Indian Premier League Cricket

Can India comeback from such a situation?

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:38:24 +0000

It wasn’t a least bit surprising that the Indians collapsed in a heap as they did in the second Test match at Trent Bridge. The 319-run loss was so abysmal that the fans have the right to question whether there was something wrong with the Indian team before they went there.

Barring Sachin Tendulkar and to an extent, Harbhajan Singh later, the side was totally bulldozed by fast bowling in such a way that used to be the case in the late 1980s and the 1990s. Most batsmen had no clue about the swinging ball and some others failed to play the one that bounced over the chest height.

It was rather interesting to see that after all the effort put in by Suresh Raina to play the short ball, he undid all of that with the shot that he played. Yuvraj was worse off, as he continued to struggle to come anywhere near being technically good against the bouncer.

But the biggest worry for the Indians will be the form of the captain, who has looked as out of sorts as he could.

Can the Indians comeback from this situation?

Will Sreesanth, Amit Mishra play second Test match?

admin — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 09:52:38 +0000

There is a big question mark hanging over the selection of the Indian team for the second Test match against England. with the match only two days away, things will really become messy as one hopes to be a fly in the dressing room of the Indian team.

One thing is for certain, it will be foolhardy to play Zaheer Khan in the second after what the Indian team went through. Until and unless Zaheer can bowl the entire day in the game between the second and the third Test match, it will be difficult to expect him to make a comeback.

Instead, the side can go for S Sreesanth who will bowl quick. Plus, if he can get the ball to swing, things will look good; only problem is that the Indian captain MS Dhoni doesn’t get along too well with Sreesanth and it will be interesting to see how the two of them go.

Harbhajan Singh’s selection is a bit of a question mark as well, but for now, chances are that he will play the second game. Amit Mishra may have to wait longer.

England will be favourites against India at Lord’s

admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 05:15:21 +0000

India will take on England in the first Test match of the series at Lord’s. This is the first time that the Indians are touring England in four years, after having won the last two series – one at home and one in England.
England will thus be gunning for revenge, against the top ranked side in the world. However, they are no less competition; having ended at the third spot in the Test rankings just behind South Africa. A series win here should push them over South Africa.

They will hope that the Indian performance against Somerset can be repeated again at Lord’s although they will know that the Indians were trying out different things with the bowling. It is the batting that will be a bit of a worry.

India hasn’t had a long stay at the crease for some time now, with the last Test series being in the West Indies also being a difficult one for the batsmen. They will need a big score and only then will be they be able to stave off the English armada.

Mumbai cricket going Delhi’s way?

admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 05:10:18 +0000

Here we go with the politicising of the entire cricketing setup in India. The Mumbai Cricket Association elections have been won by Vilasrao Deshmukh, beating the other candidate in fray, former cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar.

The news should not come as a surprise, after all, even before Vengsarkar, there were politicians ruling the MCA and that had led to a mess that the association finds itself in.

A former champion side, the Mumbai team has been struggling to reaffirm its dominance in international cricket and it is no surprise that apart from Sachin Tendulkar, Mumbai has no representation in the Indian cricket team either.

The situation, if not stalled could go the way of Delhi. There are rumours of nepotism there, and the fiasco with the pitch at the Feroz Shah Kotla has been so bad that they have been banned for one year from international cricket. There is a politician at the top there as well.
Clearly, the Mumbai cricket seems to be set to be headed that direction.

India will need bowlers to do well

admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 05:03:23 +0000

Given the way the Indians have bowled on the first day of the warm up game against Somerset, they better be careful of the first Test match once again.

India’s record in first Tests hasn’t been good, because not only their batsmen but also their bowlers have failed to get used to conditions everywhere.

This has led to the bowling coming under a lot of hammer and allowing the opposition to get with many runs.

What the Indians will need is a much better performance than the one on display against Somerset. What will worry the fans is that the Indian bowling for the first Test match will probably have only Zaheer Khan from this game, and he needs a lot and lot of overs under his belt to get fit.

And the others like Ishant and Praveen, who have not played too much in England will not be playing a single warm-up match before heading into the first Test.

So, will the Indians be able to get their first-Test match monkey off their back?

Sangakkara’s outburst leave many questions unanswered

admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 05:00:20 +0000

Things could get interesting in Sri Lankan cricket! Kumar Sangakkara who has painted the town red with his criticism of the way the board is running in his country, may have a lot of answering to do because his country’s sports minister has criticised him for panning the administration despite being a contracted cricketer.

The problem is that the board or the administrator know that they cannot afford to lose Sangakkara as a batsman in the team. Banning him seems to be the best way of punishing such an offence because a fine of a $100,000 may not affect Sangakkara too much.

The question now is why did Sangakkara not reveal all of the criticisms immediately after the World Cup? Why has he come out now, so many months on and that too on a rather surprising stage? He could have easily had a press conference where he spoke with the media about the grievances he had?

Does Sangakkara not trust anyone – neither the ministry, nor the board and the media? Many questions to be answered!