August 29th, 2008
It was a hard fought win for our team and it’s creditable how they regrouped after the loss in the first match and handled Murali and Mendis after the failure of the test middle order to do that. But that this is our first series win in Lanka is just a statistical truth. India did win -and much more comprehensively- in Sri Lanka the 1998 triangular series which was called “Independence Cup” (Singer-Akai Nidahas trophy) and also a couple of other such tournaments prior to that like the Singer cup in 1994). Back then in 1998 Sri Lanka were kings of one-day cricket in the subcontinent were unbeaten at home for a couple of years following their 1996 world cup win. To beat them there in 1998 was certainly a bigger achievement.
The only way this was different was it was a two-team (bilateral) series.
This win will also raise questions about the seniors in the test side, especially from people who change their opinions based on the current latest wins. I guess some channels in India must be running debates whether now Dhoni should lead the test team and bring in the changes he is doing in the ODI side.
Prior to this series, if we look at their performances starting from England last summer, the seniors overall have done well. It will be ridiculous to start talking about their retirement based on this series. Over the last 4-5 years India have repeatedly started the season poorly when they started it in Sri Lanka. May be it’s something about the pitches there or something about the lack of popularity it has at home compared to a series against Australia, but somehow our big guns have not fired there for a while.
In the coming months we have series at home against Australia, then England. Then we go to Pakistan and then to New Zealand for series that include tests. I think that will give a comprehensive idea about the seniors. It might be interesting to see individual performances over the last year or so and I will try to go over that soon.
Posted in cricket, Australia, India, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Dhoni, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kumble | No Comments »
August 7th, 2008
Cricinfo has published a list of great performances while successfully chasing a target. To me the innings that would surely go in this list are:
Ganguly’s 98* against Sri Lanka in 2001: He was leading a depleted Indian side without Tendulkar, Laxman, Srinath and Kumble. Having lost the first test India needed 264 to win in the second. Ganguly made a 93 partnership with Dravid and then another 70 run one with Kaif to see India through and just missed his hundred while staying unbeaten.
Dravid’s 72* against Australia at Adelaide in 2003: Having already scored 233 in the first innings in a 303 run partnership with- who else- Laxman he faced a tough fourth innings chase as India was shaky at 170/4. Having seen before how India gave matches away from a position of strength especially while chasing Dravid wanted to stay there until it’s over (said so in an interview later). India went 1 up in that series in Australia. Interestingly when he hit the winnings runs the batsman on the other end was Agarkar who had opened that match for India taking 6/41 in third innings.
Tendulkar and Ganguly against Pakistan at Delhi in 2007: Now this one may not be one of the best amongst all such innings in chase but it must have had enormous importance for Tendulkar and Indian fans in general. India were chasing 203 in fourth innings and when Shoaib got them in a little trouble at 93/3 memories of Chennai ‘99 and many other matches against Pakistan popped when India lost matches it should have won. There was also more background to this - earlier in South Africa India had lost because no batsmen (except Ganguly) showed intent to score quickly or attack. But this time the 78 runs partnership between these two brought India very close. Ganguly took charge first, attacking the bowling to score runs whenever possible and when he got out Tendulkar accelerated. Whoever watched Tendulkar see India through felt some redemption for that defeat 8 years back. I am sure Tendulkar must have felt too.
Laxman 66 against Australia 2001 could have made this list but when he got out India was in trouble. To be fair with Laxman it was only he (and Tendulkar a little bit) who took the attack to the Aussies and as long as he was there the result was never in doubt. But after he got out another wicket fell at the same score and the remaining batsmen somehow managed to get there.
Posted in cricket, Australia, India, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Ashes, Kumble | No Comments »
August 7th, 2008
The first win by Sri Lanka at Colombo brought back memories of India’s wins in around 1993 at home on dirt tracks where Kapil and Prabhakar would bowl 4-5 overs and get out of the way. Then Kumble, Raju and Chauhan would resume an assault of spin on hapless touring batsmen with close-in fielders ready to catch anything that bounced off the bat. Around that India would usually bat just once where 2-3 batsmen invariably scored hundreds. India won some of those series 3-0 and were talked about very highly - how Azhar was the “winningest” captain of India etc. All that fell apart the moment India went for a tour abroad.
For Sri Lanka it hasn’t lasted even that long. After that first win there was talk about what contributed to the recent “success”, Mahela’s success at SSC and so on. It took just two spells from Ishant, a counter attack by Sehwag and a realization by Harbhajan that he could bowl better on a spinners wicket to put a stop to it.
But batting wise this has been an unusual series so far for India. None of the big four (that should now be called four of the big five even if Sehwag isn’t exactly that same generation) have scored a hundred or otherwise did something significantly big so far. What’s more surprising is it’s the spin bowling that’s caused this, unlike other series.
Time for them to click I guess. If this was the Aussies you could bet on Laxman or Sachin doing something. If it was anytime until he gave up captaincy you could bet Dravid would do something.
Posted in Uncategorized, Australia, India, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Sri Lanka, Sehwag, Kumble | 1 Comment »