Archive for the ‘Cricket’ Category

Old Trafford T20I: Rahane and Munaf Impress As India Falter

Posted: September 1, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in England 2011
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 Goutham Chakravarthi

 1 September 2011


Stories about the square being changed from East-West to North-South greeted us as part of the renovation at Old Trafford in the build-up to the game last night. The people had turned-up in numbers and they witnessed a tight finish that England controlled beautifully in its chase. Grey clouds and cold weather not withstanding, there were some sparkling performances by some of the new players on both sides.

Rahane impressed on his debut

Ajinkya Rahane has hardly made a mark in IPL so far but for a game this season where he controlled a chase magnificently from the middle order to win it for Rajastan Royals. Yet, he possessed the confidence of a man coming with two centuries in the Emerging Players’ Tournament in Australia. He looked at ease against this English side on a slow wicket. He cut and pulled with equal ease and handled the spin of Swann and Patel with the confidence of a man who deals with them on a daily basis for his bread and breakfast back home. In short, he hardly looked out of place on his debut and looks a good bet now to partner Tendulkar at the top of the order in the one-dayers.

Rahul Dravid looked like the Rahul Dravid that I saw a lot of at the Chinnaswamy in the first edition of the IPL as captain of Royal Challengers – he looked out of place when having to force the pace. He looked to play a lot of big shots to rotate the strike and was missed by Kieswetter (he can’t keep wickets to slow bowlers from what I saw yesterday) early. When the struggle of Dravid looked familiar, he pulled it back like he did in the second half of the first season – by hitting Samit Patel for three straight sixes. He got out immediately after that, but it will be remembered for him scoring a hat trick of sixes, a feat, I can’t remember him achieving in any other format of the game.

Raina is comfortable with whatever is thrown at him in this format. He again held the innings together on either side of two spectacular collapses and still threatened to push India to a total close to 190 at one stage.

Dernbach was impressive for England even as Bresnan didn’t look very keen for the game. His control over his highly talked about back-of-the-hand slower ones mesmerized the Indian lower order that continues to battle collapses in all formats of the game. It is a worrying trend and it will be interesting to see how Dhoni and Fletcher work a way around this problem and also try and fix their fifth bowler issues. Dernbach, here, took full toll and floored the Indian tail with his slower ones and quick length deliveries. Indian had to settle for a much lesser score at 165 than what they looked good for at one stage.

England controlled the chase beautifully. It was a wicket that suited this Indian attack – slow and low. Pietersen and Kieswetter threatened to take the game away from the Indians when an impressive and unlucky Munaf pulled it back for the Indians. Long left to the sidelines all through the tour, Munaf showed good skills with his range – slower cutters, nip-backers and a good yorker – and troubled all English batsmen. He accounted for Kiestetter and Dhoni accounted for Pietersen with a quick flash leg-side stumping.

Morgan is highly regarded within the IPL circles as well for his ability to adapt to the varying demands of T20 cricket. He crouches so low, you wonder if he picks what the bowler is to bowl by smelling the wicket! In the over immediately after Pietersen got out, he smashed Rohit Sharma for two fours and a six to practically seal the game forEngland.

Morgan’s range of strokes and his general feel for the shorter format might make him one of the prime contenders for the captaincy post for both one-day and T20 cricket sometime in the future. That is a debate that might be inevitable should Cook or Broad look out of depth.

England’s vision for each format is impressive and it shows in the teams they have selected for T20 and one-day cricket. It is a summer where little has gone wrong for England. They have easily been the most prepared of the two teams all through the summer and look good for more given the nature of India’s mental state.

India is still looking for its first win over England this summer. They will have to be more disciplined and better prepared to put one over England on Saturday.

Old Trafford T20I Preview: A Glorified Practice Game

Posted: August 31, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in England 2011
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 Goutham Chakravarthi

 31 August 2011


A one-match T20 series sandwiched between four Tests and five one-dayers hardly serves any purpose. With also the accepted norm of there not being more than three T20I games in any country each year, perhaps it is a reflection of it being just a world cup format at the top level.

Rahul Dravid will make his T20I debut

India, as can be understood, have not picked a separate team for the lone T20I game. With Dravid and Tendulkar having expressed their disinterest to partake in international T20I games, it was expected to be left to the young guns who have had a good time of it in the three warm-up games, to take charge. With Gambir, expectedly going back home, and BCCI, expectedly not having someone on stand-by, Rahul Dravid, Indian cricket’s most abused cricketer, will make his T20I debut in a couple of hours’ time.

It must be a tough one for the Englishmen as well. Stuart Broad, the T20 captain for England, will want to try out some of the cricketers in his pool in preparation for the world cup in Sri Lanka next year. Some of the young guns like Jos Buttler were on display on the domestic T20 finals day over the weekend. The inclination is clear from the Flower camp that this game (and the two additional games at the end of the summer against West Indies) will be used as a testing ground in the quest for arriving at the best combination for next year’s world cup.

India will use this as game to test their combination ahead of the one-dayers. It is quite incredible to think that they had picked a squad where it is difficult to fathom who would bowl the fifth bowler’s quota unless they wanted to play five bowlers, which isn’t how India plays its cricket. Ravindra Jadeja’s call-up will ensure that India play four bowlers plus Jadeja.

Also will be interesting to see India’s batting order for tonight’s game. With Tendulkar opting out and Dhoni returning to the XI after opting out of the warm-up game against Leicestershire, one of Rahane or Parthiv Patel, who opened the batting in that game, will have to sit out of this game. This might mean, Rahul Dravid will have to open the innings on his T20I debut! Perhaps he would prefer opening in this format than having to bat at 5 or 6.

A lot of the Indian bowlers are used to playing a whole lot of T20 cricket. Expect India to use a lot of spin to counter what the young English batsmen might have to throw at them. Ashwin will bowl a lot with the new ball and late in the innings. He is a clever bowler who relishes a fight. A good show in the remaining leg of this tour might earn him a berth in the Test squad against the West Indies in October. Scratch your head as you might wondering how limited overs’ performance can sew a Test spot, but then, that is the Indian way.

The weather coming to September in England will also be a big factor. The wickets, India will hope, be tired at the end of the season and will aide spin. Night cricket in the north of England might be quite a challenge for the Indians who are used to the warmth of the Indian sun.

England will hope the scars from Tests will still linger and India will hope the arrival of a new set of players will change their fortunes. Both teams will use this match as a stage for two separate reasons – England to test their pool for the world cup and India for the one-dayers – which begs the question if this will just be a glorified practice game?

Time India Groomed Its Youngsters For The Future

Posted: August 30, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, Opinion
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 Srikrishnan Chandrasekaran

 30 August 2011


Indian cricket players have failed to make an impression on any of the three key areas of cricket during this series (batting, bowling and fielding). Each of these attributes fell short of their standards day after day and each one of them is interconnected to the other. The series has shown not only lack of preparation from our players but also their responsibility towards alerting their board on their fitness. They really forget about the billions of people who will be cheering them up on their matches.

The time has come for Indian cricket board to form a team for the next generation. The series against England gives the opportunity to the selectors to pick the right talent for the coming years. The trio (Sachin, Laxman and Dravid) have been serving Indian cricket marvelously over the past two decades, but are now more closer to the end than ever before. Therefore it is imperative for them to groom the younger generation to build a stronger Indian team before they make their way out.

Time is running out on India's big three. It's imperative they groom the next generation before they leave,

In the recent times some of the top emerging teams have got a higher proportion of young blood with an eye to form stronger teams for the future. The Indian team needs to work out a plan to reduce the one man dependency either on both bowling and batting. Retired cricketers like Kumble and Srinath need to come up with a plan to design young talent into spirited and well organized bowlers. May be, putting Kumble’s blueprint for Indian cricket into practice could be a good place to start for the board.

Out of Sachin, Dravid, Laxman and Sehwag, only 2 or 3 of them should be picked up in the playing XI. These players have already proved to the world how wonderful players they are and immensely contributed to the Indian cricket over the years. The next 2 years their focus should be towards building a stronger Indian team for the future. Many players can score centuries or win tournaments for the country, but only few players can sacrifice and help to build a strong team.

Each of these experienced players should be ready to play at different batting positions in the test cricket to give the opportunity for the young generation to play along with them in the Test cricket. This will really help to groom 3 to 4 young players into the team. Players like Kohli, Raina, Mukund, Rohit should be given more opportunities to transform their talent into performances in the longer format of cricket. As these young players are very good on the field, they will also improve the fielding standards drastically.

On the bowling front Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Ashwin have shown enormous talent and proved their selections match after match. Apart from these 3 players Ohja and Amit Mishra have improved a lot. These players should be given additional guidance and enough chances to be in playing XI.

Wishing the Indian cricket all the very best and expecting the Kumble, Srinath, Ganguly and Gavaskar to train and utilize the right talent to form a next generation cricket team so that the fans around the globe will enjoy the immense talent the Indian youth have on offer.

An Exciting time for Indian Coaches and Selectors

Posted: August 27, 2011 by thecognitivenomad in Cricket, Opinion
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Sridhar Divakar

August 27 2011


It’s a pretty interesting time for selectors and coaches in India. Our Cricket Team which was considered World Champions in both formats of the game has just been dethroned from their No.1 status in Tests. Next milestone for the opposition will be to win the ODI series. A victory in this series will help them assuage their pain caused by the dramatic draw in the world cup. But getting back to the point that I started this article with, this really is an interesting time to be a coach or selector.

An angry press reacts in the extreme after the whitewash in England

A few months back, this team looked like a fantastic batting unit. It had the perfect blend of Experience and Youth. The bowling department seemed well stocked. The fielding standards too had reached levels never before expected from an Indian outfit.  It seemed that the national coach just couldn’t do any wrong and that the national selectors had finally picked the perfect team. Underneath the national level, was this matrix of myriad players, coaches, selectors, officials etc. who really felt as though they didn’t have much to contribute. They felt their current system had succeeded in creating a world champion team anyway.

Post this recent Test Series against England, or post what must have seemed like an eternity to the entire Indian outfit in England, every damn person(read coach, selector, columnist, player etc.) is talking or writing about the national team’s performance (or the lack of it!). The regional coaches and selectors have suddenly seen a silver lining through the dark English clouds. Overnight they have turned into these experts who always knew what was lacking in the Indian cricket system and what had to be done. It’s just that they were not given the chance.  The Tactic now – point fingers at any one of the millions of flaws that the Indian team displayed during their appalling performance. These critics, who seemed to be taking responsibility for Indian cricket success just a few months ago, seem to have cleverly shifted over to the side that is throwing criticism, now that the national side has given a dismal performance. And there is this resurgent media interest in finding out what exactly was the issue,  which has given them (critics)another shot at getting famous.

When times were good, no one seemed to have noticed flaws that, in any case, were inherent to the team

Funny!! Very funny indeed.  The point I make here is, if these people were so well aware and so concerned, where were they before the start of the series. A Zaheer Khan’s selection to the TEST squad was not debated before the start of the series in spite of him not having enough match practice. A certain Suresh Raina’s preparedness against the short ball was just not paid attention to after India’s World Cup victory. Yes he did play well in the West Indies. But those were different tracks. And he was playing against a shorter, comparatively inaccurate and slower set of bowlers. Where were the critics then? People were dying for Sehwag to return as if he has been blessed with the art of getting runs even after he was out. How else can you justify his selection to the team and the consequent silence of Indian cricket fans? All these men are supremely talented –no doubt. On their day, they can demoralize any attack in the world. But even the great Achilles practiced before a war. There is this certain mindset and this certain physical state that each player gets into before any important game. The Indians probably reached that state on the 3rd day of each test. And by that time, England was in command.

And now that the series is over, these millions of self prophesized experts slowly creep out in the open and bathe in the limelight of a vicious loss. Pretty sad picture for a country that breathes cricket. I am not saying that we should just sit back. No. This is definitely the time to act. But if only we had acted earlier. If only these realizations had dawned upon our selectors, coaches and players earlier. We would have had an outstanding series. And I feel cricket India owed this to fan – the simple aam aadmi whose craze fuels this game’s growth in this country.

It’s time to take advantage of the opportunity that this series drubbing has lent us. As an ardent fan of a game that has time and again shown what a great leveler it is,  I urge all you experts to come forth and draw up a plan, irrespective of which level you operate in in this country. Create a concrete development process, define selection and player fitness policies, improve the standards of pitches in india, pay close attention to sports medicine and nutrition of players. There are hundreds of things to be done. Instead of giving interviews and writing columns, please invest you time in such exciting endeavors. Be part of this exciting process of transformation. You know people are hearing you out. There is just so much you can achieve now.

At times I wonder why I gave up playing so early in life. I could at least have ended up as a coach or selector in some small club in some small town in India. And this would have been the time I would have been waiting for!

What an exciting time for selectors and coaches in India!!!

Day 5, The Oval: England complete whitewash as Swann grabs six

Posted: August 22, 2011 by thecognitivenomad in Cricket, India in England 2011
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Chandrasekhar Jayarama Krishnan

Head of Cricket, The CouchExpert

22 August 2011

 

There is a growing sense that our best days as a Test Cricket Superpower are behind us, and that England, currently is in the driver’s seat to ride on this throne for the foreseeable future. A sense of anguish seems to dominate any conversation that runs around India’s future in Test Cricket – the consequence of a whitewash whose coffin was nailed at The Oval.

There is, of course, some truth to this concern. Even Real Madrid’s 5-0 loss to Barcelona last December wouldn’t have had enough quantity of remorse to outweigh that suffered by the Indians lately. If at all anything was common, it was that both the Los Galacticos and Indians succumbed to the presence of sheer class amongst their opponents, coupled with bad errors of judgment intrinsically.

England dominated the series with the aura of a historical superpower that has never been colonized. The script of the fourth test could’ve well been written before the first ball was bowled at the Kia Oval, but what was heartening to see from the Indians, for a change, was resistance of some sort. Dravid’s defiance had thrown seeds of hope in to the Indian dressing room, two of which managed to last through a session without having its wicket thrown away.

The media-frenzy of a Tendulkar milestone that dominated headlines preceding this series is likely to continue until it is reached

Tendulkar’s near-repeat of his World Cup Semi Final innings against Pakistan, one filled with numerous chances that the opposition failed to grasp hold of, and Mishra’s battling (and splendid) innings – one that had to have had the other ‘batsmen’ hang their heads in shame- saw India through their first session without losing a wicket. Mishra’s guts, and temperament, are now widely endorsed with a large section of the Indian public willing to forgive him for lack of ideas while bowling – only to tout him to contention for the number six slot as a batsman.

That it had to end this way for the Indians was a certainty. A curious selection towards the end of the series had depicted a thought, or even a belief, that the Indians were as adept in conference rooms, where selections were made, as their players had been on the green wickets of England. Indeed, the uncontrolled fall of morale, confidence and the exposure of weaknesses and inability overshadowed all imaginable pretenses – not least helped by the fall of seven wickets for a paltry twenty odd runs to bring this series to a close.

Some of India’s most exciting one-day players were victims of the English soil’s greenish vengeance. Less gullible but no less feeble were the bowlers who ran out of ideas at the rate at which gas-guzzling SUVs drink fuel. Predictable responses to events of such drastic inconvenience hovered around packed calendars and lack of preparation – but lack of application, barring Rahul Dravid, stood out among the key culprits. England played brilliantly well, no doubt, but was made to look even better by the hapless Indians at various instances during this series.

England’s progressive rise in performance of their players, with Swann completing the cycle with his dominant performance in the second innings of the final test, picking up six, pretty much summarizes their state of confidence. A few of the statistics from the recent past – backed by innings victories and large integers – plant a scary proposition to the rest of the world: they’re right on top, and there seems to be no roads that descend anywhere near the British Isles.

It may now appear ironic that Man of the Series Stuart Broad was a doubtful starter at Lords, owing to his unimpressive form leading up to the series

Broad’s consistent lengths throughout the series, ones that would have made even the best of the long-jumpers proud, and high scoring cameos with the bat earned him the Man of the Series award, one for which there existed many a contestant from the English dressing room. Dravid, from the other dressing room, was parsecs ahead of any other Indian in terms of achievements this series. That, in itself, is a reflection of how the series eventually panned out.

Most of the Indian players, subsequently, will have to bite the bullets once the post-mortem verdicts are out; not that most of these facts aren’t known anyway. Some of their ‘shorter-format’ skill sets have probed in and out like Somalian pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Apart from the self-inflicting damage that it has caused to most of them, more than anything else, it has left a billion sullen faces staring at this plight back home.

On the contrary, the Englishmen have found themselves a bed of roses to recline on – their tale to reach the top of the rankings, followed by a whitewash of the previously reigning champions, couldn’t have had a better script in the making. The quality of their quests henceforth will decide whether they build their fortresses across the globe in sand or stone. They have had a remarkable time stamping their intentions, but the real game of governing unconquered territories is about to begin this winter.

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