Cricket Shastra

Notes from the day one of the India-SA 1st Test at Chepauk, Chennai…

• India needs to re-think the four-bowler strategy, especially in the Indian sub-continent where the pitches are generally conducive to batting. But to accommodate the fifth bowler, whom do you drop? The only route I could think for this is to take Karthik in the team instead of Dhoni (God knows he needs a break, he has been the busiest cricketer in the world – give him a break for a test or two, get him back fully fit and refreshed), drop Jaffer or Sehwag (for no fault on their part), make Karthik open, and get Pathan in as a bowling all-rounder.
• I know Sreesanth is a quality bowler when he gets into rhythm, but the problem is his rhythm lasts for 3 balls, and the fourth ball would generally be seen crashing in the hoardings. He reminds me of another Indian fast bowler of the present era: Ajit Agarkar – of the six balls in his over 4 would beat the batsmen, the other two would beat the fielders.
• RP Singh was not at all incisive, and Zaheer Khan was sorely missed. Ishant Sharma has to prove himself in the Indian subcontinent before we miss him
• And why was the Indian fielding so pathetic? I did not expect Dhoni to drop a catch that he would have generally taken with his eyes shut…

We can go on and on, saying that rain spoiled the game for us and set it up for the Lankans, but the fact of the matter is, that SL played better cricket on the day and we were beaten comprehensively.

India’s batting performance was good, except for a couple of wasted starts and unnecessary run outs. The biggest worry right now, would be … without a doubt .. the form of Yuvraj Singh. He seems to be finding it very difficult to spend any time at the crease. I don’t think he would be able to keep his place in the team with his present form for too long. I think that presently he is too bothered about his place in the team, thanks to the long row of young batsmen waiting to fill in his shoes .. and I think that is the reason he is playing the matches even though he is not fully fit. His knee injury wont get any better by playing matches, specially with the kind of schedule the team has. Ravi Shastri hit the right note, when he said that it would be better for him to go out of the team, spend some 6 moths for rehab and then come back a stronger and fitter player .. than stay in the team, and keep performing poorly. On a positive note, I think Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma could well be the find of the tour for this Indian Team. Ishant has been pushed into the role of the new ball bowler with the likes of Zaheer Khan and RP Singh returning home with injuries and he has responded in an excellent fashion. But I think we should take time with this youngster. He might do pretty well on this tour, but will he be able to keep up his pace in the hot sweaty conditions and the flat tracks in India .. that remains to be seen. It is important that we don’t make him all high and mighty based on this tour and then brand him a terrible selection when he fails to preform on the flat tracks.
On the other hand, it is easier to make a judgement on the batsmen like Rohit Sharma. With the sort of technique that he has, I see no reason why he can not perform on all sorts of wickets and on all sorts of conditions. He always seems to be having a lot of time while playing his shots .. its a sort of relaxed approach, even while facing the fiercest or wiliest bowlers in the world cricket. His Six off Murlitharan was probably the shot of the match. Only a player who reads the bowler well can play that sort of a shot and reading Murli so well is an achievement in itself.
As for the Lankan innings, they were always in cruise mode .. specially after the blistering start they got .. thanks to Jayasurya. Wine gets better with age .. so do Test Batsmen .. but Jayasurya retired from Test Cricket to prolong his one day career and still is one of the most feared batsmen around. His approach to batting isn’t always so pretty to watch .. but is always effective. He might not have the defensive technique of a Dravid or a Attapattu .. but who needs defense when you are Jayasurya. Entertaining , is the word that comes to my mind.
In the post match conference, Jayawardhene said that SL would have won even if the match wasn’t rain shortened. I hate to agree with him, but really … that seems more probable than an Indian win.
The win in this game has opened up the competition, thanks mainly to the the surprise Indian win on Sunday. A win for any of the two playing teams in the next game would put them at the top of the table and leave the loser of the game at the bottom. India will continue to be on second place, unless the match is a tie or a wash out. Been a long time since we had a good tri series in Australia. This series might just be dose of life that Cricket needs, specially these days when tempers all over the world are flaring at the drop of a hat and people are starting to think that money is what keeps cricket running, and not a case of cricket keeping the money coming.

From 83 for 4 to 267 for 4 !!
Not bad at all .. I would say. Quite a fantastic recovery from India.
Lets focus on the positives first. Gambhir has started finding his feet in the international arena ever since his wonderful batting exploits at the top of the order during the T20 World Cup. He can now be put down as a reliable Number 3 player for India, at least in the 50 over version. This has more to do with the lack of options present, than with his talent. Among the present pool of batsmen India has, no one is more suited for this role than him (I am counting out Rahul Dravid, as he probably will find it tough to find way back into the ODI team .. whatever be the result of this series). The onus is on Gambhir to take his role seriously and deliver in crunch matches. Even Today, he almost threw away his wicket while on 10 and had Sangakara not grassed that chance, the scoreboard might have read a lot different.
I have always had doubts about Dhoni’s ability to bat in tough conditions. He always seems to be able to bat in only two modes, either overly aggressive or overly defensive. I am yet to see a aggresive defense or a defensive aggression from this chap. He just seems like he wants to hang in there when the conditions are tough, even if he gets bad balls. At other times, he seems like he wants to get the match over at the earliest, and starts banging every ball out of the park. But I was pleasantly surprised today with his batting. His innings was a fine example of how to build one’s innings. After the couple of quick dismissals, one due to an umpiring horror and the other due to outright stupidity from the batsman, his calmness brought some method in the madness that was prevailing in the middle.
Together, the two understated batsmen fought off the chances of mid innings collapse. By the time the allotted quota of overs were bowled, one of them had helped himself to a truly deserving century and other one had played a wonderfully paced captain’s innings. For quite some time, I had thought that this inning would also go the same way as the one against Australia. But these two displayed great skills in keeping the good balls out and swatting others for boundaries , especially towards the end of the innings.
Now its time to get on with the negatives. Yuvi was the one player who was supposed to make the batting order strong. But he always had problems playing quality spin bowlers. He can swat them for a couple of boundaries, but he definitely can’t bat consistently well against them. Today too, Murli had him bamboozled. It wasn’t so much about the quality of the shot that he played, but about how easily Murli had foxed him. Remember the Manoj Tiwary dismissal against Brett Lee ? Bouncer, bouncer , bouncer and then out of nowhere, a yorker length delivery. With Yuvi batting, Murli bowled three flat fast-ish deliveries on his stumps and gave the next one some air. Yuvi was enticed into the drive and ended up giving a catch at slip. I don’t think there is any prettier site for a bowler than to see his plan work out against one of the top batsmen in the opposition team.
I do feel sorry for Rohit Sharma though .. He had batted so well against Australia the other day that Ian Chappell had said “I think India have found the ideal replacement for Sachin when he retires, for the number 4 test spot”. The cover driving, the square drives and the lethal cuts were all excellent, but its yet to be seen if he is able to keep scoring his runs when bowlers around the world have worked him out. Right now, he seems to be too intent to cut deliveries. May be that is something that teams can exploit in the future, if he does go on to play for a long time. Today he got a very poor decision from the umpire, but he will have his chances in the series.
Sachin and Sehwag were good at the top of the batting order. I just hope Sachin notches up at least a couple more centuries on this tour. Its not too tough, considering the sort of form he is in.

Update : Match canceled due to Rain .. Both Teams share 2 points each.

While I am writing this post, Indian team is trying to avoid the bowl out in this only T20 match in India. 50/6 thats what the scoreboard is saying right now.

There is no need to know the outcome of the match (though I will update that soon) as it is going to be very obvious. The thing is that me and lots of my friends have already thought of something like this, a complete slaughter of Indian team by Aussies. But that was more for the ODIs, this will happen so early nobody would have thought.

While, I have lost the strength to watch the TV, I am still reading the cricinfo commentary and this is what that is written there… “”Plenty of you calling for Tendulkar and Ganguly. It’s a bit too late for that, I’m afraid”. Yup, too late to do anything for this match, but I am sure the selectors can still do something to save the upcoming ODIs.

The thing is that Indian team still needs its seniors, and we still don’t have replacement for the Big Threes, espeically in Australian conditions. So, while the God is already out there for ODIs (Thank Heavens), but please bring back the Maharaja as the Yuvraj’s of India still need a little bit more polishing to show their actual shine.