Indian team is down, although not out of it yet but they will certainly need to come out all guns blazing to make a comeback after the crushing defeat in the first test. They managed to get just six wickets bowling for almost six sessions and were bowled out twice within four sessions. The more crucial thing for the Indians would be to be up mentally for the next challenge that is just four days away.

The players need to be motivated and fans need to keep patience as these are definitely the best test players in India. Let us analyze the performance of Team India members and what could they do or not do to turn the tables around.

Openers

Gautam Gambhir must be thanking his stars that the team doesn’t have his substitute at hand otherwise he could have been thrown out, not for his failure to score but for his attitude. He got out in both innings jumping out to Muralidharan, caught at short cover in the first innings and stumped in the second. He needs to show a bit more responsibility and resilience.

Virender Sehwag is one batsman whose batting style cannot be changed. And, a team can afford a luxurious batsman like him if they have as solid a middle order as India does. He was caught in the deep trying to pull Kulasekara in the first innings and got a rough decision in the second innings. A review request of the bowling of Murali by Jayawardene turned against Sehwag as Rudi Koertzen missed the ball’s deflection off the front pad.

Flop err Fab Four

Eyes refused to believe the scenes as the fabulous four succumbed to spin bowling from Murali and Mendis. Bowled through the gate and bat-pad on front foot; these are not the modes of dismissal one associates with great players of spin. All of them were completely at sea against the rookie Mendis. Perhaps they were in over-confidence and will surely need to watch and re-watch tapes of Mendis’ bowling.

These are great players and it is just a matter of time before they strike gold. Captain Kumble would do better not to shuffle them and must look to play Dravid at three. Sachin will look to play positively while Dravid will probably drop anchor. Dravid hasn’t ever been vocal on or off the field and is probably the biggest under-sung hero of cricket. As always he will let his bat do the talking and is still the favorite to come up with the goods.

The person who is under the severest of pressures is Sourav Ganguly but he probably has learnt to live life the tougher way. He doesn’t have the best of technique against the fast bowlers and the fact that he is not much impressive against the spinners either has remained under-observed due to his big hitting against slow left arm bowlers.

Wicket Keeper

Dinesh Karthik had an pathetic outing both behind and in front of the wickets. He failed to stop the ball in either role. Every player has bad days but Karthik must be shown the door at least for the next test match not because of the poor performance but for his attitude while batting. A kid in cricketing circles, he was trying to lift Murali out of park on every ball. What on hell was up his grey matter only he can tell.

People have voiced about giving an emergency call to Dhoni but the man needs some rest and it would be foolish to think that he would have scored against a bowling which toppled the likes of Tendulkar and Dravid.

Pacers

There was absolutely nothing in the pitch for the faster men. In fact Zaheer and Ishant did a great job picking up four wickets. If the pitch at Galle offers the fast bowlers any help they are the two Indians most likely to make full use of it.

Spinners

Kumble and Harbhajan were disappointing to say the least. They failed to bowl enough wicket taking deliveries. Both of them will need to show more character and hit the right areas consistently. Adding to their poor form they had to bowl on placid day two and three pitches and the Sri Lankan batsmen handled them extremely efficiently.

© IPL Cricket Forum

The newest innovation on trial in international cricket is the “Umpire decision review system”. It would be foolish to make the final call so early but whatever has happened thus far has received big thumbs up from all cricketing corners. Anil Kumble became the first cricketer to officially hold his two hands in a “T” manner to ask for a review. It was on the fourth ball of the forty sixth over of the test match on day two when Malinda Warnapura was struck on the pad of a Harbhajan Singh delivery. The bowler and the fielders appealed but to no avail. Captain Kumble then in consultation with the bowler and wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik decided to ask for a review. The on field umpires after consultation with Rudi Koertzen – the third umpire, ruled it in the favor of the batsman.

After that in a Zaheer Khan over when Dilshan was given out caught behind, he decided to ask for a review and when the replays were found inconclusive, umpire Mark Benson reversed his decision. Anil Kumble exhausted his team’s quota when he made two more unsuccessful appeals, one against Dilshan on a Harbhajan ball and another against Vaas on a Zaheer Khan delivery. Sri Lankan captain too had one of his appeals exhausted soon when he asked for a review against Ganguly of an Ajantha Mendis delivery.

Of whatever we have seen, this seems to be a very practical solution to the obvious bad decisions. There have been matches that have been lost due to a couple of bad decisions and this system could definitely make the crucial difference in such situations. The three unsuccessful reviews limit seems to be a “not too much, not too less”. The limit also keeps a check on the number of times a team goes upstairs and prevents uncalled for time wastage. If the decision is reversed is a team’s favor, the review is not exhausted and the limit of three also gives teams to use the rule with fair liberty.

This system could go far in preventing situations such as one which transpired last winter at Sydney between India and Australia. The bowlers who had earlier felt hard done by the umpires will have the chance to appeal and the frustration levels will come down considerably. There is long time still before we have a final say over it but it seems to be a move along the right direction.

Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum

http://goyalmohit.blogspot.com

With the contest between the bat and the ball getting increasingly lop sided by the day in the favor of the former, its time that administrators look at all possible measures to give the latter some teeth. Pitches world over have got flatter by the day. The Western Australia Cricket Association Ground at Perth which has the reputation of having the fastest and most bouncier pitch in Australia has seen run feasts in the last decade or so. This ground saw 10 wickets or more in a match by a bowler eight times in the first 19 tests till February 1992 but hasn’t seen any in the 16 tests played after that.

One of the things that could help bowlers on dead and docile tracks is a pronounced seam on the cricket balls. The Duke balls used in England and the SG balls in India have a pronounced seam. Everywhere else Kookaburra balls have been used which initially swing more than the two mentioned earlier but absolutely die down after 20 or so overs. The seam on these balls is a lot flatter and its almost spherical shape makes it very difficult for the bowlers to grip it.

Even the seam on the Duke balls has changed with time. Earlier they used the thick Malaysian thread which gave the balls a more pronounced and also importantly a wider seam. The Irish threads used now are thinner and the seam hasn’t remained that wide. The MCC are trying to workout a solution to this problem by either trying to get in the Malaysian kind of thread or stitching an extra row of the thinner thread on both sides.

While the seam of a Duke or SG ball holds up for about 50 overs it only does for 20 overs on a Kookaburra. So if the batsmen can see off the first hour the bowlers have no chance till they get the new ball again. This means that they are unlikely to get the batting team out in 80 overs, which doesn’t make for healthy competition between bat and ball. A Kookaburra is a ball that’s been made for the faster bowlers but as the pitches get flatter the faster bowlers too need to extract movement off the seam and Kookaburra doesn’t aid that.

Fast bowlers haven’t ever found the sub-continent a happy destination but spinners too haven’t found it easy recently in Pakistan and Sri Lanka who have switched to the Kookaburra balls. India still uses the SG balls and England is still on Dukes. Instead of following the pack, the sub-continental countries must use the SG or Duke balls to give a fairer chance to the bowlers. Kookaburra may be used world over in One day and Twenty20 formats where spectators like to see big runs scored but certainly for tests there must be rethink on the issue otherwise draws will draw off spectator interest.

© IPL Cricket Forum

Although Lalit Modi might have got an inspiration or two from the ICL but now copying the IPL seems to have become a fashion. Australia has been the latest to announce their plans and the experts will come up with a detailed report of the format and the logistics by the next month. England announced an EPL and a Twenty20 league a few days back. While Cricket Australia seems a bit more realistic ECB is chasing bucks without any substantial plans.

After ECB revealed its plans the situation as it stands means that after the IPL in April and May, there will be an EPL in June and then England will have its domestic Twenty20 league matches on Friday and Saturday nights of July and August. While the Twenty20 league will involve the 18 counties, the EPL will involve a Stanford XI and the IPL winner besides the counties. Another interesting announcement is that the ECB will field the two teams in Champions T20 through the Twenty20 league and not through EPL. This move is begging for logic. The counties already have two overseas players playing for each of them and the only difference for the EPL is that they will be able to field three overseas players, so how are they different in the two tournaments? They could have easily fielded the top two counties from the EPL into the Champions Twenty20. Instead they decided in favor of an overdose of the shortest format.

There seem to be too many unreasonable things and many questions unanswered about the ECB’s proposal. Even if they go for just two semi-finals and a final after the league phase, the EPL will have more than 90 matches to be played. And even if they stretch it to whole of June, it will mean more than three matches per day. If they are modeling IPL and are looking for huge profits they must be insane to think that three matches per day will generate much more money than one match per day. And, even if they are able to sort this problem out by reducing the number of matches or more likely increasing the duration of the league, a hard fought IPL could make EPL fall on its face.

ECB will struggle finding the same amount of sponsorship money. When it comes to fans, they don’t have the same numbers as IPL does. The cricket fans from India won’t find much fun as the match timings won’t suit them. In IPL the team owners had to bear the expenses of hosting matches but in EPL will the counties bear for five star accommodations of international cricketers?

ECB has also announced a $12 million cap for each team. Only time will tell how it will work out. In IPL such cap was for all the international players but in EPL will it be only for the three overseas players? And if it is for all the players, will Kevin Pietersen be on sale as well? So, if some other county bids for him, will Kevin play say for Sussex in the EPL and Nottinghamshire in other matches? And if an English player has to remain with the same county, why the hell would that county pay him a buck more if they know that the player has no other options? And if the players don’t get the big bucks how the ECB satisfies those who wanted to have the big bucks of IPL?

After the announcement of EPL, Nasser Hussain flaunted his doubts over the proposal and said that, “the players weren’t asking for an IPL, they wanted a slice of the IPL money”.

In the IPL the teams have been sold by a bidding process and they have nothing to do with the domestic cricket teams. So a Rajasthan Royals player isn’t actually playing for Rajasthan but for Emerging Media and thus there is no such situation as of conflict when he plays for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy. While in the EPL as we hear, all counties will take part. So a Kevin Pietersen or an Andrew Flintoff or a Paul Collingwood playing for one county in the EPL and for some other in other tournaments will not go down well one bit with the fans. If they have play for the same counties without option then they won’t get the huge sums of money. If they have provision of salary for England internationals in the way IPL did for icon players, what will some counties with four English internationals do? They won’t have much money left for overseas players.

If this whole article itself has got messy, how messy the whole reality would be?

Dr Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum

http://goyalmohit.blogspot.com

Indian batsmen had a torrid time trying to figure out what the Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis was up to in the Asia Cup final in Pakistan. They completely failed to read him and faltered big time. Although the batsmen in the test team to Sri Lanka are far more experienced but the unconventional style of Mendis’ bowling warrants caution.

The bowler has more than six types of deliveries up his armory. He bowls an off spinning ball just like any other off spinner and has the Doosra up his sleeve. He bowls finger leg breaks and the googly and the flipper from the back of the hand. The other two balls he bowls is either a flick of his index finger or a flick by his middle finger. The last two balls are the ones that have created furore in the cricketing circles. People are still trying to find out how and where these balls turn.

Indian team’s coach Garry Kirsten has come up with a unique idea to train his batters for facing the carom ball challenge. Reports say that Gary has asked for mud granules to be splattered on one pitch in a camp in Chennai on 13^th and 14^th of this month and he will make the batsmen bat on that pitch.

Time will tell whether this helps or not. But this incident brings to the fore the difference in the mentality of the sub-continental and other players when it comes to playing spin. While the players from the sub-continent like to read out of the bowlers hand or sometimes off the pitch, players from Australia and South Africa mostly read it off the pitch or just wait and watch and remain prepared to take it on pads. The ability of reading spin well has what has made sub-continental batsmen great players of spin but Gary’s tactic might just benefit till the batsmen work out how to read Mendis.

Dr. Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum
http://goyalmohit.blogspot.com

Indian Test Team for Sri Lanka – Swot Analysis

Selectors declared the sixteen men squad for the three tests against Lankan Lions in their den. While Mahendra Singh Dhoni opted out of the test series to have some rest, Yuvraj Singh has too been rested if we were to take BCCI’s word. Wasim Jaffer and Irfan Pathan miss the cut while Rohit Sharma and Pragyan Ojha are the new faces in the test format and Gautam Gambhir catches the flight too. Absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni sees Sehwag step into the shoes of the Vice Captain.

India has a very strong batting line up with Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman at numbers three, four, five and six and now Gambhir joining Sehwag at the top. Gambhir’s entry into the test side has been overdue and he wouldn’t want to let go this chance. Jaffer might be a technically more correct batsman but its Gambhir’s positive intent and attitude that will never let him be dominated and fail for long. Dinesh Karthik will probably get a nod ahead of Parthiv Patel on the back of his wicket keeping credentials which will to be at their best keeping to Kumble and Harbhajan.

Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma will be the other two bowlers in the playing eleven. Pacers are unlikely to get much assistance from the Ceylon pitches. They will at the most look to exploit some early morning freshness or reverse swing the older cherry. Sri Lankans have played spin pretty well but the class of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan is sure to have a say at some stage. Still Indian bowlers will find it tough to bowl Sri Lanka out twice in all matches. Sanath Jayasuriya’s retirement from the longer version will however lessen the number of mysteries for the Indians.

The outcome of the series will depend a lot on how Indian batsmen play Murali and Mendis and how much penetrative the Indian bowling can be.

Probable Eleven: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag (VC), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Anil Kumble (C) Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma.

© IPL Cricket Forum

Why cricket needs Twenty20…

Just the other day I was on the sofa watching Roger Fedex Federer play Rafael Rafa Nadal in the Wimbledon final. It was such an intriguing battle. Every point won had as much a sense of glory as was the feeling of agony in every point lost. When Nadal was handed the winner’s trophy, it spurred an endless array of flashes. I just lay on the sofa imagining a similar scene involving an Indian cricketer. But the truth is that cricket doesn’t have the global viewership, the extensive media coverage and hype that sports like Tennis, Soccer and a few others command. There were similar scenes when Spaniard Iker Cassilas lifted the Euro 2008 trophy a week back. I was watching the game and it was so absorbing that I couldn’t even get up for a minute and go grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator. The game had been such action packed that even at half time I had to wait for a commercial break in the half time show.

The reason for the high intensity in these sports seems to be the shorter duration of the course of play. A day’s play in one day and test cricket spans over seven to eight hours and its impossible for players to have the intensity of soccer and tennis for such a long duration. An ardent fan of cricket like me would still sit and enjoy watching Murali at his fiercest, bowling maidens and a stern Dravid sweating out to see him off and pounce on others. But this is not what will attract new fans and new loyalties. With time people will only find it more and more difficult to go to the venues for a whole day to watch a one day match or a day of test cricket. Television broadcasts might still have good viewership but definitely not for the whole duration of the game.

The best route of entry for new countries and new fans into cricket is probably the Twenty20 format. Once they start liking this format then automatically they will like the other forms like the fifty over and test cricket. Every cricketer understands that test cricket is the toughest test of a cricketer’s abilities but their need to be followers to acknowledge and praise their accomplishments.

Another interesting fact I came across in a television talk show was that in England, even the test matches have packed houses which was attributed to the higher percentage of middle aged and old aged population who had more leisure time. India on the other hand is a young country and as it moves the demography will change and at some point of time it would in the same phase as the developed countries are in now. Probably that phase will see people having more leisure time and a day out watching cricket would be what they would opt to do. But till then to attract the countries like China, Japan, USA etc to cricket and globalize the sport what cricket needs is probably Twenty20.

Editorial : Dr Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum

http://goyalmohit.blogspot.com

Asia Cup 2008 Final

Sunday, 6^th June 2008

India v Sri Lanka

Jayasuriya and Sehwag in form and on song, Ishant’s sheering pace and Murali’s bamboozling turners. What more a treat a cricket fan can ask for?

People are looking for an exciting end to a not so exciting cricket tournament. Sri Lanka seem to have played a master stroke resting Ajantha Mendis in the Super Four match against India. They will be hoping that he is able to dodge the Indians. But if Ajantha Mendis can bowl six different balls in an over, Virender Sehwag has more than six different shots for each ball.

The Karachi pitch wouldn’t offer much to the pacers and the onus to tilt the balance in the favor of their team will be on the batsmen. Teams would like to go with experience for this crucial match. Sri Lanka would look to play Kulasekara and Fernando along with Murali, Mendis and Vaas. Only other option they may look at is Thushara in place of Fernando or Kulasekara. India would probably opt for the younger among the Pathan brothers, Irfan. They would look to go with six batsmen, then Pathan and then the four bowlers. They are likely to keep out Chawla and play Ojha who has shown better control on line and length.

Battles to look out for

Virender Sehwag v Chaminda Vaas

Gautam Gambhir v Ajantha Mendis

Sanath Jayasuriya v Ishant Sharma

Kumar Sangakkara v Praveen Kumar

Probable starters:

India: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh (VC), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C) (WK), Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma

Sri Lanka: Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara (WK), Mahela Jayawardene (C), Tillakratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Muttiah Muralidharan, Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekara.

Verdict: Looks like an intriguing battle on the cards. Its high time some of the players stood up and India might just pull this one off.

What do you say?

Dr. Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum

http://goyalmohit.blogspot.com

Asia Cup 2008, Super Four, Match 6

Monday, 4^th June 2008

Pakistan v Bangladesh

This match rendered inconsequential courtesy India’s win over Sri Lanka yesterday could see Pakistan give rest to couple of players and give some other players a chance. Shoaib Malik should take this opportunity and take rest to avoid worsening his health. That will mean another day at the helm for Misbah and he would try to impress a few. Pakistan may give Wahab Riaz another chance. Pakistan need to win this one because a loss here would pinch for a long time as they have a fifty day break from international cricket after this tournament.

For Bangladesh, each international game is as big and they would want to clinch a win here to silence those who question their test status. They must look to give Shahriar Nafees a chance in place of Nazimuddin. They need Abdur Razzak and Mashrafe Mortaza to do well and be confident for the future tournaments.

Look Out For
Salman Butt – He didn’t cash on the superb form he came into the tournament with. He would want to set record straight with a big score tomorrow.

Saeed Ajmal – He has a big turning Doosra and Bangladesh batters may find it too hot to handle. He needs to bring in an element of surprise by altering his line for the Doosra and turning it lesser but against Bangladesh he could be a handful.

Tamim Iqbal – He has all the talent in the world. All he needs a bit more maturity and a sense of responsibility. He would like to get a big score tomorrow and a weak Pakistani bowling line up will only make things easier.

Shahadat Hossain – He has worked up some pace in this tournament. If he bowls a on a tight leash, he could turn the heat on.

Probable starters:

Pakistan:  Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik (C), Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Sarfraz Ahmed (WK), Saeed Ajmal, Sohail Tanvir, Rao Iftikhar, Abdur Rauf

Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Shahriar Nafees, Raqibul Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful (C), Mushfiqur Rahim (WK), Alok Kapali, Mohammad Mahmudullah, Mehrab Hussain Jnr, Mashrafe Mortaza (VC), Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain

Verdict:  Pakistan although depleted but should be enough for Bangladesh. Pakistan should cruise through; otherwise it will have to be Pakistan loosing the match rather than Bangladesh winning it.                                                               

What do you say?

Asia Cup 2008, Super Four, Match 5

Monday, 3^rd June 2008

India v Sri Lanka

This is a do or die match for India. They need to win this won or else their fate will fall in hands of Bangladesh. A loss here and Pakistan could run away with the second spot in the final with just a moderately big win over Bangladesh.

But the Indian team would do well not to think about this and concentrate on the game at hand. They could be further aided if Sri Lanka decide to rest some of their key players. India need to show some resilience while fielding and bowling and would do better with Ojha coming in place of Chawla. Dhoni might look to bowl first, as his batsmen have shown good form but India would be better served not trying this against Sri Lanka who have a little better bowling unit then others.

People have gone on criticizing the pitches but the fact is that the bowlers have made the pitches look even worse. Would the likes of Brett Lee, Zaheer Khan, Dale Steyn etc been the same here? In fact Vaas has bowled quite well. Others bowlers lack the experience and that’s why they have been taken to the cleaners. It is not about the runs they have conceded but the manner in which they have bowled.

Irfan Pathan and Praveen Kumar have a some experience and must take the responsibility on their shoulders and the fielders need to show a bit more commitment.

Look Out For

Virender Sehwag – After seeing the bowling form of most bowlers even 325 runs don’t seem enough. India will need Sehwag to fire big if they are to get past that score against Sri Lanka.

Pragyan Ojha – He bowls with a lot of control and could bag some crucial wickets if he lures the batters with flight.

Mahela Jayawardene – He hasn’t had much to do in this tournament thus far but will look to be in good form ahead of Sunday’s final.

Dilhara Fernando – He has some pace up his sleeve and probably has the most well disguised slower ball in the world. He would like to prove his critics wrong and cement a place in the side.

Probable starters:

India: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh (VC), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C) (WK), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, RP Singh

Sri Lanka: Mahela Udawatte, Kumar Sangakkara (WK), Mahela Jayawardene (C), Tillakratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Dilhara Fernando, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara

Verdict:  India have a tough one here but the need of the hour might just motivate them to pull this one off.                                                                   

What do you say?