Battle that Pak can't win

Sachin may have missed out on a century, but with the kind of body language and total lack of penetration that Pakistan showed for most part of today, it looks highly unlikely that they can come back and win the Kolkatta test.

Anything over 550-600 from India in the 1st innings will leave Pak struggling for a draw. Looks like everything is going wrong for the arch-rival. Lack of coordination, injury related issues, and a resurgent India have conspired to spell their doom. The 15-day-long series looks over just after six days.

That is indeed very sad. The last time one side had so comprehensively dominated a series in Indo-Pak encounters was probably in 1982-83 season. It was then that Pakistan under Imran had won the series 3-0 -- the biggest winning margin ever in the battle of arch-rivals.

Does Shoaib Akhtar still 'chuck'?

If a front page report in the Times of India is to be believed, Indian players are not happy with the action of Pakistan’s Wrecker De chief Shoaib Akhtar and have complained to the BCCI about it. They even want BCCI to take action.

As per the report, the team is particularly upset about Dravid’s dismissal in second innings when he was castled by Akhtar with a 150 kmph delivery, which cut back so sharply that it was almost unbelievable.

If Chest infection was not enough, that is another problem on Shoaib’s hand before today’s match. With this report, his action is going to come under greater scrutiny than ever before.

But then, it is perplexing that report has just come on the morning of the test. If the sentiments were so strong, they should have been conveyed on the fourth or fifth day of the first Test itself .

Other Top Five Stories (Links are in Previous Posts column on right)

Kirsten ''not yet decided'' on India's job
Taking Mind games to silly heights!
England Do have Guts!
Will India make it 2-0 at Kolkatta?
Board's Ring Tone annoys Vengsarkar

Kirsten has ''not yet decided'' on India's job

The way it has all happened, it won't be a surprise if Kirsten chooses not to accept India's job.

In a telephonic conversation with NDTV, the former South Africa opener categorically told that he was yet to make up his mind on the issue.

If it turns out to be another embarrassing no, well that will leave BCCI with ''nowhere to hide''! And, in fact, it will be quite befitting for the clandestine way the whole coach selection affair has gone.

Kumble Praises Kirsten

Meanwhile, Indian skipper Anil Kumble has praised Kirsten as ''tough competitor".

He said Kirsten's skills as player will be an asset to Indian team.

But the problem is that even Greg Chappell was an extremely skillful player, and certainly better than Kirsten.

And he was also a member of a very successful team, which was second only to the West Indies in late seventies and early eighties.

Is Kirsten already worried about Australian Tour

Meanwhile, In an exclusive interview with ESPN's SportsCenter India, the former South Africa batsman has said that he though the plan was to get involved with the team during the Australian series, but it was not intended to be on full-time basis.

To Sportscenter, he said the reason was that the notice has been very short and ''I have some long-standing commitments that I need to honour through to December and January. It’s with a view to starting full-time on March 1, if I sign the contract.”

Now the best way for Kirsten will be to come up clearly with the nature of these commitments. Else people might think he wanted to get on with the Indian team only after the toughest series in the World was over.

Taking Mind games to silly heights, Buchanan's way!

For a start, Buchanan is one of the top class coaches in World Cricket with envious record for Australia against other sides. But then he was coaching Australia! What about other equally capable coaches like Whatmore, whose reputation ended up in muck teaching teams like Bangladesh.

Take away the Australian team from the equation and put any other team, and Buchanan’s proud record will come tumbling down. That is why he never accepted any offer from any other side.

Now he has handed Australia a blueprint to castle Sachin Tendulkar during the Indian tour to Australia, saying in ‘’The Advertiser’’ that the Indian batsman is susceptible to short-pitched bowling early in his innings.

Now, is there any batsman in the world who is not susceptible to short-pitched deliveries! During the bodyline series, even Don Bradman at times felt helpless when faced with a barrage of bouncers. Buchanan feels Tendulkar's footwork has become sluggish, especially early in his innings, making him vulnerable to quicker and shorter bowling followed by the sucker punch of a fuller delivery.

Not that is the standard format for any top class bowler against any top class batsmen. Yorkers soon after the bouncers have been an art perfected by the pace brigades of almost all the countries.

Why repeat the same old things Mr Buchanan, just to keep yourself in news. Let the new Australian coach get on with the Operation Tendulkar!

England Do have Guts!

Of late, England may not be showing too much of acumen on the field, but their management is certainly showing it off it.
Despite the instances of two bombings in Colombo, England have said that their tour will proceed as planned. Hats off too their courage. In Red are excerpts from a report in Cricket365.com.

England have confirmed their Test tour will proceed as planned following two bombings in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. England's 16-man playing squad and support staff left their Colombo hotel on Wednesday morning at 8.30am, less than one hour before the first explosion in the southern suburbs of the city. An elderly disabled woman detonated a device outside the residence of Sri Lanka's welfare minister Douglas Devananda, killing the minister's personal secretary and injuring two security personnel. A second bomb was set off by remote control at around 6pm local time - approximately eight kilometres from where England had been staying prior to leaving for Kandy on Wednesday - and there were believed to be multiple casualties.
England security advisor Reg Dickason consulted with the British High Commission in Colombo after both incidents.
An England spokesman said: "There has been no change in the travel advice we have received from them, at this stage, and it has no effect on the tour arrangements.
"We always keep the tour itinerary and security arrangements under review and we won't be complacent during the tour."
Officials in Sri Lanka claimed the Tamil Tigers were responsible for the morning blast and confirmed the bomber had died.
The attacks come a day after Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Velupillai Prabhakaran gave his annual 'heroes' speech in which past members of the organisation are remembered.
In his address, Prabhakaran gave little hope of a return to peace, last enjoyed in Sri Lanka between 2002 and 2005.
The first of three Tests between England and Sri Lanka begins on Saturday at Asgiriya, Kandy.

Hopefully, Australia will take similar lessons from their Ashes rivals and proceed with the tour to Pakistan without getting too much hassled about security concerns.

Will India make it 2-0 at Kolkatta?

Going into Kolkatta tests, looks like everything right now is in India's favour. The surface is bald. Pakistan strike bowlers do not seem to be fully fit. Yo-Yo factor is yet to play its role. To cap the misery, even Misbah might not play and skipper Shoaib Malik too is a doubtful starter.

The reports just a day before Kolkatta test are not good for the visitors. Though Akhtar is seemingly on the recovery path, Pakistan will need a fully recovered Akhtar to have any impact on the game. Without him, this Pakistan attack will not look better than a Ranji side attack.

However, Pakistan can take heart from the fact that even their seemingly demoralized and fatigued side has it in them to take the battle to the Indians. At Kotla in New Delhi, there were at least two moments when Pakistan had the initiative which they went on to squander subsequently.

One when India were staring the barrel at 93 for five in reply to Pak’s 231 in the first innings, and second when Pakistan opening pair of Yasir Hameed and Salman Butt had given India such a magnificent opening stand of 71 in the second innings.

So, count out the Pakistan only at your own peril. It happened in 2005 too when after Kolkatta win, India became too complacent allowing Pakistan to claw back at Banglore. The series had ended in 1-1 stalemate.

Pak right now may be short on skill and manpower but one thing they never lacked -- the guts to make it count.

Board's Ring Tone annoys Vengsarkar

If a Television Channel is to be believed then Indian Chief Selector Duleep Vengsarkar has been asked to select Indian team for the 3rd Test after confabulations over phone. It is a move which Vengsarkar says has humiliated him.

But then it is not the first time the Board has insulted the chief selector. BCCI went all out against his newspaper columns and had told him that either he could be a writer or a selector.

If it is done, it will be the first time that a team would be selected over phone. Probably a live link would have been more appropriate in such situation.

Two reasons are said to be responsible for BCCI’s such queer response. First, the Chief Selector had requested the Board to shift the venue for the selection committee meeting, and Board chose to replace it with trin trin. Another reason was the Board did not want selectors to miss Ranji Matches.

Probably, the decision after such Phone(y) selection meeting will be communicated to media through e-mails, and not a formal press conference!

Gary, Indian team, and Indian cows

Here is nice piece by Ankita Pandey in DNA newspaper where she talks about the weird ideas of Gary Kristen about India nearly eleven years back and says life is indeed strange that the same man will be coaching the Indian team. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1135920
But the problem is, shall we crucify a man just because he had some views about the subcontinent which even India fans like Geoff Boycott and Botham have. Probably at that time, his thinking was as much flawed as that of any other foreigner on his first visit.
Still, it will be interesting to know what Gary thinks of India today. The reproduction of his comments after more than a decade will also make him aware of what to expect from his Indian safari.

Why ICL hates BCCI

Of Course, it you attempt to wean away one of the few remaining jewel's in ICL's crown, the anguish in understandable! The big brother is not playing fair for sure!! An interesting story on luring Lara. http://content.msn.co.in/Sports/Cricket/Stories/

CricketPreT_281107_1104.htm

Who is Gary Kirsten?

Ajay Jadeja was bang on Point in the NDTV discussion when he said that the job of Coach of India should go to someone who really wants it. In the interview to Cricinfo, Gary himself says he was surprised though he calls it a great honour. http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/india/content/current/story/322487.html. Kirsten’s batting experience is top class, but then coaching India is something which not many can manage with distinction. His predecessor Greg Chappell can testify to that. Whatever this man does, it will take a lot of doing for him motivate India to give a creditable performance in Australia.
However, the BCCI could have better managed this interview-by-night operation. It would have lost some time by interviewing others, but gained lots of credibility in the process.

Six reasons why Kumble can be a good skipper

http://cricketnext.com/blogs/atulsondhi/1170/2617/six-reasons-why-kumble-can-be-a-good-skipper.html


My article in Cricketnext.com when Kumble was selected as India's captain for the Indo-Pak test series. His innovativeness in the 1st test proves that Kumble has in him to become a top class leader of men.

Why 3-2 for India, not for Pak

Jaipur result was a kind of anti-climax, but the one brought in by India’s desire to give its substitutes a chance. Three-two was still a great result as it mean India have now won three of the four bilateral series played in India or Pak in last four years.

Probably, the only surprise has been why India failed to make it a dead series with two matches to spare. Had they shown little bit of more discipline, they could have even romped home at Mohali.India were definitely the superior side. They had too much in their arsenal in most of the departments, which Pak did not have.

Partnerships

If we take the Individual scores of five top batsmen in this series, Pakistan have three in the list (Younis Khan 231, Salman Butt 252 and M Yousuf 283) while India have two (Tendulkar 259 and Yuvraj Singh 272).So where Pakistan went wrong was in having match-winning partnerships. Despite some great individual knocks, they simply could not rub it in unlike Dhoni-Yuvraj Pair, who finished the job so well in the 4th ODI and took India to the victory in the 1st match. The duo had two century partnerships in both the matches in the final stages, which proved to be the big difference. They were threatening to do it once again yesterday, before Yuvraj got a shocking decision.

Old pros prove their worth

Against a side brimming with confident youngsters, Pakistan needed to strike well against two old pros – Tendulkar and Ganguly. But while Tendulkar made two big, telling statements, Ganguly too came up with two useful knocks at Guwahati and Kanpur, which ensured that India’s momentum will not be halted. Imagine India’s chase without Ganguly’s 39 at Guwahati after Tendulkar had been snared cheaply. His 82-run partnership with Gambhir then did ease India’s nerves and helped them to a 1-0 lead.

Opening woes

Four opening pair in five matches thanks to Akmal’s dismal form did no good to Pak’s confidence. Probably, Afridi could have been utilized better in the closing stages of the chase at Kanpur, than as opener. Tactical errors and failure to have a quality opening pair cost them dearly. There looked to be a definite confusion regarding some positions in the batting lineups.

Left armers

For India, It is rare to have three-left arm pacers playing all the matches (Save the dead rubber match), and they complimented each other so well. If one feared that the attack will become uni-dimensional and predictable in the absence of a righthander, it simply did not happen.

While RP has been little costlier with six runs per over, his six wickets including the most important one of Butt at Gawalior, ensured that Pakistan were always struggling. Pathan with five wickets and an economy of 5.6, and Zaheer with five at an economy of 5.1, delivered well at critical stages.

Spinning web

Magical Kartik-Harbhajan in tandem -- the Australian series was not a fluke after all! Their combined economy of 4.5 from 56 overs before the final dead rubber match had been a great feat against a middle order boasting of the likes of Yousuf, Younis, Malik and Misbah. Failure to dominate the middle overs against them just hurt Pak too badly. Before the final showdown, even make-shift spinner Yuvraj Singh had given away just 30 runs from his 8 overs. And his economy was 5.5 after all the matches – still quite respectable. Pakistan spinners, both regular and makeshift and traditionally so strong, were simply no match for the Indians.

Discipline

Pakistan gave away as many as 116 extra runs in the series compared to just 86 by India. Take away leg byes and the figure comes to 88 for Pak and 55 for India. So India were little more disciplined side, and it helped! Incidentally, the matches at Mohali and Jaipur, that India lost, they had given away quite a few extras. The hosts’ tally of highest extras came at Mohali, at 26.

Statements and acts

Shah Rukh Khan, during a TV chat with Rameez Raja, praised the camaraderie between India and Pakistan team and lack of acrimony on the field. Well, that was also one of the reason for Pak defeat.

From their statements and various acts, the Pakistan side never looked a patch on the aggressive outfits of yesteryears. Imagine Afridi apologizing to Gambhir two years ago! Then the tactical blunders like Shoaib’s comment before the do-or-die battle on his fitness. Pakistan could have done with more aggression.So a series win for India with one match to go was no surprise at all. They could have even made it 4-1 or 5-0, had they shown little more discipline at Mohali, and chosen to experiment a little less at Jaipur.