Mumbaikars will rather be secure, than brave

Mumbaikars deserve a pat on the back. They are indeed our role models. Despite all the riots and terrorism, they come back again and again, and with all their might. They are quick to bury the ghosts of fear, delivered by an inept political system, as they wage the battle of livelihood on almost daily basis. But do they have any alternative?

Given a choice, many of them would like to settle in less expensive, less congested and more secure cities. But is there a choice? The lack of many attractive employment opportunities elsewhere may be forcing many of them to stay put and battle it out.

Terrorism in trains, pavements, and hotels fails to deter them. But bravery is less of a factor here. Their, and families, lives are so much intervined with these means of livelihood. They have to be brave. Simply no alternative. They are like people travelling on two-wheelers, who know that roads are dangerous for such vehicles, but still forced to travel by them.

Given a choice between bravery and safety, one would not be surprised if there is 100% vote in favour of safety. And that is what the political system needs to deliver. So that people are not forced to make supreme sacrifices in future. The families of martyrs will surely be proud of them, but secretly they would also wish that 26/11 had never happened.

A nightmarish session for Lankans

Call it the Pressure of chasing over 600 runs, call it some poor shot selection, call it never-say-die spirit of Sreesanth -- the fact is that just one good session by Indian bowlers in the current series has put India on the top. Going by the way things have gone in the morning session, SL could well be playing their second innings post-tea. Unless, J2 factor comes into play again.

Sometimes, just one good session is what it takes for a team to turn the series on its head. And India had to wait for good 22 sessions for a session like this. In contrast, Lanka took four or more wickets thrice in a session. 1st was on the 1st morning of Ahmedabad test, 2nd was the first session of day two at Ahmedabad, and third was yesterday evening at Kanpur when India lost 6 wickets post-tea while Lanka lost Dilshan.

Out of these four sessions won by the bowlers in their battle against batsmen, only one can be dubbed as a real genuine one when none of the teams were under any pressure. That was on day one when Lanka had India reeling at 32/4 at one stage. Immaculate line and length by Weledegara doing all the damage on the morning of 1st test.

The other three performances were more due to complacency of batsmen, or the fact that tailenders were batting, or the sheer pressure of a massive total. Still all credit to Sreesanth for ensuring that Sri Lanka remained on the back-foot. He showed tremendous attitude and application. At times, it takes just one inspired spell to ensure that the fate conspires against the opposition.

Lanka may believe that they were little unlucky that their edges rattled the stumps, while edges during indian innings missed stumps by miles. But they will also accept the fact that it was poor shot selection, and even poorer feet movement, which led to the dismissal of some of their highly-rated batsmen. Lanka have a very steep climb from now on, and it will need a miracle for them to draw this test. Just one poor session may have done them in.

Indians don't disappoint on dead track

The pitch for the first 5 sessions of Kanpur test has been an absolute beauty to bat on. The exploits of top six Indian batsmen, especially the way they scored their runs, shows how easy it was to stay and get runs at a healthy average through classical strokes alone. The Top six batsmen scored 612 runs, with as many as 171 coming from Cover region alone.

The right-handed batsmen in the Indian team (Sehwag, Dravid, tendulkar and Laxman) completely relished the opportunity to score some easy runs, and played some authentic cover drives. 117 of the 378 runs of right-handers came from cover region alone. The top right-handed batsmen played more in front of the wicket. The area between Cover and Midwicket accounted for 251 (66%) of their runs, while the areas between square leg and Point accounted for just 34% .

Ditto for the Left-handers. 54 runs off the blades of Yuvraj and Gambhir came from Cover area, while 40 were scored off mid off region. The track afforded the opportunity to assault the Lankans with minimum risk. And the top six batsmen did accomplish that with great merit to put India in a position of extreme strength. A position from where the hosts simply can't lose.

Dump such tracks

In normal circumstances, I would love to see the belligerence of Sehwag, poise of Gambhir, method in Dravid's display, genius of Sachin and artistry of Laxman. I welcome the very sight of them outwitting the bowlers, and cherish the runs they compile. But certainly not on tracks like these.

The essential ingredient in their masterly display is invariably outwitting the bowlers of calibre. But where does the question of outwitting arise on such tracks. The guile of the likes of Mendis and Murali goes all in vain and just getting the ball past the bat, once or twice, becomes a tremendous achievement.

It is debatable that departure of Sehwag without scoring today could have signalled a collapse. Even if there were to be a mini collapse, Lankan bowlers, like at Ahmedabad, could have never hoped to run through the Indian batting line up. No pace, no spin, no life makes mockery of Test cricket, which, the past artistes, dub as a fair contest between bat and ball.

Instead of preparing pitches where a match could go unfinished even after seven-eight days of cricket, it is better to have pitches where a match ends in 3-4 days. I will certainly not mind a pitch where a ball turns from day one and give as a match as interesting as India vs Pak at B'lore (1986-87) or matches when Kumble was at his peak.

Let there be dusty, spinning, lethal tracks. The tracks that make spinners rub their hands in glee and ensure results. These tracks will also ensure that both the teams are always in the match. Not like the tussle at Kanpur, which may already have eliminated one result from the equation -- a win for the visitors.

Lovely knock, Sehwag

Test Cricket is a game of partnerships. More about opening partnerships on the first day for team winning the toss and opting to bat. And the way Sehwag and Gambhir have built a solid platform for india, deserves the highest praise. Sehwag, or once, went by the need of the hour. After his early lucky escape, the dashing opener carefully played back to form. And soon, along with Gambhir, knocked the living daylight out of the Lankans.

The first five over of the partnership fetched India just 16 runs, the next five overs got india 15 more, and the overs between 11 and 15 earned India 21 runs. Once the initial storm was weathered, it was back to business. India scored as many as 34 runs in just five overs (15th - 20th) and ended the session at 131 for one (26 overs).

The blitz after 20th over got india a staggering 45 runs in just 6 overs. All thanks to the inital caution shown by the openers. If someone switched on his TV just around lunchtime, Sehwag's 70 off just 73 balls would seem like an assault from the very first ball. But that was surely not the case.

If we look at Sehwag's Innings, his first 15 balls fetched him just two runs. Next 15 got him 12 more and suddenly he was back. 13 runs (31st to 45th ball) set Sehwag beautifully for a brutal assault. The final 28 balls of Sehwag's innings before lunch fetched the opener a massive 43 runs. The two openers, have done their job with such carefully crafted innings. It's now upto the rest of the star cast.

TALE OF TWO REGIONS

Seven-eight farmers in Vidharbha committed suicide 2 days ago. The news was conveniently relegated to inside pages of our newspapers. Just about one column was dedicated to the news, which would have taken any of the developed nations by the storm. Such extreme acts borne out of extreme poverty, which actually merit front page mention, somehow fail to prick the conscience of the mainstream media anymore.

On the other hand, a harmless march in Delhi, which of course led to traffic jams all over the metropolis, got so much of critical coverage in the media. The high and the mighty in the capital were inconvenienced, and that was something unpardonable. But the positive offshoot for the farmers was that their demands, legitimate of course, will be met by the powers ruling the country.

Farmers in this country have different ways to tackling injustices. And that decides their destiny. Some take to streets, and get the nation to listen to their demands. While others, out of desperation, take out their lives and reduce their dependants to the state of beggary.

Independent india is into 63rd year. Too long a time to offer any excuses for the state the farmers are in. Despite this, only those indulging in agitational politics can hope that their voice will ever be heard. There is absolutely no hope for the others. They and their families are forever condemned

inexplicable display

Some things are quite inexplicable. Sri Lanka's baffling show in post-lunch session of day 4 of Ahmedabad test is one such instance.

Here is one team trying to win its first ever test in India. A team expected to even gamble a little to secure its first ever win. And what it does? Goes on to display an extremely insipid & slow batting display. A display which makes people even think if they really want to win the test!

It was understandable that Sri Lanka will not declare and possibly allow Mahela to get to triple century. That is sub-continental mentality. 20 runs off just 17 balls post-lunch (including the one that dismissed Mahela) showed that very intent.

But once Mahela was gone, the rest of the overs were played as if it were Sri Lanka, and not India, who were battling for a draw.

The next 54 balls that Sri Lanka played, surprisingly produced just 32 runs. There were a staggering 30 dot balls and as many as 18 singles. Only 6 scoring shots fetched two or more runs and just 2 our of 9 overs post-Mahela resulted in more than 3 runs per over.

Even if SL's plan was to occupy the crease in the hope that pitch will deteriorate, little more urgency would have done no harm. This kind of show, at times, does slightly blunt the psychological edge that a team is enjoying. This kind of relaxed approach may have soothed the Indian nerves too. At least, in the session between lunch and tea if one goes by the batting display of Sehwag-Gambhir combo.

Saving Test Cricket

Disturbing piece of news, though inevitable. An MCC study says test cricket is preferred form of game only for about 7% of Indian fans. In electoral terms, test cricket has lost its deposit. But there are surely some ways out of this mess.
1) Have day-night tests. Unless you are desperate to pass some time, or get your livelihood from cricket, there is very little chance that you will take a day off to watch 1/5th of a test.
2) Have four-day tests with each side allowed 90 overs per innings. Behind one good draw, their are at least 10 maha boring draws. You may not get 500 plus scores, or triple centuries scored, but the game will be far more entertaining. even in golf, you do not have two winners at the end of four days. There is always a sudden death kind of situation.
3) Give us sporting pitches for god sake. You can't have batsmen getting dismissed in just opening sessions thanks to some morning freshness. Of the 13 wickets that have falled on first 2 days, two morning sessions have accounted for as many as 8. Just five wickets in other four sessions speaks poorly of bowlers' graveyards
4) Have some innovations man. Two-three powerplay segments in 90-overs per innings test won't do any harm.
5) Make watching test cricket a little more humane experience with clean toilets, comfortable seats, and edible refreshments. Can't treat spectators like `Cattle class' in test cricket, though people don't mind shoddy treatment in the abridged form!
6) Divide test teams into two divisions. You can't hope to have India or Australia playing Bangladesh, and still ensure viewership. Have a kind of relegation system.
7) Listen to everybody's viewpoint with Open mind. It may be real cricket for Cricketers, but `tu cheez badi hai mast mast...' generation prefers things which give instant gratification. They are no longer bothered with the sublime, so have to be enticed. That is possible only through innovations, ...and by not making song and dance about how test cricket is the real cricket and the rest is tamasha.

WALL'S COUNTERPUNCH

Tremendous knock. Brisk knock. A mindblowing knock in a situation when India needed it most. Mr reliable was at his very best in the most testing of circumstances. With India’s back to the wall, it was the wall that came to the fore. A 100 scored off just 158 balls, when the situation demanded that Dravid should consume at least 250 to 300 to reach the milestone, shows the true class of the man.

The best thing about this tremendous innings was that 68 off Dravid's first 100 runs were scored off cover and midwicket regions. Dravid patiently waited for the loose deliveries, and did not miss any scoring opportunity.

Dravid's statistics for his first 100 runs shows that only three came from fineleg+thirdman regions. In fact, not a single run came from thirdman region as he raced to his century. Despite the situation India were in, Dravid was not to be tricked into false shots.

It's not that Dravid played too fast as he played another memorable innings. In fact, there were over 110 dot balls as Dravid raced to his century. But big scoring shots took good care of Dravid's run-rate. Lankan's aggressive field placing, justified considering the situation they were in, finally did them in

16 fours and a six in Dravid's race towards 100 have put India in a situation where they can well and truly think of a score approaching 450-500. Dravid's tremendous knock has totally reversed the momentum in India's favour.

During tea break, I saw a stats on Neo showing just one loss in tests where Dravid has scored a century. By the time this test ends, and the way this innings may have hit the Lankans, that piece of stats is unlikely to change.

FLOP SHOW, IF YOU TAKE THE BEST AWAY

One of the most common mistakes that people make in assessing the contribution of a batsman to a big series is that they get obsessed with his average for the whole series. So we come to a peculiar situation where Tendulkar’s healthy average of 45.83 from the current series rides on just one brilliant knock of 175, while Yuvraj manages 25.60 from his five matches, thanks to just one good knock of 76.

Now take the best knocks away and Tendulkar has 100 from other five matches @ 20.00 while Yuvraj scores just 50 from the other four matches that he played – his average coming down by half to 12.5 per match.

That sums up the sorry state of India in the series. Of the six top batsmen who have played 4 or more matches in the series so far, only three – Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir -- have managed two 50+ knocks. Sehwag got past 30 thrice without managing to count it big even once – natural instincts coming in the way of a big score.

In the current series, India’s fortune have looked completely in sync with how Dhoni has performed. The 2nd and the 3rd ODIs, where Dhoni scored big, were won by India. Even in Dhoni's case, take away his century and you will see 161 from other five innings. 44% of Dhoni’s runs were scored from one innings alone. Though he was the anchorman for sure.

Two other southpaws, Suresh Raina and Gautam Gambhir, average 31 with their best innings. Take their best inning away, and they score only 24 and 21 per innings respectively.

No surprise that India have lost the series with one match still to go.

opening woes

Despite the luxury of having 5 overs of powerplay in the later part of an innings, it is how openers handle the pressure that often decides the fate of India's matches. Having two of the most destructive openers in cricket may not mean much, if they can’t stay long enough to steer India to a position where the team can think of a really big total. Weathering the early storm is as much important, as some adventurous strokeplay. Hitting few lusty strokes, and then getting out, may not mean much in the overall context of the game.

The scorecards of the first six matches for India, and five for Australia, make an interesting reading. Australia’s makeshift combinations twice scored in excess of 50 in five matches (72 in 3rd ODI and 145 in the fifth). On the other hand, India’s more accomplished pair of tendulkar and Sehwag were expected to do better, but they managed just one 50+ opening partnership (66 at Hyderabad). 1st wkt partnership scores of 25, 21, 37, 40, 66 & and 7 in six matches show poor starts for a team which banks so heavily on the two openers.

But there are times when openers will flop. Even there, Australia did one better than India. Twice they managed 100+ scores with the loss of just one wicket, and once they went past 200+. With just one match to go. India are yet to reach 100+ score without the loss of second wicket.

In this series, even if Australia played slowly against India in the initial stages, by preventing loss of wickets they ensured that they had enough ammunition for the final stages. So if they go on to win 5-2, they will have to thank their first three batsmen for this feat.

It sucks!

After india’s heartbreaking collapse a day before, I was wondering what newspapers will have to say with so much time to reflect . Of course, as expected, there was no dearth of columns and stories on India’s abject surrender from a winning position. Former captain Sourav Ganguly advised that `the Indian bowlers will have to get better in the pressure-cooker matches’ and pointed out the obvious -- `the fielding was also a massive let down’. At the same time, Ganguly praised the cricket played in the series so far. `the game was a perfect exhinbition of One-day cricket at its best and hopefully it will put to rest the doubts over the format’s survival'. No one can agree more with him on this. Though it needs an India and an Australia to give this kind of cracker of a series. Remember 6-1 mauling of England which initially cast doubts over the survival of the format.

Ajay Naidu in ToI said the game was a `flashback to the 1990s when India’s run-chase would begin and end with Sachin Tendulkar’. Naidu writes ‘a champion team knows how to win. Rather they win by hook-and-crook. It is here that India are way behind the Australians’.

The pain of such a loss was partially numbed by Tendulkar’s brilliant knock, which Ponting described as a very calculated one. Srikkanth felt every cricketer should take a leaf out of tendulkar’s book (IE). Not every crickter Kris, but lower order will, for sure, need to take a leaf out of Tendulkar’s book. Twice in the series have there been last over heartbreaks for India. Contrast this with Ponting’s words for his wounded warriors. `things have not really been going our way, but we have still found ways to win’. That surely is the hall-mark of a champion team Mr Ponting. Indeed, the Australians’ will-power has found reflection in a bunch of inexperienced young cricketers turning into match winners. But for this mental toughness, they could well have been 1-4, or worse, 0-5 down in the current series. For India, it is time to pay back. The point is, can they cash in on this.

Sachin, media loves you!

Indian newspapers, expectedly, were full of sachin today, and no one really seemed to mind the heartbreak for millions of cricket fans in the end. There were two front page headlines in the Hindustan Times. `Forget Sachin crossed 17,000. he played one of the best innings in the history of the game’was one, followed by `and the match? India lost, now trail Australia 2-3’. The Times of India wrote `Marathon Man almost gets India over the finish line’ Defeat seemed to pain Indian Express the most. It was a Front page `heartbreak’ followed by `Masters get 175, India fall 4 short of history’

Indian Express also reminded us that another big milestone might be achieved in the next match. Another five runs, and Tendulkar will have got to 3,000 runs against Australia in his 67th match. That piece of stats is more overpowering than the 17,000 runs he has scored in his career. The way Gavaskar neutralized the West Indies in tests, Tendulkar has done many times against the Aussie. After all, nothing can beat the satisfaction one gets from fighting and proving oneself against one of the best teams in the history of the game.

Some papers did point out that Sachin has often not managed to take India to the finish line, while adding at the same time that this does not take anything away from his mountain of achievements. How true.