so InSaf ho gaya... and we tied the test series 1-1 with south africa...
before the series started not many gave chance to team india but ended up saying they could have pressed more to create history... this is as lop sided assessment as one could get...
before the series started... there were customary or shall i say phony talks of bouncy pacy wickets that will test this 'aging' line up... how india will be cream rolled coz they don't know how to play short bowling etc etc... the talks that creates headlines before every series only to melt into oblivion after the series is over...
so how do you feel about the stalemate now...?
would you boast about the fact that south africa with arguably the best bowling attack in the form of life... with the pitches of their liking... could not press matter beyond a point...
that with all the class and pluck... they could not get pass that 'aging' line up in their own backyard...
that india with arguably the thinnest bowling line-up were in a position to actually win the series against the batting line-up that consist of some of the best in business in the comforts of homely conditions...
that despite the goof-up, even before the first ball of series were to be bowled, from the bcci in the form of accepting/finalising such itinerary in first place and selectors doing the icing on cake act with the kind of selection blunders only they can manage and getting paid for it... and yet despite all those hiccups team india not only surmounted the challenges from the opponent but also from a bigger opponent at home... their own board... their own selectors...
south africa had all they wanted to upset indians... but they would or rather should be the first to admit that their best of best was not good enough against the grit of team india... that despite all the requisite armory in their tank they could achieve only a stalemate... to show for their efforts...
if left to me i would say... gautam gambhir's performances on the proteas tour epitomizes team india in all possible ways...
before the start of the series... there were doubts raised about gambhir's technique and temperament...
it was gambhir's first tour of south africa where even the best in business have come short before him... first innings started with 'look what we said'... but by the time tour ended... lots of those doubts were put to bin... step by step... innings by innings...
gambhir emerged with an enhanced and enviable reputation... and so did team india...
how do you feel about the stalemate...?
shared by straight point on Friday, January 07, 2011
curious case of cheteshwar pujara...
shared by straight point on Wednesday, January 05, 2011
since his debut che's (as we fondly call him at bored) case is getting bit curious with his each outing...
his debut innings dismissal was strikingly unlucky...
in his second innings he impressed everybody with his temperament and stroke play and played a decisive knock which helped india whitewash australia...
and yesterday he received the delivery which was almost unplayable...
in between some freak or unlucky dismissals he has impressed pundits and fans alike and shown enough glimpses that he belongs to the highest arena... test cricket... without a decent score to show for the efforts...
mind you, though pujara's average at domestic level is very good, but it is also a factor that he would not have played anything resembling the quality of bowling at display that too overseas at as difficult a place as south africa where even many best at business have come short...
he still has second innings at newlands, capetown to post a decent score to wave off some doubts that might be creeping in the mind of those that matter most... selectors... but given the quality of bowling he will have to counter on the fourth innings at a wearing pitch of a series decider match for who the no.1 team in the world is... one can easily understand the pressure...
at one time he has shown enough promise... but at the same time his honeymoon period might be running off faster than one would like to believe... and given that we won't play tests for quite some time and there is world cup in between where players like raina, kohli, rohit sharma etc can stake claims with their good performances at the world stage...
how many more chances pujara will get if he were to fail again in the fourth innings at capetown...?
when getting dropped is not a setback...
shared by straight point on Friday, December 24, 2010
come durban test... and we might see a very talented cricketer in suresh raina being dropped for another talented player... cheteshwar pujara...
but this post is about suresh raina...
recent failures of suresh raina has not been well received... pundits have already started calling him limited overs cricket bully not suited for test cricket... his perennial problems against short pitch bowling... his lack of foot work... basically you name it and he has that deficiency in his game...
for once i don't think he has any more short coming against short pitch bowling than the other talents around... its just that it has been hyped so much that he has fallen into no-man's land... the mind is cluttered with so many thoughts that it has started to infiltrate the functioning of his more strong skills... now more than the talent or skills it has become a question of temperament...
right now he seems to be in quandary whether to play a pull shot, he is perfectly capable of than most, or leave it... and in doing so isn't doing both... hence we saw him giving catching practice to slip cordon in centurion test... that was the shot of a man who wanted to leave it till last minute but played coz of instinct...
make no mistake... he has better footwork than most famed left-handers... he is one of the better players of spin... and has the skills that can change the complexion of the game by his sheer stroke play in just one session... given right dose of confidence and care... he could be the game breaker in the mold of gilchrist for india at no.6... but like many before him... he needs to find the right bearings to make a career in highest form of game... test cricket...
its only going to serve him good that he has been confronted with some uncomfortable questions at the very beginning of his test career and now knows exactly what it takes to be consistently successful at highest level... coz unlike one day cricket one can not get away in test cricket by just playing shots...
he needs to find his batting arc but for that he needs to be in relaxed and right frame of mind... which can only come from facing the same uncomfortable question again and again till it stops bothering you... once he will be able to make distinction of batting arc viz a viz which (short) ball to play and leave he will become that game-breaker at no.6 everyone wants in his team but only dreams about...
i know it is easier said than done but when playing at highest level was supposed to be easy...?
the same south africa tour last time saw another stalwart in virender sehwag getting dropped from team india... felt the pain of seeing team india playing from the idiot box in his own words... how he used that pain and how he has returned with vengence since then is a story worth telling...
so, if i were suresh raina, i won't see getting dropped from playing eleven as a setback... but a timely learning towards a long fulfilling journey...
sachin tendulkar... the centurion...
shared by straight point on Monday, December 20, 2010
they call him god...
i say let him stay human...
only then we will realise...
his feats are actually humanly possible...
in the realm of senses...
shared by straight point on Friday, December 17, 2010
if you came here looking for Nagisa Ôshima's classic of same titled movie In the realm of Senses review... sorry to bother you... its about cricket...
first day at centurion of india vs south africa test series to be precise that will decide who is the second best team in the world... InSaf ho ke rahega...
it is very easy to dismiss india's performance on opening day as "oh! look how they would struggle in south africa coz these ain't roads..."
how india would struggle to keep straight face on sa pitches with bounce and pace... i would like to remind them that this was just the day one of fifteen days of competitive test cricket to come... remember we did the same to them with better results last time in johannesburg in similar circumstances... so just wait and relax...
if i say india were kanpoored at centurion it won't be an exaggeration...
but having said that... i was most disappointed by two performances...
our openers... sehwag and gambhir...
sehwag coz... if you see action replays of his dismissals of last fateful tour of sa that cost him his place... his dismissal in just the 2nd over of the match would just be that... action replay... which in turn means that he has not learned anything from his last experience... that you just can't play ball on the up so early in innings without taking the stock of things... when there is bit of movement and carry... as we witnessed yesterday...
before you jump on me and say "o come on... this is the way he bats.." i say it means that of late you are not watching sehwag bat in tests... or rather just watching him bat in evening highlight shows...
the sehwag of today is more patient than ever before... today's sehwag gives four-five overs to bowlers... leaves lots of balls outside off stump... let his eye in... take stock of the bowling and pitch and then unleash himself on balls that to him are boundary balls...
contrary to perception he is very shrewd cricketer and he must feel disappointed with his shot selection so early in his innings of a historical tour...
its one thing to accept the challenge and its completely another to blindly succumb to the billing of the most feared batsmen in indian lineup... the champion players don't walk into that obvious a trap... not on the second over of the match...
sehwag of yesterday was the sehwag of last south africa tour who was rightly dropped...
another disappointment came from gambir... who never looked like an opener of a no.1 test team... he looked very nervous from the start... appeared like cat on hot tin roof... and never looked like the partner of most lethal opening pair in cricket world today...
the conditions were no doubt difficult... but he never appeared that he belonged to the test on offer... and his eventual dismissal rather had the air of inevitability than anything else...
it remains to be seen how he compose himself coz i fear the damage could be deep than just the half-hearted poke... that eventually cost him his wicket... and a long walk back to some serious introspection...
this tour will go a long way in establishing gambhir as the true world class opening batsman or he will just simply chicken out... like his last dismissal...
dhoni's curious stand on suresh raina's 'mental fatigue'...
shared by straight point on Friday, November 26, 2010
first accept my sincere apology to talk about sundry matters like india vs south africa test series when the flavor of the moment is 'the asses'...
dhoni, after crushing new zealand in final test match of the test series, stood up for raina... and pronounced...
"If he doesn't get a break in the ODI series [after the first 2 games] then you have to [replace him]," Dhoni said. "He is at a point where he needs a break from cricket.
A 10 to 15-day break will really help him. He has played as much cricket as I have or most of other cricketers. He has played one more series in Zimbabwe. At times international cricket really drains you. More than the physical part it's always that mental part that is important. Unfortunately, most of the senior players are missing from the ODI series which means he had to play."
now no denying the fact that after dhoni, if any player that deserved the rest... it was suresh raina... he is the most busy player in team india, after dhoni, who has featured in almost all games without a break... but if he has really reached the 'tipping point' as mentioned by dhoni... why they continued to play him against no.8 team in the world...?
dhoni's excuse that they kept him playing thinking he would be given rest in one day series against new zealand don't cut the ice simply because why would you risk a fatigued player for three back to back five day games to limit team's potential when you have more fit and eager player in ranks in the form of cheteshwar pujara...?
as things stands now... if raina is not rested in later half of the odis (which i hope he will be) he is going to miss the first test against south africa in their home soil... and guess who will replace him...? cheteshwar pujara... in all probability...
this is baffling on many counts... if che is deemed capable enough to play in far tough conditions than the roads that were laid for new zealand test series at home... why he was not given an outing here instead of opting to include a player who is on the 'tipping point' as far as mental fatigue goes... hence, can be safely assumed, was not able to give his 100%... thereby limiting the potential of a team...?
dhoni himself acknowledged that india did not play to its potential in the test series against new zealand when he himself opted to do so...
another aspect is that if team management can decide who plays after selectors have done their job by selecting 15-16 players... can decide and announce more than a fortnight ago that so and so player will be rested... what was stopping the same think tank for doing it at home against a much lessor opponent...?
poor che... who had to spend time at bench when the roads were waiting for him to have a decent knocks against his name while a mentally fatigued player was allowed to keep playing to give him easy runs... but when the conditions will be more demanding... more challenging he will be picked to play coz the same fatigued player will be rested... and irrespective of whether che succeed or not will see his place being taken over again by the same player... who will come 'refreshed' after a well deserved break...
must say our team think tank has already made the forthcoming india vs south africa test series interesting without even a ball being bowled... at least for me...
abhimanyu mithun deserves an explanation...
shared by straight point on Monday, November 22, 2010
in my last post... is team india a one man army again..? the debate in comments section touched upon the arbitrary selections from our selectors...
the debate was on the way they have played musical chairs with pace bowlers and specially abhimanyu mithun who did more than ok against sri lanka... a tough assignment for any bowler there considering how good sri lanka are at home...
but instead of appreciating his performance there by the way of giving him more opportunities... they have done exactly the opposite... first they replaced jaidev unadkat with injured zaheer and now they have selected unadkat for the sa tour...
what message selectors wants to give a player like abhimanyu mithun...?
that now you are not even an option as fifth bowler...? is this the way our selection panel reward a decent performance against tough opponent in their own den...?
selectors are picking and dropping pace bowlers at random without any apparent logic... another case in point is the selection of umesh yadav... who is the surprise inclusion for sa tour...
may be it was the demand of team think tank... zaheer, nehra, gambhir, sehwag etc have spoken some nice words about yadav in past... as he is seen as india's answer to pace bowler that can give it back to opposition in short bursts...
but if he is going to tour south africa wouldn't it be good for yadav had they selected him for the one day series against new zealand to give him as much overs as possible against a competitive opposition in real match situations...?
south africa tour is seen as 'the tour' for team india... the series win there will go a long way in establishing credentials as the real no.1 test cricket nation... one would assume in such tours where there is lots at stake... there is no scope of passengers... every place would go to the player who can replace a first choice player in case of injury without much loss of balance or keep the first choice players on their heels...
mithun was such bowler who has performed in tough conditions but selectors have preferred a passengers in yadav and unadkat much like dhawal kulkarni who was considered good to be sent to the new zealand tour and forgotten afterwards without given a glance...
the face of new suresh raina...
shared by straight point on Sunday, May 02, 2010
runs down leg side... 46% – runs down off side... 54%
do i need to say more...?
sachin tendulkar makes 200...
shared by straight point on Wednesday, February 24, 2010
now i know why they say a picture is better than thousand words!
team india is no.1... again...
shared by straight point on Thursday, February 18, 2010
after getting the pasting at nagpur... india expectedly came hard at the proteas... and how...
such was the determination of the team india... that not even almost 60 overs of washed out play... left with just three main bowlers due to injury of zaheer khan on the penultimate day with pitch still being true and the monumental effort from hashim amla could prevent india from winning the game... to level the test series... to keep the top place intact...
we have again shown to whole world why we are ranked no.1 in tests...
so though the honors were shared at the end... but not the no.1 spot... which belongs to us... to team india...
congratulations!!
help team india to get reverse swing going...
shared by straight point on Wednesday, February 10, 2010
i was going through routine after match press conference where i found dhoni to be refreshingly candid about india's performance, steyn bowling and what he thinks of sehwag's shot after he completed the century (tho i would have loved had someone shown guts to ask the same question about sachin too but anyhow...) but one thing which caught my attention was this...
When that happens with four bowlers and two fast bowlers they have something to play with. But it never happened for us, it became really tough for the fast bowlers to either contain them or get them out. Hopefully in Kolkata we'll get the reverse swing going. Whatever legal ways are there we tried to get the reverse swing going but it didn't happen for us.
as we all know ball tampering is the flavor of the season thanks to afridi... so i thought why not devote some time to devise (legal) ways of ball tampering...?
here are some i could think of...
- wear really scuffed and pointed abdominal guard under your pants...
- close-in fielders... do the same but with inner pads...
- wicket keeper can use really rough leather on the portion where they pouch the ball...
- instead of throwing at wickets... target helmet, pads or bat of batsman instead...
- throw the ball on pitch as hard as you can when the appeal is turned down...
come on guys... give me more...
what is harbhajan thinking...?
shared by straight point on Tuesday, February 09, 2010
bass ikk test hor rabba... pher te dukaan chaldi raugi...
(oh god... just one test more... after that it will be smooth sailing...)
on bored: open thread - second test second coming...
this is what india has been doing in this test match...
shared by straight point on Monday, February 08, 2010
catching up...
first with the ball and now with the bat in hand...
ps: in a way i am glad that out of 12 wickets... 11 fell to seamers today and not to (indian) spinners... otherwise icc would have come knocking bcci door...
my friendly advise to amit mishra...
shared by straight point on Sunday, February 07, 2010
if you cannot get wickets... get a body language at least...
(hint: look at bhajji...)
now this is what we call...
shared by straight point on Saturday, February 06, 2010
...a perfect 'synchronised' partnership by all account...
well played!!
my friendly advise to badrinath...
shared by straight point on Friday, February 05, 2010
when the experience of over 20 years of international cricket... more than 30,000 runs... and 90 international hundreds... gives you tips... you better pay attention...
on bored: open thread - first test first show...
the ball is in selectors court...
shared by straight point on Wednesday, January 27, 2010
before a ball is bowled in india vs south africa test series both camps seems to be in a bit of doldrums by some unexpected turn of events...
south africa will be without their regular coach mickey arthur... who authored his resignation just before the start of south africa's tour of india... though the air is still not clear about the exact reason of his resignation... but it is believed that arthur and graeme smith's working relations had reached a nadir and ultimately coach had to move out to make way...
the disturbances in india's camp are more direct that have the potential to impact final results... dravid, laxman and yuvraj injuries have coincided at the same time... and we are staring at the possibility of indian middle order without the likes of dravid and laxman for the first time since as far as my memory goes... though i expect laxman's injury will heal in time and he will be fit to play...
i deliberately not included yuvraj's name in the list of players team india will miss coz to me he has not done anything of note yet to convince me that he really belongs to the highest form of cricket... and even if he was not injured... i would have argued to drop him in first place for the upcoming series... who according to me is blocking a spot of a deserving player more than so called seniors...
what our five wise men failed to do for bangladesh test series... the unfortunate injuries have managed to do that against much tougher opponent... to try and mark some players who can play in middle order when the legends won't be there that is... goes to show even if you fail to show courage to take decisions the circumstances can force you to take them...
the series, in this light, will serve as 'preview' of what can happen when the vacuum will be created by mass exodus of legends if selectors fail to manage the transition...
so i hope and wish when our selectors will meet tomorrow (28th january) to select team india for the south africa test series... they will think out of box and select the forgotten man of indian cricket... mohammad kaif... along with subramanium badrinath... and of course the steady murly vijay who seems to have become the 'instant fix' guy for team india of late will definitely get a place ...
a reason to celebrate...
kaif has recently scored a double ton and a century in successive innings ... has international exposure and experience of almost all conditions and situations... is still a very good fielder... basically by all means another player who is an 'instant fix'...
so my team india batting order will be... sehwag, gambhir, vijay, sachin, kaif, laxman/badrinath, dhoni, with rohit sharma and/or dinesh karthik in reserves...
it will be interesting what middle order batting combination our five wise men will come up with tomorrow...
Team India: MS Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, S Badrinath, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, M Vijay, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhimanyu Mithun, Wriddhiman Saha.
Board President's XI: Abhinav Mukund, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma (capt), Manish Pandey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhishek Nayar, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Manpreet Gony.
