India vs South Africa Tests - Wrap Up

What an awesome 2nd Test Match at Kolkatta. It was a perfect marketing for Test Matches that make us to say "Tests are Indeed the Best". One team was fighting for survival and other trying to force a win. Both were fighting hard to win the series...good bowling and splendid batting by Amla made the series hard fought.

I wish this was a 4 Test series or atleast 3 Tests. But at the end of the day one can't complain since from a full ODI series this was converted to a 2 test series.

Is India really the un-disputed No. 1 ? Many of the hard core fans will be Yes. I am more than a hard core fan....but I would say ~NO~. Its 'coz of multiple reasons:

1. We are yet to WIN a test series against SA in the last 10-12 years. We haven't beaten them at home or abroad. Strange but true.

2. Need to win a test series in Aus, SA and also in SL. We have beaten them at home, but not in away series.

When they were No.1 - the Aussies won everywhere. They even beat India a few years back. Same with SA - they beat Aus in Aus (2008), Eng in Eng last series and also won many other away series.

Until India wins the abroad series rather than winning the "odd" one test, I don't think we can call ourselves un-disputed no.1.

I reiterate we need a few good fast bowlers and a good batting allrounder (aka Ganguly or Kallis) to start winning "series" away.

On a closing note - Just look at the way the Indian Team and fans reacted after the win. This passion is not found in ODIs or T-20s. That really explain how much they enjoyed the test win. Come on BCCI...make India play more tests and give Chennai & Kolkata a test (minimum) every year.

Test Cricket is here to stay !!!

India vs. South Africa Post 1st Test

Wow....Steyn and co. did walk their talk....SA just thumped India. It was an awesome team performance by SA. Amla and Kallis took care of the batting. Steyn and company including Harris (who was made to look like Lord Harris....damn it) took care of bowling out the Indians.

My earlier blog and predictions were 100% accurate. India really had to blame their bowling for allowing SA to get away from a start of 6/2. I don't understand the obsession with Bhajji and Ishant...these 2 really need a break. One 4-fer against Bangladesh doesn't put Ishant back in form. Bhajji struggled even against BL.

Sehwag commented that Bangladesh won't be able take 20 Indian wickets in a test match. Now the tables are turned....with this bowling line up its almost certain that India won't take 20 wickets - unless Zaheer and Sreesanth (assuming he plays the 2nd test) do some magic along with the most important thing in the match "the pitch".

It was unfortunate that Rohit was injured before the toss and the blame fell on selectors for not picking an extra batsmen. I thought Srikanth (chairman of selectors) gracefully accepted that they may have made a mistake....how many of the past selectors have done that ?

Gambhir had a rare failure - we must accept that he may have some bad days....others were not consistent - those who played well in the 1st innings didn't in the 2nd and vice vera....lack of consistency hurt us. This showed how badly we missed Dravid and Laxman.

I hope Laxman is fit for the 2nd test...however I am not worried about our batting....its our bowling which is looking terribly weak.......Ian Chappell was right......no wonder he was a great thinking captain for Australia.

Come on India - prove me wrong....else its going to be 1-0 to SA after a fighting draw in Kolkata.

Adios...............

Australia and Pakistan @ Down Under 2009-10

Hello and welcome to Ram Koundinya’s Blog. This time am gonna cover the on going series between Pakistan and Australia in the Down Under.

Pakistan
3-0 in tests and 5-0 in ODIs loss to Australia…if this is not enough, Pakistan’s captain Afridi is suspended for 2 games. Can it get any better than this ? It can for most teams but certainly not for Pakistan.

After the 5th match, when Afridi had to confront the match referee, this is what he had to say “I am bored of playing for Pakistan and losing match after match. Yes I bit the ball…I mean the cricket ball and I plead guilty to the charges”. He also added “Now I can take a quick trip to India and plead Lalit Modi if I can be squeezed into some IPL Team. I am not sad that we lost 8 games to Aus…but I am extremely hurt we can’t play in the IPL.”

While Younis and Yousuf have been fighting it out with one another to see who wins the battle to score least runs, Kamran Akmal has been practicing so much goal keeping that he has forgotten to catch a cricket ball. Insider sources tell us that he has now signed a deal with EPL as a goal keeper now that IPL has shown the door to him. EPL County is now hoping (and praying) that Kamran atleast catches the bigger ball.

Yousuf said at the presentation: “Bis……….Rahim…..sabse pehle I want to thank Afridi for what he did. We were desperate to make an impact in the series…leave a footprint in Australia….since I was sitting out (dropped) for the last match, am happy Afridi did it for all us…he left his teethprint.”

Former captain Younis Khan wrapped up “yeah we were keeping up the tradition of Pak cricket…we need to create some problem or the other in every series….we are the 1st team to prove that we can tamper the ball with teeth…am happy the boys have done it again….keep it up guys….”

PS: There is a secret going around that the best team award for unity will be going to Pakistan…

What next Pakistan……?

Australia

They should be extremely happy after winning 3-0 especially with the support of 2 Umpires + 3rd Umpire + 1 Match Referee. Australia esp in Australia would be thankful to this support staff – match after match…year after year. Hard to imagine what it would be for them without these guys. Time and again the Aussie commentators talk about role modeling, sportsmanship, good behavior etc that the Australian players follow. Some classic examples are McGrath, Ponting, Steve Waugh, Shane Warne etc etc. Its high time other countries pick these things up and give it right back to Aus.

Ponting said “Winning is all that matters to us. Even if I edge a ball and it takes 45 degrees deviation, I will wait for umpire to lift this finger…I mean his index finger not the middle finger. I expect opposition players to walk off even if we take a close bump ball catch – to me that is sportsmanship.”

Talking about the Ashes, Ponting said “yeah I am confident we can beat the Poms when they come to Aus – after all we have a good support staff here. But I am waiting for the next Ashes in England. I want to lead this team there for the 3rd time. I want my name in the record books as the only captain not to win Ashes in England…”

World No 1 team….upholding the true spirit of unsportmanship….

Pakistan bashing is silver…….but……Aussie bashing is Golden…

Any or all quotes and facts in this article may be wholly or partly fiction and is purely intended for fun (but you knew that already by now…don’t you?)

As always any feedback is highly appreciated….

India vs Bangladesh and South Africa Test Series

Hello and welcome to my Blog. I will have a quick round up of India vs. Bangladesh before talking about the tests against the Proteas.

India vs. Bangladesh
A series which India expected to win 2-0 did really happen. Barring a few hiccups like the 1st test batting collapse and last test where Tamim Iqbal played out of his skins, India played the cricket expected out of them to beat BD. Still a lot of areas to improve like fielding, catching (less said about them – the better) and ofcourse bowling. Our bowling lacks sting and if we are to become a top test team we need to add fire power in our bowling to take 20 wickets consistently.

India vs. South Africa
South Africa have a balanced team with 4 bowlers + Kallis the all rounder. However their batting is a bit brittle – Prince is a liability at the top of the order and Duminy is struggling for form. SA are known to struggle against quality spin. Warne had great success against them and so did Swann in the last series. So Amit Mishra will be key in my opinion. Harbhajan must start flighting the ball if he wants to be successful in tests again….can’t expect to pick up wickets if he throws darts like in ODIs. I feel we are missing a good aggressive off spinner.

In the batting front, with Dravid and Yuvraj out of the tests, it’s a wonderful opportunity for Vijay and Badrinath to make a statement. They have loads of runs in the domestic tournaments to back them up and its time to translate them into match winning performances for Indian team. This will also inspire confidence and test the bench out, once the middle order retires in the next few years.

I hope Dhoni picks Mithun in the 11 instead of Ishant. But I know Dhoni will go for Ishant citing experience and improvement in the tests against Bangladesh. I feel Ishant is down on form badly and he needs time off from game. Else he is gonna be a canon fodder for South African batsmen who like ball coming on to the bat nicely and at a good pace.

I do hope that India plays Harris positively and not treat him like Lord Harris like what transpired in the previous tour to SA.

Do we miss anyone ?
In a country of 1 Billion + people, am sad that we are not able to find someone like Kallis – primarily a batsman and who can bowl good 15 overs of seamup in a test match day. We have many batsmen in India who can spin, but I feel we miss a seamer in this mould. This could really help in the balance of the team irrespective of home or away tests…more so in India since we have the habit of playing 2 + 2.

My Playing 11
Gambhir, Sehwag, Vijay, Tendulkar, Laxman, Badrinath, Dhoni, Mishra, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Abhimanyu Mithun

2 Tests Only ??
Why do India alone play these 2 tests series ? Last year against NZ as well only 2 tests were scheduled which was luckily changed to 3 by cancelling the practice matches. A Big gun team like South Africa comes and we should be playing atleast 4 tests. But at the end of the day, we should be happy – an only ODI series of 5 matches which was originally planned was changed to 3 ODIs and 2 tests included after Tendulkar’s and Dhoni’s request to include more tests.

X-Factor
Abhimanyu Mithun from India (I hope he is in the starting 11) and Morne Morkel from SA.

My Prediction
I am going to stick my neck out and say 1-0. 1-0 to whom is something you’ll all have to guess and let me know. I’ll let you guys experience the suspense for next few days. But trust me this series will be pretty closely fought.

As always any feedback is highly appreciated….