobbing the ball, which he didn't. That being the case, it should have been awarded six runs to the batsman. Had the West Indies, scored 2-3 runs less than Sri Lanka's score, this horrendous decision of Umpires would have deprived them of a victory.

Wish ICC amend such loop holes in the laws of the game, which are like our Constitution.

Bye Bye Aussies

I had completed writing this post and was just waiting to click the publish button. It is now official. Aussies are out of the T20 World Cup. Can't remember the last time, the Aussies made an early exit.  To my knowledge it was in Kenya way back in 2000 in the second edition of the ICC Champions Trophy. So the Aussies have been handed over 2 consecutive defeats and they are out of the tournament, without adding a victory against their name. 

James Sutherland, the CEO of Cricket Australia would be scratching his head, whether forcing his players not to play the IPL was a wise decision. 

It has been a day of eliminations with Bangladesh also making an exit from the tournament. 

Cheers to Sri Lanka for eliminating the Australians from the World Cup. Ponting may have to think about bringing back Haydos and Gilly atleast for the shortened version of the game. 

Bye Bye Australia. 

England Still in the Hunt

When Doeschate and Schiferli scampered for a second run, courtesy an overthrow from Stuart Broad, English Cricket fans would have thought, England was going to exit out of the tournament without a victory to their name. That was the moment, when Stuart Broad became 'Stupid' Broad. Thank God, English Cricket doesn't have a fan following like the English Football club. Otherwise, Lords Cricket Ground would have looked like a Bihar or Uttar Pradesh State Assembly. 

The match against Pakistan was a do or die for England. What they wanted was not just a win, but a convincing one and that too against the last time runners up. Odds were very much stacked against England. But, little did they know that they were also playing against a bunch of guys, who never applied their brains, while going about the chase. 

Pakistan should have worked a clear strategy, for not just beating England, but also a contingency plan to stay in the competition, if their plan A to win backfired. If Pakistan team management spends little more time in strategy making than offering only Namaz (I don't want to offend anyone), they could have made England's staying in the competition much more tougher. But they just squandered an opportunity. A close finish or a finish closer to the English target could have ensured that a win against Netherlands is enough. By losing in a big way to England, Pakistan have found themselves in the hot seat, with fire already in their butts. 

I remember a match of Australia Vs South Africa, were South Africa required to deny Australia a bonus point so as to ensure a place in the final of a tournament. They set the target, which would deny Australia the bonus point, instead of going for a full fledged win. By having such a strategy, they lost the game, but not the tournament. They reached the finals, which was their motive. 

Now England has to do, is to sit back and watch Pakistan take up Netherlands and even if Netherlands lose, the margin by which Pakistan lost, would definitely haunt them from going to the next level. Remember in 2007 T20 world cup South Africa lost just one match and they were out. Pakistan has to now work out, what should be the rate at which they should defeat the Netherlands. I hope they have the algos installed in their laptops to do a simple calculation, which actually is more complicated to them .

Nice way to take off

India kickstarted their campaign to defend their title in a perfect note, beating Bangladesh comfortably. Though it looked like comfortable, some individual brilliance of Yuvraj Singh and Ojha is required to script this win. Dhoni won the toss and continued the trend of last WC by choosing to set a target. In the absence of Sehwag, Rohit opened the innings along with Gambhir both started well and raced away to 50 but after the Rohit’s wicket the run rate started to dip as both Dhoni and Gambhir were never in a mood to accelerate. So it’s a boon when they both got out by 14^th and 16^th over. Bangladesh slow bowlers done well in keeping them quiet… no no.. very quiet. Then came Yurvaj, effortlessly hitting sixes at will and took the game away from Bangladesh. He killed their bowlers with some great hitting. With Irfan hitting a six and four in the last over means that India reaching a par total of 180 on that pitch.

Bangladesh started off well with taking on both Zaheer and Irfan to cleaners and seemed to be racing away. Especially Siddique was doing more damage. Tamim Iqbal and Mohammed Ashraful fell cheaply but didn’t wasted balls. But in came Ojha took 2 important wickets in his first over scalping both dangerous Shakib-ul-hasan and Siddique. And that’s the curtains for Bangladesh as there are no players who can score at the required rate and they ended up at 155. Ojha got 4 wickets for his clever bowling and Yuvraj took a brilliant forward diving catch while the dismissal of Mahmaddullah.

It’s still a puzzle why Dhoni coming in at No.3 and halting the momentum. He has done the same with CSK. He has Raina in his team who is in good form but he promotes himself up and halts the momentum. Its better if he comes down the order and allows explosive players like Raina and Yuvraj to play more overs. Maybe he thinks about right-left combination much. But it will bring no good if there is no hint of aggressiveness.