Team India eyeing series win at Edens

 

Second test match of the series between India vs. West Indies going to start on Monday 14th November, 2011 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Team India will go into this test match with series victory motto. On the other hand West Indies will look to tame the Indian team and will try to level the series. Hence, contest at Eden will become very interesting.

Team India won the Kotla test after conceding the  lead of 95runs in first innings and that must have given great confidence to this MS Dhoni lead team. Openers and middle-order batsmen except Yuvraj Singh had decent outing at Feroze Shah Kotla and got into the form very early which is very good sign. Bowlers did fantastic job for Indian team at Kotla and will certainly continue their good work at Edens as as well.

 Pitch will not be the same, as it was at Kotla, as per the curator of Eden. According to curator, pitch is hard with little shine on the top and will assist spinners on last two days of the test match which will definitely rejoice the West Indian pace battery but remember India also have a very decent pace attack at the moment and that will definitely come into play, if pitch will assist the pace bowlers. Ishant and Umesh bowled brilliantly at Kotla but without much luck, so they will definitely cherish the carry on the wicket. As far as spinners are concerned, I think bounce will assist them as well, especially R.Ashwin, who is tall and definitely use the bounce because of his height.

Everything went well for India in the end at Kotla but there were few jitters which haunted India on Day 2 of the Kotla test especially in batting and Indian batsmen have to be careful in approaching their batting and ensure that no batting collapse happen as it happened in Delhi in the first innings. India also have to plan the wicket of Shivnarine Chanderpaul because Chanderpaul is the man who has scored tons of runs against India and he simply loves batting against India. MS Dhoni and the team think-tank have to find the way to get Chanderpaul out without scoring too many runs. If Chanderpaul fell early then West Indies will not be able to score much runs.

This will also going to be a special test match for Sachin Tendulkar, if he succeeds in getting his epic hundred on  epic Eden Gardens. Epic ton of Tendulkar is much awaited among fans and cricketing fraternity but somehow it has not come so far. Let’s hope this epic ton comes at Eden. I also feel it is right time to try out Ajinkya Rahane or Virat Kohli in place of Yuvraj Singh which will give us fair idea about the new talent as well.

As far as West Indies is concerned, except Chanderpaul none of their batsmen clicked in Delhi and that is the irony of this new look West Indian team. Guys are young and this tour will going to be a good learning curve for these young West Indian players. Brathwaite, Kirk Edwards, Kieran Powell and Darren Bravo looks promising but failed to deliver so far and if West indies have to do well then all these batsmen have to score big runs and support Chanderpaul who is an anchor in this West Indian line-up. I think if West Indies promotes Chanderpaul at No.3, then this will certainly boost their batting because at the moment there is too much inexperience prevailing in that West Indian top-order. If Chanderpaul bats at No.3 then he will definitely guide the young batsmen and help them to score big runs which eventually help the cause of West Indian team but that is unlikely to happen and Chanderpaul will bat at No.5 for sure.

As far bowling is concerned, young leggie Bishoo had shown lot of promise but he has to convert his potential into performance because pitches are very supportive to the spinners atleast in sub-continent. I think if West indies drop one batsmen, either Kirk Edwards or Kieran Powell and go in with additional seamer Kemar Roach, then definitely their attack will look more potent. So according to me, they have to try 5 bowler formula.

Second test match at Eden will going to be an interesting affair as India will look to seal the series and West indies will try to tame the Indians and in between there will be an eye on great man who is on the verge of creating history.

Wait is getting longer and longer for epic 100.

 

The ‘GOD OF CRICKET’ once again missed on his epic 100th international hundred and fell for 76 at Feroze Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi on 4th day of 1st test match between India and West Indies. Wait is getting longer and longer for the epic ton. Master batted beautifully for his 76 runs and increased the curiosity of spectators by playing an authoritative cricket, especially today morning. The way Sachin was batting it looked like he will reach his goal but to his and fans disappointment, he fell well short of his epic hundred while pulling short ball of leggie Devendra Bishoo. Decision looked 50-50 but umpire ruled it in favour of the bowler and great man walked away from the ground to pavillion after putting India in commanding position but without completing his 100th ton. This shows that even GOD can’t get everything when he wants. Now fans and GOD have to wait for Eden Gardens. I think this epic hundred is destined to come on this historic ground.

As far as Indian team is concerned, they regained their confidence of playing test match which was  vanished in the last series against England. Season at home , so far has been good for MS Dhoni and his men as they white-washed England in ODIs and now won the first test match against West Indies and will be hoping to win the next one at Eden Gardens. Although first 2 days belonged to West Indies in this test match which really disappointed the fans but Indian team clawed back very well on 3rd and 4th day and won the test convincingly in just 3 and half days.

Lot of positive things happened in this test match for India as they found new hero in R.Ashwin who single handedly crushed West Indies batting on 3rd day when all were hoping of another disaster in Indian cricket. This offie from Chennai bowled with lot of guile and variation to which West Indian batsmen had no clue and fell like nine pins in their second innings. Indeed it was spectacular performance by R.Ashwin on debut. Now this performance of Ashwin will certainly jeopardies the situation of Harbhajan Singh who is fighting hard to make comeback in Indian team.

Harbhajan have played one game so far in Ranji Trophy and remained wicketless even after bowling 28 overs in the entire match. After such a sterling performance of R.Ashwin certainly selectors will not favour Harbhajan. So now it is upto Harbhajan to do something extraordinary in domestic cricket if he wants the ticket to Australia. Two more test matches to go in the series against West Indies, if Ojha and Ashwin continue their good form in next two test matches then certainly Harbhajan will go out of the schemes of selectors, so either Harbhajan have to bowl brilliantly in Ranji Trophy or Ojha and Ashwin have to bowl poorly in remaining two test matches. in only either of the scenarios. lies the chance for Harbhajan Singh.

Pacers Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma bowled with their best of the ability but didn’t get much help from the slow-low wicket of the Kotla but nevertheless both Ishant and Yadav looked impressive while bowling and given lot of hopes to the Indian team. Finally India found real fast bowlers who can trouble any batting line-up in the world. Both of them bowled  with lot of pace and line-length were emaculate. Both claimed two wickets each in the match. I think if they will get little support from the wicket then they can do wonders. Talking about Indian batting, I think Sehwag made an impressive comeback to the side, scoring half century in each innings of the test. Gambhir was bit disappointed as he got out after getting a decent starts. Rahul Dravid lived upto his reputation and bailed India out of the trouble in first innings by scoring patient half-century. Laxman as always played crucial knock in the second innings and helped India in  winning the test match. For Yuvraj Singh this test match was quite disappointing as he failed to score big runs in both the innings after getting good starts. I think time has come now to try out Ajinkya Rahane in next test match instead of Yuvraj Singh, as Yuvraj got the plenty of chances in a test team but failed to cement his place.

Dhoni’s captaincy was remarkable but he disappointed his fans with the bat as he couldn’t continue with his good form of ODIs in this test match. Overall good test match for India and they will go with positive frame of mind and confidence in the next test match at Eden Gardens.

Run-rate dipped in absence of mighty Sehwag….

 

He made his debut for India as a middle-order batsmen and scored century against South Africa at Bloemfontein in his debut game. Looking at his batting style Sourav Ganguly who was captain of Indian team during that period asked Sehwag to open the innings and after that move history of Indian cricket changed many times  and new chapters added to the history of Indian cricket.

Currently Sehwag is the most ballistic opener in world cricket, in all forms of the game. His sheer presence in the middle, creates nightmarish situation for the bowlers around the world. Nobody expected this success of Sehwag considering his unique hand-eye co-ordination technique in which footwork is minimum. But lack of footwork did not  affected Sehwag’s progress in international cricket, especially in test cricket where technique is considered above everything.

Indian team won many test matches in last decade only because of Sehwag’s quick start at the top and it is Sehwag’s brilliance which helped Indian team in becoming the king of World Cricket. Sehwag is a completely unique batsmen in world cricket not because of his style of playing but also because of his views and thinking about his own batting. There is no complication theory in his batting as ‘ball is there to hit he will hit it’ and in doing so sometimes he dispatches good balls out of the ground as well. He is having clear mind and simplistic approach which makes him stand out above all the cricketers.

Why did I wrote so much about Sehwag. Answer is simple Indian team is missing him badly  So far in 3 innings of two test matches,  Indian opening pair of Vijay and Mukund struggled badly and their pair didn’t survive for even 5 overs. So in the absence of Sehwag Indian team is missing some zing at the top but good starts are not only the factor, Indian team’s run-rate also dipped badly in the absence of Sehwag. Indian team with Sehwag at top, scored at an average rate of 3.70 runs in last decade in the test matches they played and in first session of the test match, team India scored at an average rate of 4.60 runs in last decade.

But in West indies, now , run-rate of Indian team shattered badly as their average run-rate in two test match is paltry 2.20 runs and in first session it is worst as it dipped to 1.80 runs which clearly shows what impact Sehwag has on the game when he bats. Looking at other aspect of this, Sehwag, with his blitzkrieg batting dented the psyche of the opposition bowlers which helped middle-order batsmen to play comfortably without any pressure. Hence Sehwag factor made batting  easy for the great Indian middle-order. Credit for much of the Indian middle-order success in last decade goes to Sehwag and now we can see easily how Team India’s batting and run-rate is struggling without Sehwag and that too against weak bowling line-up of West Indian team.

So Sehwag is the man for all season for Team India and lets hope he returns to cricket with England series next month and increase the run-rate once again. His batting is like rock music which force bowlers to dance on its tunes

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