Season ended with loss for Team India

Certainly one of the performance which India like to forget as quickly as possible. It was written on the wall for India before the start of the match when they decide to experiment with few new players by resting experienced ones but India have to remember that they are not like Australian team which can win even with inexperienced players. So what went wrong? First of all Dhoni again proved unlucky with toss and secondly inexperienced bowling gave too many runs in Powerplay without picking up any wickets early on.

Proteas won the toss and elected to bat and as I mentioned in my earlier posts about Hashim Amla that became true as he fancied himself to near hundred but before getting out for 87 he gave the platform to Proteas to put up solid total on the board and with centuries from Kallis and A.B put them in the commanding position after their 50 overs. I was disappointed with the performance of Sreesanth whom I thought will use his experience and spear head the bowling attack It was evident from that total of 365 on the board that India will have to climb huge mountain to win this one but their dream of winning shattered when they lost 2 wickets within 1o overs and then onwards never coped up with run-rate which climbed with each over. Some resistance came from Kohli, Rohit and Raina but failure of Dhoni and Yusuf put them into defeating position. In my yesterday's post I mentioned if India have to win then Dhoni and Yusuf have to come good with bat in absence of key players but both failed with the bat and India lost the match. Important thing was India lost 3 wicket on full tosses which was even more disappointing that too of spinner.

India have to re-think on their pool of players who will be certainly playing in World Cup and have to keep irregular players like M.Vijay and Dinesh Kartik out from one-day squad who will not be playing in next World Cup because Sachin, Shewag & Gambhir will be filling top three spots and we already have settled middle order with Dhoni, Raina, Kohli, and Yuvraj will return soon after recovering from injury. So selectors have to be precise and pick players like Manish Pandey and Abhishek Nayar and give them experience to make them part of the side and will be certain to play in middle order if something happens to any batsman.

Proteas will play for pride at Ahmedabad

Indian International cricket season will end with the match to be played at my home town Ahmedabad. India will experiment with new players as they will be going into the match with six less inexperienced players at the same time Proteas will play to salvage some pride. Season has gone well for India as they lost only 3 ODIs which includes tri-series final at Dhaka and one Test against Proteas and I feel they will try to end the season with win. But if India wants to win than I think few new players have to make big contribution and this will prove that India's bench strength is good enough or not to take on International cricket. In absence of two heavy weights Sachin & Sehwag I think its difficult to win but still there are players in the team who are capable of winning matches on their own only thing required is they focus on the game like Sachin Tendulkar do. Key players for tomorrow will be Yusuf Pathan and MS Dhoni if these two guys click than India will be home provided they get little support from openers and lower order.

On the other side Proteas will try to win this match and I feel they will not experiment much with their line-up except for one or two changes and will go all out out to win this match. Its will be easier for their bowlers as they don't have bowl to Sachin or Sehwag. So I think Proteas will have upper hand. As far as Pitch is concerned, Motera wicket always helped bowlers and batsman and dew will also not be a factor here in Ahmedabad.

Something will be missing for Spectators in terms of classy stroke-making because of the absence of Sachin & Sehwag but hope that future of Indian cricket performs well in this match and make most out of this golden opportunity and create problems for selectors by providing them multiple options.

Proteas Outplayed at Gwalior

What a great display of stroke-making at Gwalior by team India which outplayed Proteas in the match and eventually losing the series as well. It was great win but yet there are certain things where Team India have to improve, as we all saw they picked wickets in first powerplay but Proteas were still scoring at 8 runs per over, fielding again was big let down as there were lot fumbles, so if India have to win World Cup and wants to achieve No.1 ranking one-day cricket then they have to improve on bowling and fielding because batsman can't win you match everytime.

Coming to the performances, I feel Proteas lost wickets because they were completely shocked with the strokeplay of Indian batters and in that awe they lost their concentration which resulted into their wickets. AB Divilliers played good knock for visitors as he was the lone man fighting that battle by scoring century at more than run a ball.

I feel Sehwag take ODIs very casually as he thrown his wicket yesterday as well like he did in entire career that' s why he is having paltry average of 34 in ODIs which is far below compared to his test average of 52. I think Sehwag has to re-think on his approach to the batting in one-day cricket because if player like him stay on the wicket for 20 overs can take the game away from the opposition and moreover his strokeplay can dent any opposition's pysche which results into more wins for India in ODIs.

I feel after 2 losses Proteas will come hard at Indians in 3rd ODI at Ahmedabad because now they don't have anything to lose and its upto India to win series by clean sweep without getting complacent as it happens in the case of India more often.

Magician Sachin humbled Proteas and World

In my last post I wrote about Sachin that he is God and he should be left alone from any comments and I must say why he is God of Cricket, he has proved once again. This time he took toll of Proteas and humbled them as well as world with his magical bat and supreme command over his innings, moreover important thing was he scored all his runs without runner which shows how good his fitness is and he again came on the field when Proteas came out to bat. With this double ton magic in one-day cricket new standards of batting has been set and it will be difficult for anybody to reach that kind standard except Sachin himself.

Whatever Sachin has done in last 20 years I feel nobody even get closer him because its impossible for human beings to reach the level of God and Sachin is indeed a God of cricket. Today when he scored double hundred few experts talking non-sense about his innings like it was flat wicket,bowling attack was weak,etc., tell me how many players got the 200 in ODI even on flatest of the wickets. Last year Rajkot wicket was flat but even Dilshan couldn't achieve that feat, Gibbs chasing 400 above target against Australia couldn't achieve it also. When we talk about bowling attack I must say South Africa is having currently best attack in world and Dale Steyn is No.1 bowler in ICC ranking. So those so-called experts have to keep their mouth shut and enjoy the God on field and must pray that he entertain us forever with his magical bat. When talking about these rubbish comments of experts I must say they have to look at their own records as well and they will get the answer that how flat was wicket and how weak the bowling attack was.

So all in all another great feat achieved by the master and in doing so he entertained us thoroughly with his great batting and I am sure lot many of the same yet to come.