After the disastrous 4-0 one-day loss, India redeemed their lost glory on the cricket field in the first test match at the Wanderers which was won by 123 runs and completed in 3 and a half days by some superb display of grit and talent. When we made 249 in the first innings, one thought the score to be unsubstantial against the SA batting line-up. Until I received an SMS from a colleague who asked me to switch on the TV. A certain lad by the name of Shanthakumaran Sreesanth was running through the opposition with his seam bowling. Suddenly I saw the final score and rubbed my eyes in dismay – SA were bowled out for a paltry 84; their lowest score since readmission. In the second innings Zaheer Khan’s late outburst with the bat with VVS Laxman ensured that we had a decent target of 402 set for the springboks. Ashwell Prince seemed to be the only ray of hope in the playing eleven. South Africa was the only country where India had never won a test but all that’s changed now.
Cricket
Let's 'pitch' for Cricket
I am truly perturbed at seeing Indian cricket being strangled mercilessly by politicians and the media alike, at a time when it requires immediate attention and perhaps an admission in the “ICU”. Getting emotionally charged up by criticizing the team’s performance and vandalizing their houses would do more harm than good. The failure of this team must be attributed to some top players in the team who are playing below expectations. Especially our bowlers who have lost their charm and magic on the field – where’s the famous Irfan swing and what happened to Munaf’s pace?
But now comes a new chapter in the sad part of this story called Indian Cricket – Dravid, perhaps the sole light of hope in our dark moments, has been ruled out for the rest of the One Day series because of an injury and VVS Laxman is being flown down to South Africa to take his place. It must be true, that when you’re in a mind set that our team has settled in, seemingly easier tasks feel gargantuan plus there is no respite from the pressure back home that keeps building on you to perform. It’s a rather difficult situation to be in. Must I remind this team that they have been in a familiar situation in the past, in the 2003 world cup at South Africa. Soon after their humiliating defeat at the hands of the Aussies, they fought their way back to the final. Victory, as I see it has the ability to settle the dust of criticism and straightening out things assuredly making the road towards the future smooth and clear. Just few wins to get that much needed confidence back!
The Left parties in India have been vocal about the inclusion of Sourav Ganguly. Firstly, any attempt at portraying Sourav, who has been absent from the national team for a long time, as the savior of our times will only make him more vulnerable in performing for his team. On the other hand, the pitches in West Indies, where the world cup is held next year will suit his stroke playing potential more than then bouncier ones in South Africa. His role in the current team would have been marred since the “supporting cast” is currently performing miserably. I certainly hope that he is considered for the world cup squad. We will require all the help to get us out of this black hole. But we must start winning now and end the long drought.
India-SA again: Let's pray we Win!
It was a sad event that the hosts were knocked out of the Champions Trophy in the early stages. And the nation was recovering from that just when India lost miserably to South Africa, getting bowled out for a paltry 91; in spite of playing 7 specialist batsmen. Just to remind you that, South Africa had defeated the Ozzies in a match early this year and had bowled them out for 93 – It was Ntini who ran over the formidable Aussie batting with his career best 6-22.
The expectations from Greg Chappell and the Indian team has risen. The country is showing zero-tolerance towards meek surrenders like the one witnessed in Durban a few days ago. The media wrote on the performance of the team especially on Munaf who should be bowling quick (looks like somebody is misguiding him). Even Irfan Pathan who has lost the magical swinging deliveries somehow. This series is crucial since India wants to go to the world cup with some confident wins. India HAS to win the 3rd ODI to retain the interest of the fans for the rest of the matches in the series and in Indian cricket in particular.
Aussies win Champions Trophy (Yawnn!!)
The Aussie win of their first ICC Champions Trophy tournament yesterday in Mumbai, came as no surprise to me. To say the least, Ricky’s Devils have become very predictable and it no longer excites me to watch them play Cricket. Boring might seem to be an apt phrase to use. The degree of clinical perfection that they have managed to bring in every game has become a matter of discussion in the cricketing corridors of the world. Yesterday’s 8 wicket win, came after a blazing start by the Windies who won the toss and elected to bat first. But some good bowling performances by Nathan Bracken and McGrath restricted them to just 138 in 30.4 overs. What makes them click? Is it the talent or the support staff that’s doing the job? or is it both? we try hard to unlock the code every time. But I beg to ask the managers of our cricketing legacy whether they have a road map ready for the coming months and the ICC world cup. The answer seems obvious to me.
Certainly, I would like to believe that amongst the other South Asian teams, the Indians are a better side to stop the Kangaroo’s hop, given their historic success rate but they aren’t doing well of late. Many a times it’s the psychological edge that proves the winner of the day and we seem to have lost it completely after our 16 match winning streak came to a sad end in the Caribbean tour. In the Champions Trophy, after the Indians won against the English in their first match, I thought they lost their rhythm coming back after a long 11 day holiday. They even failed to exploit the home conditions and looked very edgy in that match against West Indies which we should have won comfortably. After that loss, it was very improbable to defeat the Aussies, given their desperation to win the only trophy missing in their cabinet. Simply put, we don’t look like a team that wants to win anymore. Let’s hope we get our heads back together before the world cup and start winning a few matches. ‘Ooh aah India….Aaya India’ and the Blue Billion Express – such marketing jamboree is worthless if the team continues to downplay the emotions of a nation and keeps losing tournaments. Hope the sponsors are listening and taking notes.
South Africa clinch a Historic Match
Exactly a decade ago, during the 1996 cricket world cup, Sri Lanka scored a massive 398 against Kenya in a one day international (ODI) game at their home ground. That score was challenged so many times but never broken and most recently by New Zealand who scored 397 against Zimbabwe. The record was finally crumbled today first by the Aussies who scored a massive 434-4 in their 50 overs and then the South Africans got the better of them by scoring 438-9 chasing and clinching the series.
I always look forward to watching these 2 countries play cricket since the result cannot be predicted so easily. The ranking apart I think they are the best teams in world cricket today. It was Ponting’s day first who scored his highest ODI score of 164 off just 105 balls hitting 9 sixes and one thought that the Aussies always rose to big occasions like this one. At this point the South Africans looked like they had given up already and I never thought they would give a fight back. It was a daunting task to score 435 off just 300 deliveries and we all know the bowling attack of the Aussies.
There are a few parallels which I want to draw from this match particularly with relation to India. This was the same Wanderers (Johannesburg) ground where we played our 2003 world cup finals against Australia. If you recall, the Aussies batted first and made a mockery of us. The bowling attack of Srinath-Khan-Nehra seemed overtly aggressive and gave away too many runs. Srinath in particular was hammered and came back with the most expensive figures for any bowler in a world cup match. In the end the score of 359-4 seemed too much and we lost that game. We lived up to our reputation of losing the BIG matches. This is the same ground and almost the same team playing under captain Ricky Ponting and Smith’s South Africans have blown their heads off. THAT to me is the difference between a good team and a world class team. When the bets are drawn on who wins the 2007 world cup edition, I will put my money on South Africa. As for this new record – they took 10 years to break the old one and this one will take ages to break.