NZ-India: Fifth ODI

India lost another dead rubber. This has been a trend with India for last few series and should be corrected if India wishes to become and stay at #1 ranking in world. The way ICC ranking works a dead rubber is as valuable as any other game in terms of gaining/losing points and treated equally.

For a change in this series, India batting did not fire and whole team was out before playing out the allotted overs. The batting lineup appeared to be on auto-pilot with none of the batsmen except Rohit Sharma trying to apply themselves according to the situation and play slowly but steadily. The batsmen need to realize that not all pitches would be batsmen friendly and there will be times where good old accumulation will be more useful than slam bang cricket.

After batsmen, it was bowlers turn to disappoint as they struggled to maintain tight line and length. It was as comprehensive and emphatic loss as could be.

The only silver lining that one can see is that this loss will keep Indian team grounded. Now they won’t be complacent in test series and would know that in case they slip, NZ team is good enough to take advantage of that and can cause upsets and surprises. Such a pathetic display in Tests could have affected India’s chances of win in test series in NZ after a long time very badly. Hopefully team will be more watchful now.

The flat pitches

There is a lot of hue and cry in English media about flat pitches being made in WI in the current series. Media has been blaming defensive attitude of WI team bemoaning that they are interested in playing for draw only and pitches and playing tactics are designed just to achieve that.

One could understand the frustration of English media with how the series has shaped up so far. Nobody expected WI to give any fight to England. But now WI has a very strong chance of winning the series, leave alone drawing it. English media has not been able to come to terms with reality of its team’s strength and looking for excuses to downplay pathetic display of English cricket team.

I am not sure why would people blame pitches in WI. We had one result, one game had very close finish and it was defensive tactics by England which led to WI escaping with draw. In the current match also, England made a very slow start when they knew they need to win this match to square the series. They just managed to score just 258 on first day in 90 0vers. There was clear lack of intent on their part, so how is this fair to blame WI pitches and team for defensive tactics.

WI had series lead before the final test and it was expected that they would be content with draw and onus was on England to force the pace and look for result. They have clearly failed in doing so. 

And why would having dull draws in test cricket lead to death of test cricket. There have been more results in Test crickets in this decade than ever before. Teams score quickly resulting in higher scores and bowlers getting more chances to get wickets resulting in more results than draws. Test cricket did not die when we used to see more draws so how come these draws are going to cause death of Test cricket. I can understand English media’s grief on losing the series but England losing the series does not lead to death of cricket esp. when we had some great test cricket last year between India-Aus and another great match is in progress between Aus-SA.

Instead of bemoaning WI tactics, English media should question team preparedness and players’ attitude. When was the last time the super heroes – Flintoff & KP played a match winning inning – be it tests or ODIs? They are merely showmen who play a good inning once in a while and the whole media goes ga-ga over them.

From a  neutral observers’ attitude this series was between two teams ranked 5 & 7 respectively in the world and cricket was of the quality of the lower rungs team as expected and result is not surprising as though teams are looking closely matched but WI has shown more intent and hunger to win.

 

<Update> On the last day of the last test, England showed some intent and aggression to force a result and they nearly got the required result. Had they applied themselves more in the earlier part of the series, the result could have been different. But as  things stand today, they are #6 ranked team in test cricket.

NZ-India: Third ODI

India won the third ODI too to take a 2-0 lead in the ODI series. The Indian batsmen fired again and in the end the margin of victory came out to be a pretty decent – 58 runs.

NZ gave India a good scare towards the beginning and end of run chase. The start they got from McCullum and Ryder had made the chase look achievable before they had a couple of run outs. Towards the end, Mills & Southee again created a scare as they kept up with the asking rate for quite some time. The drama in Patel’s over and Pathan coming over to complete Patel’s over resulted in the breakthrough India was looking for.

The first ball which was no-balled in that over led to heart burn for Indian fielders and expectedly so. It was no-balled after it was caught and batsman had refused to go. If it was a no-ball, umpires should have signalled it immediately and not waited for batsmen to “appeal” against it. Had NZ went on to win the match, there would have been a lot of hue and cry over this and Indians would have felt cheated.

In the first half, Indian batsmen dominated NZ after a slightly sluggish start and India made highest total scored in NZ by any team. Nearly every batsman joined the party and hit big shots at the expense of NZ bowlers. Sadly, Tendulkar was forced to retire hurt and he could not take a shot at 200 in this form of cricket.

Among the Indian batsmen, nearly all of them had at least one good score in NZ so far except Gambhir. He has not yet fired in any of the games so far and it will be critical for India’s success in Test matches for him to have some confidence and form before we start test series.

NZ tried well yesterday and the total was always going to be too large to chase and the best they can get from this series is a draw. So far, India has dominated them and it looks unlikely that this is going to change now.

NZ-India: First ODI

India beat NZ quite comfortably in the first ODI. This is how it happens when Indian batting fires and this is how it is going to happen on this tour. India batting did not do as well as expected during T20s and India lost both of them but this is not going to happen all the time.

India made explosive start with Sehwag at the fore-front and he tore apart Kiwi bowlers from the word go. The rain break also does not seem to affect him and India kept going at steady pace. Tendulkar was the first to go. NZ is among the few places where Sachin has not scored any ODI century and he should correct this in this tour which is his last in all likelihood. On his dismissal, Dhoni walked in at #3, an interesting move which I would take up in another post. Yuvraj struggled a bit on this pitch but after his dismissal, first Raina and then Pathan combined well with Dhoni and took India to a big total.

NZ innings started poorly with hero of T20s McCullum out cheaply and never got the momentum to challenge Indian total. The rain break also came at a very inopportune time since a wicket had just fallen which increased required total in D/L calculations. Meanwhile, Indian part spinners bowled well and restricted NZ top & middle orders.

Overall a thoroughly professional display by India.  I still believe that NZ team is much more competitive than we saw yesterday and they would still give India a good fight in this ODI series. The series is far from over and Indians should not get complacent after winning the watch so easily.

SL Cricketers attacked in Pakistan

Today we saw a shocking incident in which terrorists attacked SL cricket team while they were on their way to stadium from hotel for cricket match. This was a professionally planned and executed attack and highly audacious since attackers were aware of the fact that SL team would be well guarded and still they went ahead and attacked SL cricket team.

My initial reaction was that probably cricketers got struck in a cross fire and were not direct targets but after reading the reports it is pretty clear, they were the target of attacks. This is going to have a long term adverse impact on cricket in subcontinent not just Pakistan.

We have always believed that terrorists will never target cricketers in this part of the world as this will result in them losing people’s sympathy. This used to reduce risk perception to cricketers in our eyes and the only perceptible risk was that cricketers can get struck between a crossfire unintentionally and this can be handled by controlling their movement when they are here. But when terrorists have decided to mark cricketers to be their targets then they are just sitting ducks and this can happen anywhere not just in Pak but also in other sub continental countries.

Lets see what kind of impact is there on Indian cricket due to this. As far as Pakistan goes, it is pretty clear, we are not going to see any major cricketing nation visiting it for some time now.

NZ beats India again

McCullum played a key role as NZ beat India in 2nd T20 International also. With this result NZ has maintained their clean slate against India in T20 Internationals. NZ is clearly a superior side in this format under the conditions and they will be tough to beat in ODIs also. India would have settled by then and acclimatised to conditions better, hence I think India would be a 3-2 winner.

This match was much closer that previous one and at one stage India looked like in a better situation to win it but McCullum's composure under pressure clinched the game for his team. Hopefully India will maintain the trend and keep improving with each match and soon we will see India leading in ODI series.

NZ tour starts

India began NZ tour with a loss in first T20 international. Not a surprise since NZ is very competitive team in shorter formats and Indians did not get any practice game. It was very similar to last year’s Aus series when India got thrashed badly in T20 international but came back to win ODI series. Like the last time, Indian team tried to impose itself on the opposition and win psychological points for a long battle which remained ahead. Last time, it went very badly and India lost the T20 comprehensively. The result this time is not that bad.

This match has actually given me hope that India would do better than I initially expected in this series. Indian batsmen did not feel much uncomfortable on pitch and scored freely though they went overboard in trying big hits. If nature of pitches remain same over the next weeks, India would be favourite to win test series though ODIs will still be close affair.

In terms of team composition, Irfan looks to be a liability and Praveen or Munaf would be a better choice. In batting, Rohit Sharma is slowly becoming a problem as it has been a long time he has played any useful inning. He had a great opportunity yesterday and he should have stayed on the crease and stabilized the innings with Raina but he missed another opportunity. Hopefully, Yuvraj will get into his elements soon. NZ tour would be a great opportunity for him to cement his place in Test side and also make people stop talking about his records on difficult pitches abroad.

Will ICC ever approve ICL?

I doubt if this is going to happen. And the reason is not BCCI as projected by everyone but insecurities of all ICC members. Though in short run, BCCI is the affected party as its market is getting affected immediately but in long run, ICL has the potential to affect all boards and even finish off ICC.

Indian Cricket market is huge and can sustain two parallel leagues. Though BCCI will be affected if ICL is approved and its profits hit but it will still be profitable. A rebel league in other markets can finish off the member board itself. Consider the scenario that ICL is approved and it looks for growth beyond India. Of course, Pak and BD are going to be the first targets and it is very popular in pak also. What happens if it schedule matches in parallel with any international series going on in Pak? Won't PCB be hit? Some of its players may prefer to play in ICL depending on returns and it will slowly be curtains on Pakistan's international cricket.

The country most hit would be Eng. Its local season is from Jun-Aug when it is typically off-season for most countries. An extended season of ICL or any other league in parallel with English Season with most of world's cricketers available to play will surely kill English season and slowly whatever control ICC has on cricket will be lost to corporates. Is this bad, I do not know but this is the reason ICL is facing issues and not because of BCCI only.

The reason I belive private leagues will overrun ICC's version of cricket is that traditionally Cricket administrators have been very poor in handling business issues and this is the reason most of the boards are facing fiscal issues and are dependent on one country to bail them through. A private league like ICL will have professional handlers and is bound to have more commercial success than cricket run by ICC administrators.

PS: I saw this statement in one of the articles on Cricinfo - "The ICC recently drafted new rules on official and unofficial cricket making it virtually impossible for future ICL models to come up but these rules are effective in June. The ICL request falls under existing rules, which state: "In the event of anybody wishing to stage an 'unofficial cricket event', ICC approval should first be obtained before full members could release their players for the event"."
URL - http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/icl2008/content/story/390559.html

In future there cannot be ICL like leagues as this is what all member countries are scared of and even ICC and they are trying to nip this in bud itself.

Eyes Wide Shut!!!

Ponting & Aus team got fined for slow over rate against NZ in the first test of the series. This is the fifth time Aus and Ponting have been penalized this year but the penalty that he has been getting is miniscule fine. For same offence, Sourav Ganguly and Collingwood have been handed match-bans by ICC match refrees but when it comes to Aus and Ponting, same person takes a different view altogether and ignores previous breaches.
Chris Broad was the referee during Ind-Aus series and also during Aus-NZ series and in two consecutive matches he handed out penalty to Ponting but forgot that if same offence is repeated within twelve months, the level of penalty increases though he applied the same rule while penalizing Sourav Ganguly. In case of ponting, this is the "five-peat" of the same offence this year but he still gets away with a light rap on his knuckles.
ICC - Wake up. You cannot fool the biggest market like this and more people realize the double game that you are playing, more irrelevant you become in cricket affairs and more legitimized BCCI's attempts to control Internation cricket become.

The farce in Kanpur

Yesterday we saw farcical ending to Ind-Eng ODI at Kanpur and it is hard to fathom why it ended this way.
The Stadium has flood lights, then why can't these be used when match is being played with white balls. We could even had a full 50 over match if lights were allowed to be used. Not sure why would ICC let captains decide this when cricket administrators have provided them all amenities to continue play even if natural light is low. So, both the captains are clearly at fault here.
If officials were aware that floodlights are not going to be used then either they should have reduced lunch time or reduced number of overs to be played. If 45 min are lost, it means a total of 11 overs should have been reduced and play indeed went on for 89 overs. I am not sure if they went as per ICC rules on this. If so, then these rules need a relook soon.
After ICC world cup and NZ-Eng match earlier this year, it was expected that ICC would have reviewed they way lost time is handled but clearly, ICC has not done its job well. Whether it is officials or rule book, something needs to be reviewed again.
I sam some blogs and media reports which blamed BCCI and Indian officials for this fracas. I do not understand this. BCCI does not control weather and sunshine and it has provided floodlights on this stadium to ensure game can be played. If ICC rules allow people to overlook those facilities, it cannot help anything.
The good part in this drama was that both the captains were aware of D/L coming into picture later in the day. MSD was carrying the scoring sheet for D/L with him and KP made sure that he used all his premium bowlers earlier in the chase and not later. At the time the match was called off, Flintoff and Broad were left with one over each and Swann had bowled out. So, KP gave his best shot to keep the Indian reply in check. But Indian team is far too strong for England under these conditions that they still won it comfortably.
Even if weather had not been a factor, India would still have won it. MSD wasted a lot of deliveries to ensure his wicket is intact because he knew that it was important to just stay there. Under normal circumstances, he would have played faster and India would have won with bigger margin.

Will Ricky Ponting be the same batsman?

Since the time McGrath & Warne retired, not only has the aura around Aussie cricket team diminished but also there is one more casualty that has not been noticed much and that is - Ricky Ponting's batting form. He has averaged way below his career average since Ashes 07 and he averaged way more than his career average in years 2005 & 2006.
This is true that Aus has mostly played against India since then and Ponting averages poorly against Indians. Still the dip is significant (avg 45 as compared to nearly 60 earlier).
The difference could be due to team situation and additional pressure of ensuring higher totals in the absence of Mcgrath and Warne. He knows he does not have the bowling attack to get opposition out cheaply and thus takes less risk. Moreover with the retirement of Gilchrist and Langer, his team depends far more on him than ever before and he cannot score as freely as he used to. I believe once Matt hayden calls it a day, their would be further slump in Ponting's batting form. Aus is slated to play 14 tests over next 8-9 months and they will give us good picture of how he shapes up now.
Till some time back, it was taken for granted that Ponting would end up with most batting records when Tendulkar retires. He may still end up with some of them though those will be pretty hard to get on current form and if Tendulkar gets selective in playing matches and focuses on test cricket only, even those may become further difiicult.

Gautam Gambhir penalized by ICC

Here is one more example of an Indian cricketer being penalized by ICC whereas cricketers from other teams primarily Aus, Eng and SA go scot free for similar kind of behavior on the field. There is a long history of ICC and BCCI playing games of oneupmanship and ICC has thrown rule book very frequently on India cricketers to settle their score and also to make people believe that India board has lots of money but not a good cricket team even after having deep pockets. This makes people think that BCCI is just busy in minting money with no regards to Cricket development. Whenever Indian team starts doing well against any of top nations, we see India cricketers getting penalized for minor infringements affecting their morale and performance. Sample this:
1. India beats SA in a test match for first time in SA in 2006-07 series. Sreesanth is fined.
2. India beats Eng in test series to go 1-0 up. Sreesanth is fined.
3. India beats Aus in T20 world cup Semi-final. Sreesanth is fined.
Incidentally, Sreesanth was a stand out performer in all these matches, and in match against SA, Andre Nel openly bad-mouthed him but still match refree chose to ignore that.
In the current series, Zaheer khan has been bowling very well and he has been fined already. Gautam Gambhir is the leading scorer and he has been banned for the crucial final test.
In the past decade, we have seen many cricketers who have good records against Aus being targeted by match officials on flimsy reasons and troubled with disciplinary actions - Muralidharan, Shoaib Akhtar, Harbhajan, Sourav Ganguly to name a few.
Aus cricketers openly call themselves aggressive but when it comes to taking action, ICC only targets Asian cricketers for aggressive behavior as if Aussies are saints on the field.
ICC mostly turns blind eye towards transgression by other cricketers esp Aus. During 2007-08 Aus-Ind series, Ponting was penalized for slow over rate in third test (Perth). Link: http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ausvind/content/story/332294.html
For some reason, this does not figure in the list of breaches that are listed on ICC website - http://icc-cricket.yahoo.com/about-icc/breaches-and-penalties-2008.html
In the current series, during 2nd test, Aus bowled only 85 overs during the day + additional half hour. This is 5 overs less than overs specified (90) and Aus took 30 min extra too. So why was no action taken against Ponting now. Since the same breach happened again within a year, if ICC match refree had taken cognisance of that, then it would have resulted in a much higher penalty this time - may be a test match ban on Ponting but match refree chose to keep his eyes shut on this.
ICC needs to mend its ways pretty quickly. By denying Gautam Gambhir his rights of natural justice, ICC has further lost its credibility in the eyes of Indian cricket fans and it comes across as subservient to Aus cricket board once again. It was in best interest of Aus to get Gambir out of last test and they have ensured it through back doors that he does not play in the final test.

Twenty20 for 20

The last week's events in Antigua culminating in Superstars' win can be summed up as Allen Stanford's show from start to finish. He looked like the master of all he surveyed. He ensured that batsmen played with black bats, had full access to players dressing room and also had WAGs for company.


See this story in The Sun - http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/cricket/article1864808.ece
He literally had English cricket in his lap :) (pun intended).


The whole event was nothing more than a publicity gimmick for him and he got better returns than he expected. Yes, he invested $20m into this but in my opinion, he got better returns than he or anyone else anticipated.


The kind of publicity that he got through this event would be worth much more than he spent. The result of the match (Superstars bt England in a one-sided encounter) would give everyone in WI a false hope of WI's cricket revival. Even sane people will forget that winning a match classified as exhibition does not make WI team a good team, leave alone great. But Stanford's spin-doctors would ensure that people in Antigua see him as a philanthropist who revived WI cricket. People will start comparing this result with drubbing that WI teams of 80s used to give England in their heydays.


It is ECB and english cricket which seem to have lost out from the drama of last week. In terms of quality of cricket, it was a pathetic display from English side who seem to be thinking more about how to spend the winner's cheque or how to behave after they have won. Giles Clarke used to call himself as champion of Test cricket, now he has no place to hide. English cricketers have emerged as money-hungry and whining sportsmen. They were seen as a side on upswing during their last series against SA but played as a club side during the match.

After watching this show, I fail to understand why does ECB has issues with its players playing in IPL? If they can play 20-20 in WI for a large amount of money, then can do the same in India as well.

I have been reading articles about BCCI becoming dominant body in ICC and trying to bully other cricket boards using their financial muscle. In this case, Stanford used his financial muscle to make ECB swallow its pride and made them and english cricketers a laughing stock. Not sure if the whole thing is worth it.

IPL: Battle for Semis still open

After yesterday's results, the battle for semis in IPL is still open and three teams (Delhi Daredevils (DD), Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Mumbai Indians (MI)) are still in contention for last 2 places.
Yesterday's matches seem to have gone as per script of a thriller with all possibilities still open. Had there been any change in result, at least one or two teams would have booked their place in the semis and remaining matches would have become redundant and only for academic purposes. Had DD lost to MI, both CSK and MI would have qualified irrespective of result of the other match and had CSK won, they would have qualified irrespective of result of the other match. It could not have been better with the two slots still open at such a late stage of the tournament. This is going to be an exciting finish to a superb tournament.
Out of these three teams, MI looks to be having the worst chances as they need to win both their remaining matches and one of them is against the Rajasthan Royals (RR), currently the leading team in the tournament.

A day without IPL

Yesterday's match between Delhi Daredevils (DD) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) got abandoned due to rain. This was the first match to be abandoned in IPL. It knocked out KKR from race for semis and also hurt DD's chances of qualifying for the semis.
The race to semis had become very interesting and it is a shame that this match has tilted the balance for some of the teams.
Moreover, this is the first day after more than a month when there was no cricket match. I really struggled to find something meaniningful to engage myself hoping that this does not happen again. Delhi has another match tomorrow and hopefully weather won't intervene then.
What will happen after the tournament is over on June 1? I have become highly addicted to it and would love to see it going on beyond June 1 as well. It will be terrible to see the same Soaps on TV after June 1 in place of IPL.