Archive for ‘Cricket India’

35 results.
Dec02

The onus is on Murali

by wasim on December 2nd, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket India, Cricket, Cricket Srilanka

[caption id="attachment_1187" align="alignnone" width="250" caption="Murali pondering over his future"]Murali pondering over his future[/caption]

SriLanka scored 366 for 8 on the first day of the third test against India, the pitch offered early movement to both spinners and seamers but Indian seamers failed to take advantage of the early movement and wasted the new ball, Zaheer Khan bowled too full and Sreesaanth failed to control his length and direction as a result Dilshan and his partner Paranavitana took full advantage and scored runs at a brisk pace.

Harbhajan who extracted fair amount of spin from the pitch from the moment he started bowling struck the first blow when he removed Paranavitana enticing him to drive when the ball turned sharply away from the left hander. An out of form Sangakara was uncomfortable against both spinners and it was only a matter of time when he lost his wicket. Dilshan however treated Ohja with disdain. But the SriLankan middle order could not take full advantage of the great opening partnership wickets kept falling on the end.

Dilshan completed his 11th test century just after tea, and also crossed 1000 runs in the year, but SriLanka’s chances to post a big first innings total recieved a big blow when Dilshan was given out caught bat and pad off the bowling of Harbhajan the replays indicated that the bat was no where near the ball, Indian’s got a lucky break as Matthews and Dilshan were mauling Indian bowlers all over the Park both players added 76 for the sixth wicket Matthews was the dominant partner. He is still batting at 86 and only needs 14 more to complete his first test 100, with only two wickets in hand Srilanka should look to score at least 30 more runs.

It wasn’t a bad pitch to bowl on but Indian bowlers gave away too many runs especially SreeSaanth whose Econ rate was close to 5. The total of 366 is the highest scored by a touring party in India in one day.

SriLankan bowlers should do better on this pitch, their pace attack got strengthened by the return of Kulasekara, the match is still evenly poised as the pitch has eased down and India has a strong batting line up, the onus is on Murali to put pressure on India he had a below par outing in the first two tests and if he fails to perform in this one then probably he should retire.

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Dec19

Cricket needs it’s soul back

by wasim on December 19th, 2009 at 1:59 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket India

825 runs were scored in Rajkot and 603 runs were scored in Nagpur, both matches went down to the wire. The TRP ratings went through the roof, the gate money was good, the advertisers and the sponsors can’t complain, the batsmen are having a time of their lives.  So why are some people whining ?

Don’t they understand the simple fact that for everything you gain you have to lose something. 

Cricket administrators decided long ago that in order to increase revenues and make cricket a spectator sport they will have to skew the game in favor of the batsman. The WWF model was followed to make the game more exciting for the spectators and the fair contest between bat and ball was taken out of the game.

Many restrictions were imposed on bowlers to take the venom out of bowling i.e limitations on overs, bouncer restrictions, field restrictions, strict wide and no ball rules, power plays, the compulsory ball change after 35 overs and shorter boundaries  but nothing succeeds more in rendering the bowlers toothless than a dead pitch. 

It is unfair to single out just BCCI for this crime, ODI and T20 pitches prepared all over the world are generally placid. The pitch at Rajkot was not much different from what we usually see in an Odi these days,  825 runs were scored because two of the most savage batsmen Sehwag and Dilshan were at their best in that match and the pace attack of both sides was below par.

Greed has imprisoned the souls of cricket administrators, they have no right to kill the soul of the game in the name of commercialization.

Test match cricket is almost dead and the ODi format is on it’s death bed, ICC wants to revive the game by using a pink ball and by holding day and night test matches, cricket cannot be revived with a pink ball it needs it’s soul back, the fair contest between bat and ball should be restored.

In a five match series at least two should be played on supporting tracks or else nobody is going to stay up all night for five days to watch a match which won’t produce a result.

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Jan23

Nerveless Pakistan overcome fiesty Indians

by wasim on January 23rd, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket India, Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

A brave  Pakistan U 19 team has defeated fiesty Indians in a low scoring thriller in the quarter finals of the U19 WC.

Due to heavy rain the  match was reduced to 23 overs. Pakistan won the toss and put the Indians into bat on a seaming track and in over cast conditions. The move immediately paid off as India lost two wickets in the first over of Fayaz Butt. Mandeep Singh and Harpreet restored the Indian innings but they never tried to dominate the Pakistan bowlers.

Pace bowlers have been Pakistan’s strength historically in this tournament, even though Fayaz Butt took two wickets in his first over due to which India never recovered in the match but Pakistani pacers couldn’t exploit the conditions as their Indian counterparts did, I hate to say this but Indian pacers were exceptional they were defending a small total but they bowled agressively and almost all of them extracted a lot of movement Sandeep Singh and Netravalkar looked like counterfiet & half priced Wasim & Waqar.

India managed to score 114 they could never accelerate as they kept losing wickets but 114 was a decent total on this pitch.

Pakistan’s start of their innings was almost identical to that of India they lost their top three batsman, Babar, Shahzad and Ghuman when the score was just 16, Indian pacers were at top , but Ramiz Aziz and Ahsan Ali restored the innings with some sensible and nerveless batting both players added 55 runs in 10.5 overs for Pakistan but their running between the wicket was extremely poor finally after a few close calls Ahsan Ali got run out after scoring a sensible 30, Rameez soon followed him and the required run rate crept up to 7 at that stage it looked highly improbable that Pakistan would win.

Hammad Azam, Salman Qadir and Ahmed Waqas displayed some nerveless hitting at one stage the required run rate was above 8 an over but first a towering six by Hammad and then a huge six on the midwicket by Waqas brought the required runs down to 18 from 14 balls,  Unadkat who was howling and growling at Pakistani players through out the day recieved some thumping from Usman Qadir and Hammad in the second last over and only four runs were required off the last over.

In the end a brave Pakistani team prevailed over nervous Indians who dropped a few catches and their ground fielding which was exceptional in the first half became ordinary under pressure.  Al Maneria’s poor bowling changes and poor performance and defensive approach while batting costed India this match.

The match swung from one side to another like a pendulum it was thrilling to watch. For Pakistanis every victory against India is special but this one was super special.

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Feb24

Sachin breaks another record

by wasim on February 24th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket India

The grand master of Batting Sachin Tendulkar has created another record by scoring an unbeaten 200 against South Africa in an Odi innings. Records are made to be broken, but in my opinion batting records are made to be broken by Sachin. I had only three players in mind who could have broken Saeed Anwar’s record of highest score in an Odi innings, Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar but it was broken by CK coventry of Zimbabwe last year he equalled Anwar’s score of 194 but since he remained not out he held the new record. 

Jayasuriya and Tendulkar came close to it on several occasions but just fell short of it , Sachin recently scored 175 against Australia and before that he scored 186* against New Zealand, Saeed Anwar’s record remained intact for 12 years, and now Sachin’s 200 might also remain intact for a long period of time, Sehwag and Dilshan are the only two players in world cricket who are mad enough to attempt such a monumental feat.

Hats off for the Grand Master, he truly is a living legend.

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Mar24

India Vs Pakistan- Semi Final

by wasim on March 24th, 2011 at 9:06 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket India, Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

India won their Quarter final fixture against Australia and now they will face traditional rivals Pakistan in the semi final.

I always wanted a semi final clash between Pakistan and India and my wish has come true, there was no other possible matchup in this tournament which could have elevated the excitement level of this tournament than a semi final clash between India and Pakistan.

One country will get all the joy and the bragging rights the other will be left in sheer agony and completely heart broken. The fans need assurances and reassurances that their team won’t disappoint them, this week will be the most nerve wrecking week for the fans in both countries, defeat is not an option for either side, as nothing hurts more than losing to your traditional foe and nothing will be more joyous than knocking out your traditional foe out of the competetion, perhaps the joy would be even more than lifting the trophy.

It would be a final game before the final. This match is not for the faint hearted, people will get heart attacks, television screens will be shattered, effigies of the players will be burned their houses will get attacked careers of some of the players on the losing side will end abruptly.

And those who will end up victorious will get showered with all kinds of gifts and accolades, their will be endless parties winning this match will tantamount to winning a war.

The players on both teams are aware of these facts and the team which will hold on to it’s nerves will win the match.

Both teams are high on confidence, India has a home advantage and will be backed by a huge crowd but at the same time the expectations of the home crowd will put enormous pressure on their team.

Pakistan has a huge disadvantage as this match would be their first match in India, the conditions in India and SriLanka are quite different, the low bounce and slow pace of the tracks will make their pacers struggle so the burden will have to be picked up by their spinners and the chances of victory largely depend on how well they change their game plan according to the conditions in India. It’s a win or go home situation there is no margin of error for either team. The conditions in India won’t be alltogether alien for Pakistan as they play on similar conditions at home the only challenge will be how quickly their bowlers adjust their game.

If the bowlers will get a set back the batsmen will get a boost as the weak Indian bowling and the flat tracks in India should be mouth watering for them.

Indian team will also face a stiff challenge as for the first time in the tournament they will face a team which plays spin as good as them and possesses a very potent bowling attack.

The past record is heavily in favor of India, Pakistan is yet to beat India in a world cup match.

For India Sachin, Yuvraj and Zaheer Khan are in great form.

For Pakistan there is nobody in their batting line up who stands out they have depth in their batting and so far in every match it’s a different hero who stood up. Umar Gul, Afridi, Ajmal and Hafeez are the players to watch for India.

It’s going to be a great contest at the end of the day the team which will play better cricket will win.

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