Posts Tagged ‘India’

Day 2, Perth: Umesh Yadav’s five-wicket haul the lone bright spot for India

Posted: January 14, 2012 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in Australia 2011-12
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
3

Goutham Chakravarthi

It is remarkable how the Australian openers resemble Aakash Chopra and Virender Sehwag from 2003-04. Both pairs made of  a dasher and a blunter each. Running between the wickets being the stand out feature. And both middle orders benefited. Australia lost 10 wickets for 155 runs today, but the double century opening stand is essentially the difference in runs between the two sides’ first innings totals.

Talks of Cowan being a short-term solution at the top now needs to be revisited. Like in Melbourne, he left well and played to his strengths. His batting is constructed on good temperament and judgement, not too dissimilar to the construction of his prose. He complements Warner well and they seem to be a good pair at the top with their contrasting methods.

Umesh Yadav's maiden five-wicket haul in Tests. © Getty Images

It will be silly of the selectors to replace Cowan with Watson when the all-rounder is cricket fit. While the number at which he should bat should he move out of the opening slot has been a never ending debate, he might fit in at three should he have to sacrifice his bowling in order to prolong his playing days. Marsh has been flashy, but looks most likely to drop of out favour when Watson returns.

While it does not automatically guarantees success for the pair in England in the Ashes, they seem to have the tools to succeed and deserve to be given a long rope.

While the batting options might be in slight for the selectors, their fast bowling stocks seem to be ripe. While Harris has a remarkable record in the few Tests he has played, it is the emergence of Starc with his pace, movement and bounce that caught the eye on Saturday. Blessed with natural bounce, he seems to be destined to join Pattinson and Cummins and lead Australia’s attack for many years to come. And, given his composure and ability with the bat, Australia’s lower-order has the needed extra padding given the sporadic form of its middle-order.

In contrast, the Indian openers can’t seem to get off the blocks at all through this series. Nor has the middle-order looked capable. Australia’s bowling has been good and has created collective pressure. Patience and the game of attrition which defined this batting for a decade have deserted them for over a year now. Five years ago, this side would scrap, fight and find a way past the initial trouble and eventually break the bowlers’ spirits by batting well for long. Keeping good sides out on the field for five sessions and more is how India broke good Australian sides of the past, now seem hard pressed to bat for half hour without losing a wicket.

It has been remarkable how mentally unclear the likes of Sehwag, Gambhir and Laxman have been this series. All tough and proud individuals, but they seem to be battling more than just the opposition. Sehwag has been patchy and unconvincing throughout the series while Gambhir and Laxman have been busy nicking to the various slips. On good days, they leave well outside the off-stump, but not this series.

It is regrettable that after a day of good fightback by the Indian bowlers, that only the follies of the Indian batting are being debated. After a poor showing at the SCG, the bowlers have bounced back well. Umesh Yadav  rediscovered his MCG rhythm and ran through the top-order after the marathon opening stand to bring India back into a contest that seemed to be headed the SCG way. Australia struggled to cope with Zaheer’s mastery and Umesh’s pace. After a poor first day, Ishant and Vinay came back well to chip in with wickets.

Virat Kohli’s composure at the crease has been the high point of India’s insofar dismal batting display this Test. A big innings for him here will give him the confidence to blossom into a good Test batsman that he is capable of becoming. While day three of this Test in all probability will be the last day of this Test, India will hope that it will also be a day where Kohli takes his first strides in to hopefully a long Test career as India looks to the future without the comfort of the big names in its batting order.

When this Test is done and dusted, it is time India looked to the future. As Kohli and Umesh have shown, they are neither short on talent or ability.

Day 1, Perth: Warner Dances to the WACA Tune

Posted: January 13, 2012 by thecognitivenomad in Cricket, India in Australia 2011-12
Tags: , , , , , , ,
1

Chandrasekhar Jayaramakrishnan

In the midst of Test Cricketing doldrums, the Indians have been beset by yet another storm that has washed away its final chance of salvaging some pride this series.  Yet again, the Indians find themselves in a position on Day One where the result seems inevitably favoring the opposition. True enough, the mystery behind a slump in form – spanning seven tests – remains.

India’s batting collapses have been well documented since the commencement of the England tour last summer. And (un)fortunately, there’s nothing new that a writer can add to throw more light to this crisis.  It is easy to gain the impression that nothing is happening behind the scenes, and in truth, it appears as though not much was. A titanic squad on paper has been relegated to the backbenches of cricketing credibility.

Lack of faith in the current team to reverse the premonitions seem evident, and entirely rational: another short-term spark is needed to ignite the fused morale, as is a long term veteran replacement plan to throw some hope in to the future, but both seem beyond any imaginable degree of capability now. These impulses are largely altruistic – precisely the reason why a change, even though rightfully claimable, has escaped the thoughts of selectors forever. Individual interests seem to have taken precedence over larger interests.

Amidst a fierce recession in Indian standards, David Warner stepped into the WACA, with a mere four caps against his name, to rewrite record books. The intensity of his innings remains an awe-inspiring memory, given how the Indian batting had made the spectators, initially, believe that there was something in the wickets for the bowlers to exploit. Record books will indicate that four out of the seven fastest test centuries have been made at this venue – highlighting the fact that if you can play pace and bounce well, you’re likely to succeed at the WACA.

Warner feasts on Indian Curry during his way to a record breaking ton © Daily Mail

The cynical Indian will point his fingers at Sehwag for having planted the thought of Test Cricket in Warner’s mind during the inaugural edition of the IPL. Warner reminded us of a young Viru who took pleasure in decimating bowling attacks, and it is no wonder incidental that the closest shave Warner had was an LBW appeal from a Sehwag offie. Cowan, at the other end, remained solid and firm to remind fans of the successful, if brief, partnership that Sehwag and Chopra had formed during India’s tour down under back in 2003/04.

Warner delightfully gathered runs at levels and rates at which Iran perceivably enriches Uranium. And it doesn’t look as though either is likely to stop anytime soon. Warner’s willow seemed to possess the venom that the Indian pacers lacked. At times, it would have appeared cruel to be judgmental on the Indian bowlers given how Warner dismissed even good deliveries to the fence. His assault crippled Indians hopes of revival and there seem to be no evidence that Day Two would promise change in fortunes, given how implicitly the bowling has qualified cluelessness.

Warner, thus far, has looked as rigorous in dismissing bowling attacks as the Indians have struggled to cope with it. The Indian batting, to begin with, painted a diametrically opposite picture with batsmen clearly looking lost in a wicket that didn’t even closely resemble the nature as described during the buildup.

Hilfenhaus continued from where he left off at Sydney, and Starc, who’d come in place of Lyon, silenced any doubters over the four-man pace attack by grabbing two wickets. Although, in hindsight, it would’ve appeared as though playing a spinner wouldn’t have been all that bad an idea. The only resistance offered by the opposition was via Kohli and Laxman who, briefly, looked as though they were doing a decent job rebuilding the innings.

The Aussie pacers had other ideas. As did Warner, subsequently. With one record firmly under his belt, it wouldn’t be all that unrealistic to imagine the possibility of him breaking more as the Test progresses. Unfortunately for the Indians, the harsh reality of a Formula One Race lasting longer than a solid innings would give their go-karting skills little to brag over.

Preview Perth: Indian Camp

Posted: January 12, 2012 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in Australia 2011-12
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1

Goutham Chakravarthi

India stand to lose more than just the series when the third Test gets underway on Friday morning. Talks of both teams going with four quick bowlers have donned the headlines over the last two days, but they have been just a sub-text in a week dominated by Haddin’s claims on India being a side not needing much to turn on each other and Zaheer’s counter claims to it. Perhaps, Haddin folding his hands and saying, “Friday the 13th… be scared India…. be very scared…” is sillier than Hrithik Roshan calling this the Agneepath series. Even though some of the cricket from India in Sydney was pretty silly, none could match these sequence of events over the last week.

From being touted to be the best opening pair in the world two seaons ago, Gambhir and Sehwag have largely disappointed. They were Batman and Robin, Holmes and Watson, and Bryan and Bryan: irresistible and scintillating. They would thrill with their strokeplay and running between the wickets. One would sneeze and the other would catch a cold. Two close pals, one a genius on his day, and the other, a determined soul, needing each other more than ever before to turn it around for themselves and for their team. They set the tone and their form usually dictates how well India do as a batting unit.

If they can give India a good start, India will fancy their chances. Photo: AFP

Yes, in their heyday, this team would turnaround every friction, banter and abuse to its advantage. They were among the most respected and tough bunches going around. Yet, with reasons, firstly, with injuries, and now with age, the reasons for decline have not been arrived at. Some have pointed out to Fletcher’s incoming to this team coinciding with its dipping fortunes, but, the coach and the team swear by the culture and insist that nothing has changed.

The reason for India’s declining fortunes is directly proportional to its waning batting performances. India’s planning in the Tests has not been as prudent as it has been in the one-dayers. It took a hard stand to leave out the likes of Laxman, Dravid and Ganguly and groom youngsters and reaped benefits. A similar attempt in Tests has never materialized.

India goes into Perth with little confidence and/or collective form. A green pitch might guarantee 20 wickets for both sides. There in lies India’s best chance. The chasm between the sides has been Australia’s bowling. India’s bowling has been inconsistent and seems to rise and fall with Zaheer’s mood and health. Should the wicket encourage a three day Test, the result will hinge on a crucial 70 here or there, and, right now, that seems to be the best the Indian middle-order seems to be able to produce.

Over the next few days, this Indian team will not just fight the Fremantle Doctor and the Aussies for the series, but for their immediate future. While the right thing would be to blood a couple of youngsters, it is difficult to imagine this team management opting for that. For long, consistency in its team selection counted among its strengths, now, it might have come back to haunt them.

Australia go in as favourites, but the pitch might give India a chance to pull one back.

You can read preview from the Australian camp here.

Preview Perth: Australian Camp

Posted: January 12, 2012 by thecognitivenomad in Cricket, India in Australia 2011-12
Tags: , , , , , ,
1

Chandrasekhar Jayaramakrishnan

Mind games with the Aussies, much akin to the way they play cricket themselves is about attack and more attack. Rarely courteous and often lacking an element of political correctness, the ‘mind-game’ quotient is always deferential to the raw aggression at the core of their intent. The channels through which these thoughts become manifest, apart from media headlines, is via the Aussie crowds’ seascape of humor: from inflammatory jibes to stirring loud-mouthed opinions.

Australia’s most potent 12th man is the collection of chants emanating from the dry-humored men amidst the high terraces of Aussie arenas. And as the stage moves to the West, Australia’s quasi-twelfth men look as though they’d have a greater impact on the Indians than the current Australian top order.

It should be noted however that two, out of the three, top order places currently occupied are stop-gap solutions to what otherwise is a better laid plan. Injuries, and lack of a better idea, are what still keeps Cowan and Marsh at the top – although this might sound a lot lesser harsher than what it really conveys. No individual can be thoroughly judged in the context of two games, but given today’s competition for places, such thoughts become inevitable.

Perth demonstrates how Cricket is Going Green © Resource2 News

A green and bouncy Perth wicket would mean as much joy to the bowlers as it would mean misery to some of the Aussie batsmen. Given their record against the moving ball of late, it would be a surprise to see a greenish top (even if reports claim so) given how the Aussie batsmen have been found wanting under such conditions.

The selectors can afford to be cagey though, given the middle order spark of late, and decide to stick to the winning combination for the rest of the series. That would mean that further lack of runs from either Cowan or Marsh (and even Warner to an extent) would be ignominious to their reputations perpetually. And players, who’ve traditionally taken this route, ended up not witnessing further international action, or in some cases, revived their careers after a rather large period of isolation and strong domestic performances. Marsh, a Perth local, would especially want to capitalize on home soil.

In the process of admiring Clarke’s feats, the revival of Ricky Ponting and the gusty temperament of Michael Hussey, the other side of the equation – the pace bowling department’s steadiness throughout – has been overlooked. Sure, the likes of young Cummins and Pattinson would’ve relished a wicket like Perth to bowl on, but the tendency to repeatedly catalogue young, exciting fast bowlers has not ended up giving Hilfenhaus and Siddle the credit they deserve. Whether a four man pace attack at Perth would be an option envisioned is yet to be ascertained, but over-rate concerns apart, the idea may not seem all that farfetched.

Ryan Harris would be an automatic choice to fill the void left by Pattinson. Having not played since being injured during the tour of Sri Lanka, Perth would be an ideal venue to resume duties. As for Mitchell Starc, the question lingering around the four man pace attack would have to be answered before his name pops up on the team sheet. Given his height and the steep bounce he is likely to generate, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he lines up with his team mates at Perth, leaving Nathan Lyon to warm the bench this time.

Unlike Sydney, where the focus was largely on the numbers gathered by the middle order batsman, Perth would give the audiences an opportunity to witness what pace and bounce can do to unsettle batsmen. Given that age has caught up with most of the Indian batsmen, their reflexes would be tested beyond imaginable measure by the Aussie attack, which would, like the previous tests, target taking twenty wickets before the final day dawns. But with the visitors having triumphed at Perth last tour, complacency may find very little space in the Aussie dressing rooms.

You can read preview from the Indian camp here.

Day Four: The Sydney Verdict – Australia trounce India

Posted: January 6, 2012 by thecognitivenomad in Cricket, India in Australia 2011-12
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

Chandrasekhar Jayaramakrishnan

If Michael Clarke had hoped for a better start to the New Year, I yearn to know what his desires were.

Surely, a triple hundred, and the prized scalp of a legend approaching a significant landmark wouldn’t have found its place even in his wildest of dreams. Pup is not only a full grown dog now; he is a monster. And he is growing in size.

Clarke has not only answered his critics in style, he’s done it with the aura that each and every one of his predecessor possessed. He doesn’t seem as arrogant or as tough as Border, Waugh or Ponting; he’s more the Mark Taylor mould – a postulate that might help reason why he declared when he was batting on 329, with more than a couple of days left.

But what Clarke faces, rather pleasingly, is the challenge of grooming promising youngsters with immense potential to restructure a team that craves to regain lost glory. The Australian team has checked every box in the ‘To-Do list of Champion Sides’ during the course of these two Tests. They have transformed myth by harnessing promising young talent through seemingly undistinguished youngsters, and an odd ex-grounds man, who defied every limitation placed on traditional Australian selection policies.

The only drawback of this approach was over-burn, an opinion echoed by Steve Waugh during the rise of young, raw fast bowlers with limited first class experience. Pattinson’s injury blow follows the fate experienced by Pat Cummins post the South Africa series. How the selectors handle this issue would be interesting to watch. Their visitor counterparts, on the other hand, have a bigger share of headaches to address.

Some of us soothsayers may have well read the writing on the wall on the completion of Day One – that the Sydney Test wouldn’t last the five days. As much as we love to cherish the memories of Kolkata 2001, it is nice to remind ourselves every now and then that the Kolkata Test deserves its place in history as an event that no romantic would like to see a repeat of.

When the Aussies win, they win in style. And no one can take that away from them. Age didn’t seem a barrier when one witnessed the likes of Ponting and Hussey, both past their mid-thirties, steal quick singles or convert twos in to threes. In truth, their fielding standards of late haven’t been the greatest but they certainly seem more determined on the field as compared to their counterparts. An aggressive bowling line up ideally requires great support from the fielding unit, and this very thought was personified well enough. Barring a few hours of dominance from the Indian middle order, it seemed destined that the Sydney Test would end sooner than later.

A few pessimists from their camp would have shown signs of concern when both Tendulkar and Laxman, Australia’s tormentors in chief over the previous tours (and especially at the SCG), crossed half centuries and looked in fine touch. Clarke’s New Year got better when the rolled his left arm over to dismiss Tendulkar.

Clarke has been largely successful even with the ball in his hands against the Indians © The Age

Incidentally, Clarke’s remarkable bowling spells have come against the Indians – from the dusty minefield of Mumbai to the controversy-laden field of Sydney last tour. Laxman succumbed to the new ball soon after. The rest of the innings is probably not worth documenting (keeping Ashwin’s fifty in mind), given that Hilfenhaus had the last laugh grabbing a five-for to press for his constant contention to feature in the playing eleven.

Six consecutive losses away from home would do no good to any sporting team that had sat up on the Rankings Tables until not too long ago. It would be hard to comprehend how Sir Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola would react if Manchester United or Barcelona goes through lean patches. Even though the fundamental points of perspectives between these two sports differ, surely the thoughts planted are the same. And one wonders what Fletcher’s mind is experiencing now.

India’s brief glimpses of determination to succeed at what was, by any imaginable measure, a highly improbable mission is probably about the only facet that can be commended. Tendulkar’s ominous form was undoubtedly a treat to watch – it is only a pity that this couldn’t be translated into the much awaited three figure mark. Gauging how India performed otherwise, the respect for this man’s scores, over the course of the two tests, will not be expressed as overtly as the ovation he gets every time he walks in; it will be evinced through raised eyebrows admiring those deft late cuts.

That the SCG ticket sellers breathed sighs of relief after Tendulkar survived until stumps on Day Three is a testament to how much the Australian public awaits the milestone as much as we Indians do. But for the Indian fan, given the turn of events over the first three days of the Test, the contending forces were rival thoughts fighting a civil war within – does the result of the Test matter as much as a Tendulkar hundred? Or vice versa? As much as the Middle East’s inability to create any business outside Oil, it seemed as though the milestone was more likely than a favorable result.

Barring isolated shows of promise, and misdemeanor (courtesy Virat Kohli), the cricketing facts are a lot more virulent than the insinuations thrown around. History will one day point out that there couldn’t have been a better time to beat Aussies in their own backgrounds, whilst closing the curtains on two illustrious careers that were under pressure. Instead, Hussey and Ponting responded with tons. Just as strong as their responses were, equally insolvent were Indian ideas.

The body language of Indian players represented incessant tides of undifferentiated low morale. The exciting numbers thrown by speed guns pointing towards feats of Sharma and Yadav didn’t matter as it would have during the build up to the series. Neither did the plethora of runs amassed by the Indian batsmen.

The immense task of polishing their high-minded credentials, following displays of creative destruction, is one that champions do not particularly enjoy. And amidst tweets relating to the start of the year 2012 reminding many of the start back in 1999 when India toured Australia, the notion that the ‘next-gen’ players aren’t too far away from entering the Test arena offers a breath of fresh air. One can’t doubt the records that the current batsmen have, but a welcoming change is never shown a closed door as long as it is equitable.

Or maybe, we are just desperate to see a change.

Older Entries
Newer Entries