CWC2019 India vs South Africa Match

Best Wishes for the team India,Men in Blue for registering a good win against South Africa in their first game. However, there needs some improvements/corrections from this game going forward.

This is a very long tournament and with pattern of CWC1992.Each of the 10 teams play each other once,which means 9 games per team in the league with top4 qualifiying for Semis. Hence along with wins , the net run rate could play a major factor at the end.

Coming to this game, India bowled well for almost 40 overs and let the lower order batsmen score runs and put 227 on board. Ideally when the opposition is 7 down for 160 odd, we should be restricting them to 200-210.

And on the other hand in batting, a slow start,coupled with losing Shikar and Virat for low scores needs to be seen. They should be careful and come back to their natural way of scoring runs. On English wickets these 2 has good record in white ball cricket and hence that has to come back.

Rohit scored a match winning Ton,however he got a life when Faf dropped him off Rabada. Every match he may not get such let offs and hence a postive approach and no loose shot shall be the key thing going further and next game is against Australia and a win against them will give boost of morale and confidence going deep into the tournament.

Rahul,MSD had good starts but threw away their wickets. For a low scoring game its not an issue,however when we end up chasing 300 plus or need to set 300 plus target to the opposition,these throwing away of wickets will dent the chances.

Overall its a decent match for India,with bowling brilliance and capitalising the let off by Rohit ,building up partnerships and winning the game for India. Lets hope the Men in Blue continue their winning ways.

Sukumar Radrapu

ICC World Cup 2015- A review till 23-Feb-2015

The ICC cricket world cup 2015 started with a good note and so far 9 days into the world cup, its very good cricket that has happened, with some ferocious batting, bowling and fielding efforts on display from the teams. There were some awesome performances and some unexpected performances too.

Coming into the teams and how they fared so far in the world cup, lets have a short look at those. Let me start with India, being an Indian.

India:

Many had written off India till the world cup began and now they are the talk of the town with two astounding wins against their Arch rivals Pakistan , to whom they never lost in a world cup match till date and South Africa, against whom they have lost all the three world cup encounters till yesterday's win.

It all started with the match against Pakistan , where the batsmen came in handy with 70's from Shikar Dhawan & Suresh Raina , along with a marvelous ton by Kohli that made India to post 300 on the board, though the last five overs yielded only 21 runs and India lost 4 wickets ( including 3 wickets from overs 48.5-49.2), the total was sufficient to knock down Pakistan by 76 runs. Shami, Umesh, Jadeja , Mohit chipped in with wickets when needed and in the middle overs took 3 wickets for 1 run which made Pakistan go away from chasing and once Misbah got out, its all but a win for India.

Against South Africa too MSD won the toss and chose to bat, despite losing Rohit for a duck, courtesy direct hit by ABD, Shikar came out blazing with his career best score of 137 , and a patient knock of 46 from Virat, an attacking 79 from Rahane has made India post 307, their highest against SA in a WC game. Those who wrote off Shikar dhawan had seen a fantastic innings from him and he repeated his Champions Trophy outing style here too. Again with the mediocre bowling India has, it managed to bowl in right areas and keep the proteas in check, controlling the run flow and taking out QDecock early( in his previous 3 outings against India, he has scored tons). Then with the run flow restricted,and Amla taking a risk of pulling a short ball, got out by a brilliant catch in the deep by Shami, judging it well to keep himself within the boundary line. Then when ABD took the risk of a second run , misjudging Mohit's arm in the deep, lost his wicket, which gave India much wanted relief and in a similar way Miller too got out, the ever productive reverse sweep has called for the fall of JP Duminy and India beat the proteas by a whopping 130 run margin, one of their bests in a WC game and their best ever against SA.

With the other games for India scheduled against UAE,Zimbabwe, West Indies and Ireland, India can be the leader from the group if it keeps its winning form in 3 out of 4 games.

New Zealand:

India's chances at the World Cup 2015!

India being the defending champions of the World cup cricket, has much more responsibility to come back on track and perform well in the world cup. The current form of the team is a big question mark, with the team not performing collectively. And unlike the earlier world cup, where spin played a major role, this world cup is being played on pace friendly tracks and Indian bowling attack is not so good in such conditions.

Moreover, from the last world cup there are few changes to the rules in ODI cricket

1. Usage of 2 new balls from each end
2. Power play overs reduced to 15( First ten overs mandatory, 5 overs batting powerplay before 40th over)
3. Only 4 fielders allowed outside the 30 yard circle in non-powerplay overs, against 5 allowed in the previous edition.
4. Spin friendly tracks in 2011 World cup Vs pace friendly tracks in 2015 world cup.

The above new set of rules has made the part time bowlers role limited in ODI's, whereas part timers were so effective in the previous world cup( remember Yuvi playing a significant role with the ball). Still, there are much more ways to tackle this if some kind of effective plans are made , all needs is batsmen in form and bowlers doing decent job with fielders supporting them. Its so simple, but how far India can make this effective, considering the performances its showing the CB series is putting serious doubts in the minds of Indian cricket lovers!

Indian team in Group Stage:

The group stage for India is set up very well, the other teams in the group being South Africa, Pakistan, Westindies, Zimbabwe, Ireland,UAE. Top four teams qualify for the knockouts. To make that happen, minimum requirement is win 3 games with good margin to progress. With teams like UAE,Ireland,Zimbabwe and WestIndies in the group, India's chances of qualifying to the knockouts is more or less confirmed, unless a very bad or worst performance against the lower ranked sides happens, which is the least possibility. If Indians perform reasonably well with both bat and ball, qualifying to knock outs is never a question mark.

India Vs Pakistan

India's opening match against Pakistan is more than the world cup finals for them, as India will look its clean sweep record against Pakistan in World cups and Pakistan wants to make it a no-clean sweep. The first time both these teams met in a world cup is in 1992 in Australia and this time its the same country hosting the match. There were India Vs Pakistan clashes in 1996, 1999,2003,2011 and all the games were won by India. More than 50k viewers are expected to watch this match on the venue( all tickets sold out on the day it opened within a span of less than 30 mins, much more than any other match in this world cup) and about 3 crore( 30 million) viewers on television.

India relies on its batting strength and Pakistan on its bowling strength. If Indian batsman out perform the Pakistani's by a good margin, then the match will be in India's favor, as an Indian, I wish to see India winning this game than any other game in the entire world cup. The match is a pure contest between Indian Top 6 batsmen Vs Pakistan bowlers. On paper this match looks of 50-50 chance for both the teams.

India Vs South Africa

The only team against which India lost a match in 2011 world cup is against South Africa and they have edge over the Indian's this time too. And South Africa is known for its choking and hopefully it happens against India.

South Africa is strong on both the batting and bowling fronts with Amla,De Cock, ABD, Steyn,Philander,Morne giving out their best on any given day. If India has to win this game, or atleast be competitive in the game, the top order needs to fare extremely well against the feiry SA pace attack and the bowlers need to contain the SA top batsmen, which is a difficult task. On paper, it looks 80-20 in favor of SA.

India Vs Westindies

Westindies, in the absence of Pollard and Bravo looks like a team that is regrouping, still there is Gayle at the top order, if he clicks, then it will be a good chance for the carribeans to win against any team on given day. They have Ramdin, Russel, Samuels who can hit big and if all click together India will find it tough to win the game. But on the other hand, India has firepower in batting and if its clicks well, it will be a tough job for the windies. On paper this looks like 70-30 in favor of Inda.

India Vs Zimbabwe

Compared to other full members in the group, Zimbabwe is the weakest side. And against India, if they want to win, they need to perform a miracle almost. Lack of depth in both batting and bowling fronts give the advantage to India in this game and on paper its 90-10 in favor of India.

India Vs UAE

The associate nation from Asia is yet to prove on the 50 over format against full nations and unless any miracles happen its easy game to Win for India. The chances are 98-2 in favor of India.

India Vs Ireland

The associate nation is known to give shocking defeats to full members in world cups, the win against Pakistan in 2007 shut doors for Pakistan progressing further and their win against England in 2011, chasing down 328 is a remarkable one in WC history and its a record chase in a WC match. India needs to be a bit cautious against this side to progress into knockout stage.

Knockouts

The likely combinations of QF match involving India is Australia, England, Srilanka, New Zealand. Except Srilanka all the other 3 teams are strong on pace friendly tracks and it needs a spectacular performance from the Indians to go into semifinals and finals.

Key Players need to perform:

Virat Kohli- The batting strength lies with the form of Virat undoubtedly and he needs to give star performances for India to reach knockouts and finals.

MSD- MSD should utilize his options available to the fullest and with the bat and gloves he need to perform.

Rohit Sharma/Shikar/Rahane - A lot depends on how these batsmen score runs at the top of the order either to chase down the target or put a stiff target to the opposition.

Bowlers : The bowlers needs to be much more consistent in line and lengths. Ishant, the most experienced of the bowling attack needs to spearhead and cause enough damages to the opposition. Shami/Bhuvi/Umesh should take atleast a wicket each in the first 10 overs to put brakes on the opposition scoring. Binny/Axar/Ashwin/Jaddu should concentrate more on tight bowling to contain the opposition and also take wickets.

On the whole, the real test for India is in the knockouts and they should take every game seriously in the league stage to reach knockouts.

Wishing the Men In Blue a success in this world cup 2015.

 

Rise of SunRisers- IPL6

Its too early to say, but the performances of Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL6 is worth mentioning. Last year the team with their old Franchise, Deccan Chargers, almost finished with the wooden spoon, just ahead of Wooden spoon holders PWI, with a better marginal net run rate,with just 4 wins of 12 games.

This season, they had started with a good note. This reminds me how DC had did in 1st season, and bounced back in the second with magnificent wins in its first 4 games, and finally emerging as winners.

On paper, Sunrisers Hyderabad is a underdog. It is because they don't have single handed match winners like Chris Gayle, or electrifying fielders fielders , or the best bowling attack. But still their wins in first two games was possible because of the following reasons.

1. SunRisers knew what is their strength and what is their weakness.
2. Jinx never works always, Uppal stadium, being their home ground was not so lucky all these days. If hard work is put in properly, as a unit, the jinx will fail, which SRH proved.
3. Few decisions taken at right time, worked out perfectly their way.
4. Perfect utilization of resources. It can be anyone's day in T20, but if the resources are utilized properly, even David can prevail against Goliath. That is what SRH proved so far.

I am not bothered how many wins they are going to get this season, or on what position they are going to finish this season, but with the confidence got from first 2 games, they are surely going to be competitive in the entire tournament and finish better than their previous 2 seasons.

The players who turned around the game are almost the entire playing XI they fielded. It cannot be just ruled out that one player had made the entire difference , like what Chris Gayle's score made it for RCB Vs MI. The players might not have got Orange or purple cap after 7 games and 5 days in this season,but surely they gave on the park, for what they are being paid for.

Here we look how the team has went into winning ways.

Akshat Reddy - The Hyderabadi Ranji opener, with a domestic T20 ton under his name( his debut innings if I am not wrong), had given solid starts to the team and did the openers role perfectly, 50 runs in 2 games, at a touch lower strike rate of 98. But being both the games are low scoring encounters, his contribution mattered much than the strike rate. His fielding definitely saved good amount of runs for his team.

Thisira Perera - The pinch hitting all rounder from Srilanka, perfectly filled in the role of allrounder by scoring a quick fire 30 in first game and 7 in 2nd, besides taking 3 wickets at below 7 RPO in 2 games.

Dale Steyn - The fiery Proteas paceman is the spear head of the attack, which lacks bowlers who are atleast 75% capable of what he can do. But his presence and guidance along with Waqar , had bought the best of the rest of bowling unit. His cleaning of tail in first game,besides giving away just 11 runs in 3.5 overs is absolute brilliance in 1st game. He went for runs in 2nd game, taking just a wicket, but his super over performance is absolutely brilliant against Gayle and Kohli, and was able to defend 20 runs , by just giving away 15 runs.

Hanuma Vihari - The player of match against RCB, is not a hard hitter, the member of U19 winning world cup squad in Australia, had proved he is a good defensive player, who can bat long. His knock of 44 is instrumental in leveling the scores in 2nd game and winning in Super over. And his wicket of 1st ball in IPL , that of Gayle will be remembered at least till the end of this season.Currently with 56 runs in 2 games at 56, he is the leading run scorer for SRH.

Asish Reddy - The cheeky all rounder from Hyderabad Ranji team had proved , he is not the one against whom to attack, he took a crucial wicket in each of the games. With the willow he scored 21 runs in 2 games. His wickets of Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli in 1st & 2nd games, had definitely turned the course of the match.

Amit Mishra - The Indian leggie from Haryana is among the wickets this season and scalped 4 in 2 games, along with Steyn he is the leading wicket taker for his team. His economical spells had ensured the targets are defended and the opposition has not went on for big targets.

Ishant - The lanky Indian pacer had found his rhythm and is among the wickets . His 3 wickets in 2nd game was so crucial and his economical spell in 1st game was also equally appreciable. Hope he continues the same way and gives a good pace attack to his team.

Cameron White - He may have failed in both the games with bat, but his super over attack against Vinay was instrumental to give 21 run target for the opposition.

IPL6 - Players to look for - Part 2

Continuing my last post on players to look for in this IPL season.

Chris Gayle -Entire RCB team and fans pinned their hopes on this hard hitter of all time. He has 3 IPL centuries, handful of fifties and a good strike rate. Till he is in crease, its no stopping from his willow against any attack.

Virat Kohli -The newly appointed RCB captain is in good form in all formats of the game, hope to continue his form in IPL too.


If I keep on writing I have write on many players and the article gets boring.. Apart from these players, the other key players of this IPL are

Darren Sammy
Thisira Perera
Rusty Theron
Sudeep Tyagi
Shadab Jakati
Wridhiman Saha
Rajat Bhatia
Sidharth Trivedi
Jayadev Unadkant
Iqbal Abdulla
Ankeit Chaudary
Amit Mishra


and the list goes on.....

IPL 6 - Players to look out for- Part 1!

With the IPL6 around the corner, let us have a short look on the players to look for, for all the 9 teams..

MS Dhoni - Undoubtedly , MSD will be on a high this season, after taking CSK to 3 finals consecutively, and 4 in total of the 5 seasons, and a semifinal appearance once, he will be keen to reclaim the trophy this time. With the recent 4-0 victory against the aussies certainly boosting his confidence, surely any one can expect the MSD magic to repeat in this IPL.

Mike Hussey - He is another pillar of CSK , along with Faf, can give a good start to the team, also his experience at the international level surely helps the team to get off to a flier.

Murali Vijay - With 2 consecutive 150+ scores against the aussies, and emerging as the leading run scorer of the series, Vijay is on high confidence and certainly that is going to ensure, he will be having a good IPL this year.

Shikar Dhawan - The fastest centurion on test debut is likely to miss a few games at the start of the season due to injury. But , once he returns, he might go into his old ways of exploding and scoring heaps of runs in the IPL.

Sehwag - The drop from Indian team, a good previous IPL season, is making the ferocious batter a player to look for this series. Lets see how he explodes with the willow.

Gambhir - His case is too similar to Sehwag's and it is most important for this Indian opener to get back to his old days of scoring runs consistently.

Ishant Sharma - Off late, Ishant Sharma has not fared that much well in the past test series, but this shorter version of game can surely bring back Ishant to his good old days.

Ricky Ponting - The recently retired Aussie stalwart , as a captain and player of Mumbai Indians have to prove his worth in IPL. So far he did nothing big in IPL.

Glen Maxwell - The million dollar buy from Aussies, failed miserably in the recent tour on turning tracks, have to see whether he is worth for what he is paid for.

Darren Sammy - The world cup T20 winning captain and allrounder is keen on continuing his form in the IPL from International cricket. Certainly he is an asset to the Sunrisers.

Dale Steyn - The back bone of Sunrisers bowling. He has to attack from the word go , if his team has to register few wins and also guide other pacers to bowl better.

Harbhajan - Its time for Bhajji to come out good and prove he is more better player than what he had performed in recent past.

Yusuf Pathan - Yusuf had been in bad form in last IPL, but he cannot leave it simple this season too.

Robin Uthappa - He is paid big, he has to prove his ability this season atleast.

Irfan Pathan - Irfan had been performing well for India till injury in Ranji season opener forced him to stay out. He has to come back strong enough for Delhi Daredevils, for his pay cheque.

IPL 6 Preview- SunRisers Hyderabad

SQUAD for this season :

Domestic Players :Akshath Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Biplab Samantray, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Karan Sharma,   Parthiv Patel, Sachin Rana, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudeep Tyagi, Thalaivan Sargunam, Thisara Perera, Veer Pratap Singh. 

Overseas Players :Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Clint McKay, Dale Steyn, Darren Sammy,Jean-Paul Duminy, Quinton de Kock,Nathan McCullum,Kumar Sangakkara.

Mentor : VVS Laxman

Coach : Tom Moody

Bowling Coach : Waqar Younis

Previous Team Name : Deccan Chargers

Performances in past 5 seasons(Deccan Chargers):

2008 - 8th in League( 2 Wins & 12 Losses)

2009 - Winner ( 4th in League , 7 Wins & 7 Losses) 

2010 -  Semifinalist ( 4th in League , 8 Wins & 6 Losses) 

2011 - 7th in League ( 6 Wins , 8 Losses)  

2012 - 7th in League ( 4 Wins , 10 Losses ) 

Players to look for :

Batsman:

Shikar Dhawan - Brilliant batsman who has played for Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils prior to playing for the Hyderabad based team. His willow had yeilded good amount of runs for the team so far in all the IPL seasons he played. With 400 runs in 14 games last season, he is the top scorer for his team with the bat. But the injury he got during Aussie test match is costing him a few games at the start of the season.

Kumar Sangakkara - A brilliant wicket keeper batsman and a captain in all forms of the game. One of the leading run machines in the International cricket in all formats. Expected to perform with his captaincy and willow this season.

Cameron White - Last season Cameron started with a dull note , but in the later half of the season ,he produced few magnificent innings which gave the team a couple of wins and almost made the team win another one. He is a hard hitter too. His scores in the top order matters the most, in the absence of Dhawan.

JP Duminy - The whole cricketing world and the IPL knows how good Duminy is with the willow and his part time bowling and fielding. His injury is forcing him to sit out for few games this season, once he returns, it will boost up the batting of the team for sure.

Akshat Reddy - He is one of the leading performers in the domestic circuit in all forms of the game. He can open the innings or bat at any given position , which helps the team to adjust its batting order according to the situation. A hard hitter, and a pinch hitter role also can be done by this young player, who has captaincy experience this season for Team Hyderabad in the domestic circuit.

Dwaraka Ravi Teja - The Hyderabadi domestic batsman and its captain is one of the most experienced domestic players in the side, his experience and skills as a batsman, part time offie will surely aid to the team's strength and is one of the domestic stars. 

Hanuma Vihari -  The world cup winning India U19 player can be one of the less recognized stars able to steal the show this season.

All Rounders : 

Darren Sammy,Nathan McCullum , Thisira perera are well known for their all round ablities in international T20 cricket and there is nothing much to specifically say about these proven stars.

Ashish Reddy & Sachin Rana can also perform on par with these international stars and there is nothing to worry regarding the team selection as there are a bunch of all rounders to chose from.

Bowlers :

Dale Steyn - The world class fiery pace bowler is expected to knock many wickets down this season as usual.

Ishant Sharma - Though Ishant is not of his greatest form, he is expected to give some breakthroughs in the power play overs and support Steyn.

Amit Mishra - Specialist spinner in the squad and usually performs well in IPL.

Veer Pratap Singh - The Bengal bowler has been a good performer last season and he is expected to give the same this year too.

Anand Rajan - He is one of the leading wicket takers in the domestic season and a good bowler, with lot of subtle variations , he can be crucial in middle overs and death.

For Ages, death bowling has been a worry for the Hyderabad IPL Team. It had lost on many occasions after scoring 180 runs batting first. If they can contain the death bowing to good extent, they can win many games and look for a top 4 spot.

The first ever 4-0 whitewash by India

It has been 81 years since India made its debut in International test cricket. Though it had won many tests and series in home and a few away, never India had made it 4-0.

The first evet 4-0 result came against the Aussies, who had never had such a result in 43 years till India made it. There are many contributions that helped team India to achieve this feat.

In the first test Aussies opting to bat first made a daunting 380 in first innings,with a good century by Clarke and a fifty from Henriques. They were on the dominant part till India lost 2 wickets cheaply. And showed some fight later by taking two more. Enter MS Dhoni ,who along with Virat and Bhuvi made India get massive lead of 123.

India then bowled out Australia, and had a mere 50 runs to win. If Henriques had not scored 81 in 2nd innings, the kangaroos might have lost by an innings.

Match 2
Again its the aussies who won the toss and batted first. Bhuvi gave initial burst with 3 scalps and spinners did the rest damage. Clarke declared at 237-9. India lost Sehwag early and Vijay,Pujara added 370 runs for 2nd wicket and took away the game from kangaroos. Then Spinners made aussies collapse for a mere 131 in 2nd innings,losing the match by innings.

3rd match
The day 1 was washed out because of rain. Australia made 408 thanks to couple of 90+ contributions from Smith and Starc. India tried a new opening pair , handing a debut to Shikar Dhawan, who demolished the aussie bowling and became the fastest century maker on debut and went on to score 187 in 174 balls,he lofted very few and played all along the ground for majority of his scoring.. Vijay played defensive and made 150+ followed by his hyderabad knock of 167.

The opening stand was 289 but regular fall of wickets has made indian innings to end at 499, with kohli stranded at 67.

Its Phil huges and starc who saved aussies from an another innings defeat. Its Bhuvi who gave start with 3 wickets. Rest damage did completely by the spin trio of Ashwin,Ohja and Jadeja. The target of 133 was achieved with 15 balls leff in the mandatory overs,with contributions from Vijay,Pujara,Kohli,Sachin,MSD and India produced result in 4 days.

4 th Match
In absence of Clarke,Watto took the captaincy,won the toss,but end result was the same. Aussies got  bowled out for 262, with siddle ending as top scorer. India got good start from opening pair Vijay and Pujara. Then India lost wickets at regular intervals,with late hitting by Dhoni and Jadeja,the innings folded at 272 on day 3 morning.

It was the spinners again reducing the aussies to 94-7. Again siddle saved them with a 50 and giving target of 155 to india with 7 sessions to play.

India started attacking from the word go. Lost Vijay early. Then Pujara,Kohli bought the score to 123. Kohli,Sachin and Rahane got out quickly and the score was 128-4. In came MSD, pujara scored 3 fours and levelled the score. Dhoni hit the winning boundary and a history was made.

India Vs Australia - Border Gavaskar Trophy - Review Part 2

In continuation to my part 1 , here lets see a review of how the Indian batsman fared so far this series.

MS Dhoni

In my view, MSD can be given a perfect 10 in terms of batting this series till now. His attacking 224 of 265 balls in first test completely pulled the game away from the reach of Aussies. Also it had answered many critics that he is not fit for the Test team. From a lean phase in the Indian team's losses from the England series in England, he proved his batting skills with a 99 in last test against England , in the dead rubber draw. In the next innings he played, he showed his magic and his past brilliance with the bat came to the park. His approach was completely Sehwagish. He continued that with a quick fire 44 in 2nd test to take a big lead and pile up pressure on Aussies.

Besides his batting and keeping, his brilliant use of bowlers in last 3 innings was awsome,always creating pressure on the kangaroos. Except the Henriques show with Clarke in 1st innings and with tail enders in 2nd innings, rest all were in India's way so far. He showed defensive approach for a whole session in 2nd test but after that it was completely attacking one. His minimal use of Bhajji in 1st innings at Chennai raised many questions though. But he admitted that Bhajji's performance was brilliant in the 2nd innings and in the second test.

Pujara

The fastest Indian to reach 1000 test runs in terms of innings played(18) and the joint fastest in terms of matches played(11- Sunny is the other one). Pujara showed his brilliance with the bat in Chennai with a meaty 44 but did not capitalize the start, where as in 2nd test, he made a good start, converted it into a big score, besides batting with a injured knee, added 370 runs for 2nd wicket along with Vijay and proved that he is the right choice for a No 3 position in the team. Comparisions of him with Dravid is going on everywhere, but its amatuerish as of now. He has to prove it for a while on long run to be another Dravid or the latest wall of India -Pujara.

Virat
Virat continued his form from the last test against England at home to this series with a century in Chennai( 2nd consecutive in Tests for him and against Australia) and followed that with a cheeky 34 in Hyderabad batting with Tail enders.His apetite for runs cost his wicket, but that was a nice addition to the Indian total where the lead was huge by the time he came to crease. His fielding was awsome as usual. From the lean phase against England in first 3 games, his last 3 tests performance overcame that.

Vijay
Vijay might have failed in his home ground in negotiating Pattinson, but his show in Hyderabad was fantastic. Though he scored runs slowly in the begininning and had a strike rate of 47 for his innings, his association with Pujara for 2nd wicket , for a period of over 6 hours and 110 overs was brilliant by any means. He now became a strong contender for the opening slot and selectors might not think of dropping him atleast for the next 2 tests.

Sachin
The master blaster made a well equipped 81 in the first innings at Chennai , followed by a pinch hitting 13 in the second innings, scoring 2 sixes in the first 2 balls he faced in the innings. Though he failed in the Hyderabad test for a low score, it doesnot matter much currently. And he made another Indian record, for the most waiting time with Pads on for a No 4 batsman in Indian test history. Thanks to Vijay-Pujara Partnership. One more thing to mention is the wait he did while Vijay is coming to pavilion, he waited till Vijay came out of the boundary line just to ensure that the crowd's applause goes to Vijay for his brilliant knock.

Sehwag failed in all the 3 innings he played, all three times to unplayable deliveries from the Aussie bowlers, twice to Pattinson and once to Siddle. He might come back to his Sehwagish knocks anytime.

Apart from the top order batsman, Kumar played a vital role with the bat in Chennai , for a stand worth 140 with Dhoni and made a valiant 38 runs . In Hyderabad, he hit couple of boundaries for 10 runs but he got out looking out for runs, coming down the track. Expecting more from a No 9 batsman is not good though.

Jadeja impressed with the ball but failed with the bat scoring 26 runs in 2 innings he played. But it doesnt matter much as he claimed 11 wickets and proved his bowling skills , more than proving his batting skills. Lets wait and watch how he fares with the bat in next 2 games.

With the performance by Indians , now Dhoni is the captain having most Test wins for India, though his wins away were only 5 and at home are 17 in 45 games totally , against the previous record holder Sourav who had 11 wins abroad and 10 at home in 49 games. Though it matters a little, Dhoni is the record holder now.

Also the win has helped India rise in its ranking to 4th position now, and if it gets 2 more wins, it will be ahead of Aussies and might go ahead of England too, if England plays the way it played against NZ today.

Review by Sukumar R

India Vs Australia - Border Gavaskar Trophy - Review Part 1

With the series loss to England on thier home soil, Indian Team was in a great pressure to show a comeback performance. The reason is big for that, couple of years back, till the Eng-India series in England last year, India has been No1 ranked Test side.

In the last 2 years the test series results for India are

0-4 Vs England in England( 4 Matches)
0-4 Vs Australia in Australia(4 Matches)
1-0  Vs WI in WI(3 Matches)
2-0 Vs WI in India ( 3 Matches)
2-0 Vs NZ in India ( 2 Matches)
1-2 Vs England in India( 4 Matches)
2-0 Vs Australia in India ( 4 Matches, with 2 to play)

So, overall India's performance is shortly summarized as below, away and home.

Away : 1-8 ( 11 Matches) W/L - 0.125
Home : 7-2 ( 11 Matches) W/L - 3.5

Overall : 8-10 ( 22 Matches) W/L - 0.80

For a team which was ranked No 1 before these matches were played, is now ranked 4th and 13 rating points behind 2nd ranked England, 12 behind 3rd ranked Australia. If India wins 4-0 and England loses by any margin or draws its NZ series, India have chances to claim No 2 spot by April 1 cut off date of ICC. Hope they will try for it or atleast swap places with Australia in ranking tables.

Coming to the on going Border Gavaskar trophy, India proved its better side of the two in subcontinent in first 2 games. Hope they will continue the show and win the series against the mighty aussies who are without the services of Ponting and Mike Hussey.

Lets have a short review on the performance by these 2 sides so far in this series.

Ashwin - 18 Wickets (9/10)
Clearly Ashwin is the pick of the bowlers for India, he recovered from his bad show against England and proved he is worth for his spot in the team. This made him achieve his career best ranking and rating as well. He is the lone Indian bowler in top 10 ICC rankings for bowlers. If he continues his show surely he will be a long time player for India.

Jadeja -11 Wickets ( 8/10)
Jadeja, who was criticised by many as a player of shorter format and does not fit into longer version, despite his outstanding domestic allround records, had now got chance only to criticize his batting in the longer version and not his bowling. He played a second fiddle to Ashwin and picked up 11 wickets so far in this series.

Harbhajan - 5 Wickets ( 6/10)
Bhajji has not made much of impact in first innings of first tests by just claiming a wicket, though he bowled better than he did against England in Mumbai. In the second innings he got 2 wickets and supported Ashwin well in tandem to knock down the Aussies. In the second test, he bowled exceptionally well in both the innings though he got 2 wickets in 1st innings and went wicketless in 2nd innings ( 10-6-10-0). He piled up pressure on Aussies in the last 3 innings he bowled for India, and as a result they lost wickets to Ashwin and Jadeja.

Bhuavenesh Kumar & Ishant Sharma

Its not a surprise that Kumar and Ishant did not get much of wickets in this series. Both went wicketless in first game. Kumar rocked the top order in 1st innings of 2nd game claiming 3 and Ishant provided the crucial breakthrough by scalping Watson in 2nd innings . Both these got scalps that turned the game in 2nd innings for India.

The batting review will be posted in next post.

Review by Sukumar R