Cricket Blog

In the most recent of stupid and completely baseless allegations, the Australian public targeted Harbhajan Singh for allegedly making monkey gestures at the Sydney crowd in the first final of the Commonwealth Bank series. According some members of the crowd, Harby had made monkey gestures by scratching both armpits directed towards the spectators. However, the ICC has cleared Bhajji of any misgivings as there is no evidence.

Allan Border has come to the Indian’s defence. “I was over that side of the ground and Harbhajan was copping a fair bit of stick from the crowd. I didn’t notice any gestures at all and I thought he handled himself pretty well. I’m not so sure how serious it is,” Border said.

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Well, its time to give out my opinion on the squad that has been chosen for the ODI series involving India, Sri Lanka and Australia. A lot is being said about the exclusion of some “Big” names from the squad and that the players selected are not right for this series. The selectors have flat-out cleared their criteria - Fielding. In a country where people are completely crazy about their stars, this is not a good enough reason. In my opinion, hats off to the selectors for finally putting a greater emphasis on the fielding capabilities of ODI players.

For years we have seen our team to be the worst in fielding, on paper and on Live TV. The bungling old players have had over a decade of playing experience, yet there has been absolutely no improvement in their fielding. Yes they are good in catching, and catches win matches. But catches don’t come every other ball. Every single run counts in ODI cricket, and every time the ball is placed to Ganguly and Dravid, the batsmen always take an extra run.

Well what about running between the wickets. It would be an understatement to say that both Ganguly and Dravid are the worst runners in the Indian squad. Saurav Ganguly has played 311 matches. He has been part of 145 losses. He has been runout 13 times averaging 34.92 every time. Almost once every 11 matches that India have lost. Almost always after getting a good start. Overall he has been runout 23 times. Dravid, on the other hand, has played 333 ODI matches. He has been involved in 160 defeats and got himself runout 20 times. That is once in every 8 defeats. He averages 30.65 and just like Ganguly gets himself runout after getting a good start.

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It has been a long long wait. Almost 4 years. Over 11 matches. But finally India have done it. The T20 World Champions have beaten the ODI World Champions by 8 runs in a nail-biter, reminiscent of their semi-final clash in the Twenty20 World Cup. India needed to win this match and the series has now come alive. After a complete domination in the first 3 matches (the first one was washed out), Australia finally were challenged and they succumbed. It goes to show that any team can be defeated if the right pressure is applied.

India one the toss and MS had no hesitation in batting first. In the previous couple of matches the Aussies had made first use of the pitch. Dhoni ensured that this time his batsmen would get the first opportunity to bat. India had the tried and tested opening pair of Tendulkar and Ganguly to start proceedings. After the recent statement by Dilip Vengsarkar, the two had to get some runs and get India a good opening start. They did that by putting on 92 for the first wicket in 19 overs before Ganguly was the first to depart on 41 from 56 balls.

Yuvraj got a promotion and came in at number 3. Along with Tendulkar, he put on another decent partnership as the Indians got to 174 before Yuvraj hit one to Ponting. He had made 39 and was just looking to cut loose. Dhoni was the next man in, but the foundation had been laid. India had another 15 overs to go and 8 wickets in hand with Tendulkar still at the crease. He had yet to come out all guns blazing and as luck would have it, he got himself run out on 79. He had faced 119 balls giving him a strike rate of 66.38 runs per 100 balls. India were now 221-3 from 41.5 overs and it really surprised me to see Rahul Dravid come in at this stage. He did not last long and his shocking series continued as he fell on unlucky 13.

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The “Revenge Series” is about to begin in a few hours time. The Australians are pumped up. The Indians are fresh from a high that they have never experienced in over two decades. The atmosphere is going to be high voltage. The drama has already started.

What can we expect from this series? The Aussies are definitely hurt by the semi-final loss to a bunch of nobody’s with not a single superstar and for some inexplicable reason they have not liked the celebrations in India. By now, I thought, they would have been used to see this. Indians love to celebrate and if that means blowing a win out of proportions, then so be it.

There has been a shift in rivalry in cricket in the last decade. The India vs Pakistan and Australia vs England series don’t generate that much hype anymore than an India vs Australia series does. Even though Australia has won 9 out of it’s last 10 matches against India, the 10th match (the semi-final loss) has hit them the hardest. Which also means that they are going to come down hard at the Indians. Which, in turn, means that this is going to be one hell of a series if India can match the aggression.

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With the Indian tour to England underway and the first ball going to be bowled in less than 24 hours, I wanted to check out on what Sehwag and Harbhajan were upto. The last I heard was that Sehwag was destroying the opposition in the domestic circuit and Harbhajan had been called to join county team Surrey. Both players had been dropped from the Indian squad for both ODIs and Tests due to a string of poor to average performances. They were also dealt a double blow when the BCCI demoted them in the new contracts assigned to the Indian players.

Sehwag, it seems, has gone back to his roots and has started to correct his flaws. There was plenty of evidence that things have started to change in the recently concluded DDCA Hot Weather tournament. Sehwag led the ONGC team to an emphatic title victory over Indian Airlines(IA). He blasted 168 from only 117 balls, including 19 boundaries and 4 sixes, in the quarter finals. He then went on to smash 59 from 57 balls in the semi-final. It seems that he has been recalled to play county cricket as well.

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