Monday, October 14, 2013

The First Match Stolen By Australia With Excellent Batting

It was a day night match on a batting friendly newly built Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. Australia team is in India for a 6 ODIs series. The second match is Jaipur. Rest four matches will be played at Mohali, Ranchi, Cuttack and Nagpur respectively.

It was a nice decision taken by Australian Captain George Bailey to opt for batting after winning the toss. And he played a captain's knock by making brilliant 85 runs in 82 balls. Indian bowling was totally ineffective against Australian batsmen throughout. Only two bowlers who were able to control run rate were Jadeja and Ashwin and to some extent non regular Yuvraj and the young pacer Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.

Overall Australia was in total  command in all three areas - batting, bowling and fielding. Australia put a solid challenge of 305 runs for India to win that seemed to be an uphill task once the opener Shikhar Dhwan and middle order batsmen Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni and Jedeja could not prove themselves. 

Sunday, October 06, 2013

IPL 2013 Finals: Mumbai Indians Batting Says Battle Is Won

202 runs by Mumbai Indians when invited by Rajasthan Royals in the Finals of IPL 2013 being played at Delhi's Feroze Shah Kotla Ground. It is a fantastic performance by all seven players who got a chance to bat. On this batting friendly wicket though Rajasthan Toyals have fair chances of performing well and winning the finals but chances are bleak to break this jinx of 10.10 runs per over.

Sachin Tendulkar was first to go at 15 made off 13 balls with 3 fours. He was bowled by Shane Watson on he third ball of fifth over. Dwayne Smith made 44 off 39 balls with 5 fours and 1 six. He was next to go on the fourth ball of 12th over bowled by Tambe. Score was not in a very good condition when Rayudu departed in 14th over on 29 with MI score on 109 for 3.

But then it was bombardment from captain Rohit Sharma (14 balls 33 runs, 3 fours and 2 sixes), Keiron Pollard 10 balls 15 runs, 1 four and 1 six, Glenn Maxwell 14 balls, 37 runs, 4 fours and 2 sixes.  Karthik made excellent 15 runs on 5 balls with 2 sixes and Harbhajan was handy with a six in 2 balls he got to play.


Sachin Tendulkar: Last Match In IPL: 6 Oct 2013

Last IPL match of Sachin Tendulkar being played at Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla ground and is the finals of IPL between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals. Two stalwarts - world top scorer Sachin Tendulkar representing Mumbai Indians and Rahul Dravid, the third top scorer in both the formats of cricket in world (ODI and Test Match) representing Rajasthan Royals. RR won the toss and decided to field first. Sachin Tendulkar opened the bat with Dwayne Smith and got out on 15 made in 13 balls with 3 fours on 3rd ball of 5th over of the game being bowled by Shane Watson.

Bye Sachin from IPL and have greater moments of your life ahead.





Saturday, August 24, 2013

Zaheer Khan: Negligible Chances To Get A Place In National Indian Cricket Team

Last match that Zaheer played was in Kolkata - Test Match against England.in which he had bowled only 31 overs and taken a solo wicket. Zaheer has a chronic issue of fitness and that is why he has never been consistent in the team for a long time. Even for the matches  he has played, fitness on the field has mostly been the issue and hence he has not been able to throw long spells. 

After not getting selected for National Cricket Team Zaheer went abroad to France for a fitness trip along with Yuvraj Singh. Both have been back recently and in a press conference both have announced about each other's fitness and readiness to join Indian Team. In fact Zaheer has been reported to lose 6 kgs of his weight during this fitness session in France.

More important is again how he performs on field rather than his fitness claims. His consistent performance is also very important in forthcoming 4-5 domestic matches (if he gets a chance) and then he can claim for his place in national team for SA tour. Also critical is that during his absence so many more talented bowlers have got a chance to demonstrate their skills and hence are strong contenders for their place in the team.


Bowlers like Siddharth Kaul from Punjab, Ishwar Chand Pandey from Pune, Stuart Binny from Karnataka, Jaydev Unadkat from Saurashtra, Umesh Yadav from Maharashtra, Ashok Dinda from Kolkata, Mohammed Shami from Kolkata and many more in the making are giving strong competition to Zaheer. Big question is whether to give a place to Zaheer for a couple of years more or give a chance to more talented newcomers to groom them for the forthcoming International challenges.

Chances of Selection of Yuvraj Singh For National Cricket Indian Team Are Negligible

Looking at the new crop of batsmen it seems very difficult for Yuvraj to find his place back in Indian Team in any format be it Twenty-20, ODI or Test Match. Moreover Yuvraj has never been a very consistent player. He has definitely blasted many a times and has turned a doomed Indian innings into a match winning. At times he has also shown his bowling skills in all formats of the game. But being out of cricket for more than 6 months now due to fitness issues has given a golden chance to many new highly skilled aspirant entrants who have made a strong impression to get a place in Indian Team.

Cheteshwar Pujara, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja and so on - the list is long for the newer generation batsmen who are strong contenders to grab a place in Indian Cricket Team.

In any case even if Yuvraj contends for his place in the Indian Cricket Team - as he has done in a public press meet recently after returning back from his fitness tour from France; he will have to show his consistent calibre in 4-5 domestic matches first in order to convince selectors and to avoid and controversy of getting unwanted favor.