Posts Tagged ‘Praveen Kumar’

The fight for No. 1 spot: Will India bounce back?

Posted: August 2, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in England 2011
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 Eniyan V

 2 August 2011

 

The ongoing England India Test series is one of closely followed and much anticipated in the recent past. It’s expected to be a fierce battle between two strong teams, in their prime form, for the top spot in Test cricket. But, has the contest lived up to the expectation so far? Unfortunately, it hasn’t. To the exasperation of the Indian fans, bliss of English fans and disappointment of the neutral fans expecting close contest, the first two tests have been utterly one-sided – England winning by margins of 196 and 319 runs respectively.

Unlike the ODI ranking, test ranking is not officially updated after each match. It’s updated only at the end of the test series. So, India is still the No. 1 team. But, England is pretty much on course to become the No. 1 team at the end of the series. All they need is one more win or draw the remaining two matches to topple India.

Quality players are mandate for a top class team. But that is not adequate. Characters such as never-say-die and go-for-the-kill are required to stamp the authority. England has shown the characters so far in this series, in coming back from 124-8 in the first innings and scoring 544 in just 120 overs in their second innings and ruthlessly dismissing India for 158 in the fourth innings of the Trent Bridge test. England’s 7 wins (including those two glorious Ashes victories) and one draw in their last 8 test series is not just a coincidence. Indeed, England is a serious contender for the No. 1 test spot.

Time India showed their ranking was not an accident

But, what does India hold? After the annihilating defeat, India could feel shattered. Team India could be wondering what led to this. May be lack of preparation, may be the unfortunate injuries, may be poor captaincy, may be the tiring IPL, but definitely not lack of quality and character. India is not the No. 1 team without a reason. In the last 3 years, India faced all the Test playing nations except Pakistan and didn’t lose any test series, winning 8 and drawing level in 3 test series in this period. India defeated Australia twice, New Zealand twice, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh once. That’s a remarkable achievement, worthy to be No. 1 in test cricket.

India might go on to lose this series and the remarkable streak could be broken here in England. But, that shouldn’t happen without a fight. The last time India lost two test matches in a row in a series was when India toured Australia in 2007-08. But, India fought back bravely to win the third test at Perth. Such character was fundamental in the rise of India to the summit.

India should show more of such character in the next two tests. Individually, many Indian players have done well in parts. Dravid is amongst runs; Laxman has got couple of fifties; Tendulkar has got into form in the last innings; Praveen is getting wickets; Ishant and Sreeshant have done well in parts. Sehwag, Gambhir and Zaheer could be back in the eleven for the next match. All India needs to do is to regain the focus and hunger for success to stage a comeback in this series. Let’s hope the remainder of the series is closely contested and lives up to the expectation of the clash for the summit.

Trent Bridge, Day 1: Spiteful Pitch Makes For An Enthralling Contest

Posted: July 30, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in England 2011
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 Goutham Chakravarthi

 30 July 2011


A green pitch and an overcast day covered with wet clouds greeted the two sides at the toss which both captains didn’t want to lose for it wasn’t the pitch even Dr. W.G. Grace would stick his thumb into and say, ‘A hundred for me lads’. With injuries plaguing his team and with an unsettled batting order, Dhoni was relieved to win his second toss in a row and insert England.

Sreesanth made a fine come back by picking three English top-order wickets

It can be difficult to assess bowling performances in helpful conditions. Largely, Praveen Kumar settled into a good line and swung it both ways with magical control. Ishant, buoyed by his performance in the second innings of the Lord’s test, galloped to the wickets and hurled tough questions at the English openers. Between Praveen Kumar, Kevin Pietersen and Marias Erasmus, they ensured the news channels got enough fodder for the evening bulletin. Tantalizing cricket was played where fortunes oscillated between bat and ball when stumps were drawn for lunch.

The afternoon session warmed many Indian hearts as their bowlers ripped through the English middle order with great skill and discipline. They could have got more as the bowling had the batsmen in a fix: batsmen were drawn to play away from the body with the bat aslant from the swing of the ball. The pitch offered the ball more than what the bowler offered the ball when hurled to the pitch, and as a result, a tough and fine middle order was left to lick its wounds for the second time in successive innings. Sreesanth, his omission from the first test and his late swing, was debated at length in the Sky commentary box.

The test erupted into life in the final session with two free spirited locals deciding to take the attack to the enemy camp. A dumbstruck opposition recoiled and let the game drift. In a most entertaining hour post tea, Swann and Broad smashed a hitherto impressive Indian attack to smithereens. And till the maverick Praveen Kumar got one to spit on Swann and almost broke his left hand, the show looked impressive to carry on for a while longer. Broad continued in his merry way in producing a sparkling half-century in front of his home crowd, an innings that could prove to be vital in the final analysis of the match if England manage to sneak ahead with a lead after the completion of the Indian first innings.

Dravid and Laxman, key to India overhauling England’s 221, survived a testing spell of skillful bowling from Broad and Anderson. They showed their skill in encountering a difficult pitch with movement and unpredictable bounce. They took body blows and survived close shaves. Lucky as they were, they showed how to survive on this wicket. They, with Tendulkar, will be crucial for India’s chances now in this Test.

England will fancy their chances on the second morning.

India v South Africa ODI Series: A Look Back

Posted: January 25, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in South Africa 2010-11
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Prasad Moyarath

Bangalore

25 January 2011

India playing five one day internationals against South Africa in South Africa, just one month before the World Cup in India raised the eye brows of many Indian cricket aficionados. In the past, India could never do well against the hosts in the fast and bouncy pitches there. What will Indian players gain by playing matches on fast and bouncy pitches when the World Cup is going to be held in the flat batting tracks of the subcontinent? – This question puzzled many except those in BCCI. To the Indian surprise, all the matches were held on comparatively slow pitches and the Indians came out of the series winning 2 out of the 5 matches. Only the time will tell what the Indian team gained out of this series but a post mortem of this series reveals many interesting facts.

Sehwag, Praveen Kumar and Gambhir returned to India even before the start of the series with injuries. With Piyush Chawla, Ashwin and Rohit Sharma in the squad, the first two matches were looked upon by many as chances for the Indian selectors to try out these players before declaring the Indian team for the 2011 World Cup.

Team composition for the first two matches clearly proved that the selectors or the team management didn’t have any well thought out plans. Ashish Nehra looked completely out of sorts and Rohit Sharma sent in as replacement for Sehwag batted at No.4 and No.7 in the first two matches. Indians were beaten outright in the first match but won a thriller in the second despite Dhoni’s lackluster captaincy almost presenting a victory to South Africa. Even when it was very clear that India’s only winning option was to bowl out the South Africans, Dhoni kept persisting with part time bowlers and brought back Munaf only when the South Africans were very close to a victory. Luck was with Dhoni and India on that day.

Tendulkar returned to India with an injury and Parthiv Patel was sent in as a replacement. Indian team for the World Cup was announced and that seemed to confuse the team management more. Lack of a specialist opener forced the team management to thrust the role of an opener on the World Cup discard – Rohit Sharma and Dhoni didn’t have the gumption to use this contingency to test the disaster management skills of his team. He could have opened with Kohli and promoted himself to No.3. Though India won a thriller in the third one dayer through some hard hitting by Yusuf Pathan and presence of mind of tailenders, rain denied a century to Kohli and an outright win for South Africa (though they won by D/L Method) in the fourth one dayer.

Fifth one dayer showed the display of individual brilliance by Amla and Pathan. Cricket fans wondered what would have happened had Amla been caught by Ashwin at 70 and Duminy given out in the second ball he faced and rain not interrupted South African innings. Though South Africa won a thriller as shown by score card, apart from Pathan and Parthiv Patel to a small extent, none of the Indian batsmen took the fight to South African camp. Though the official Man of the Match was Amla, there was no doubt that the fifth one dayer would always remain etched in cricket lover’s memory for Yusuf Pathan’s innings.

India lost yet another one day series in South Africa but the fact that this team went down fighting even without 3 reputed players is a consolation. Indian team management and selectors never had a plan and was confused on the selection of players. They neither selected the team with an aim to win the series nor with an aim to give exposure to World Cup players. But with days to go for the 2011 World Cup, this series also exposed many weak links in the Indian side. Ashish Nehra’s lack of form and the inconsistency of Yuvraj, Raina and Dhoni are sure to create sleepless nights for the team management and selectors. Lack of a good fifth bowler was clearly visible from the way South Africa recovered several times after an initial collapse. A world class side should be able to overcome any eventuality and this Indian side’s inability to overcome the opening problem that surfaced due to the injury to openers will pose a question mark on the quality of team selection. Rohit Sharma and Murali Vijay turned out to be complete failures and it got forgotten due to the fact that they were not included in the World Cup team. Kohli, Pathan, Zaheer, Munaf and Harbhajan did something of note.

A diffident captain, a brittle middle order and a bowling attack with inconsistency written on it, this Indian side has flooded the minds of Indian cricket aficionados with doubts. “The big learning from this game is to keep wickets in hand for the last ten overs” – the parting words of the Indian captain summed up the whole picture. Did Dhoni become Indian Captain without knowing the basics of the game?

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