India beats Pakistan 4-1 in One Day series

India did win the one day series against Pakistan and with such confidence and severity that Pakistani team will remember it for a quiet some time. When the 1st One day ended with a win for Pakistan, I could not have thought that India could have won the series even before the 5th match was played. India not only won the series they finished the 5th ODI at Karachi with so much conviction and confidence that even die hard Pakistani supporters will stop blaming Pakistani team for the bad performance.

The single most factor which seperated the Pakistan team from India was fielding. Indian's in the form of Yuvraj, Kaif and Suresh Raina made the offside fielding one of the best in the world. The stops made by them in the entire series were a delight to watch.

The second factor which played most vital part was the basics the Indian bowlers stuck to especially Sreesanth, Pathan and R.P Singh. Pathan and Sreesanth never allowed the top order to get settled in. Infact some of the end overs bowled by Sreesanth were simply world class. He is probably the bowler India will be looking forward to in the future.

The third most important factor was the mind blowing batting performances by Yuvraj and Dhoni. Whenever India wanted them to win they always came out and won the match for India. The way they finished the Lahore and the Karachi one days, Indian fans will not forget for the long time.

Some of the other highlights of the One day series was the intelligent Captaincy by Rahul Dravid and the solid starts given by Tendulkar in the first 3 ODI's.

In the end it was probably one of the best fightbacks by the Indian team losing the test series and first ODI. This sets very high expectations for the home series against England. Let's hope they carry if forward from where it ended in 5th ODI at Karachi.

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India vs Pak 2nd ODI Rawalpindi: What India should do in Rawalpindi?

India lost to Pakistan in the 1st ODI at Peshawar. Well India was playing against 13 players in Peshawar. Jokes apart What I meant was India not only had Pakistan team to play against but also Mr Duckworth and Mr Lewis to fight against.

Some of things which India seriously did wrong was to send all the big hitters(Pathan,Dhoni,Yuvraj) one after other and then sending all the accumulators together in the end(Kaif and Dravid). Both Mohammed Kaif and Rahul Dravid perform their best if they have time to get settled especially this being Kaif's first ODI after the domestic season. He would have definitely required sometime to settle in. I seriously believe Dhoni can score at the same rate even if he is sent at the death overs. He might have scored lesser runs but with greater impact. Because the amount of impact the hard hitting in the end overs has is lot more than the middle overs. Hard hitting in the end overs demoralize the opposition. By allowing Pakistan to get back in the death overs India did allowed them to get in the right frame of mind to start the massive run chase.

Another thing which Rahul Dravid might want to reconsider for the 2nd One day International at Rawalpindi between India and Pakistan might be the inclusion of Murali Karthik. Murali Karthik didn't pose any threat to the opposition in the 1st ODI at Peshawar and it will be lot better if harbhajan or now Ramesh Powar replaces him in the next match at Rawalpindi. Romesh Powar being the highest wicket taker in the Ranji Trophy has a strong case to play in the second ODI especially since Harbhajan is injured.

India will definitely need not only to improve their bowling but also think of some ways to restrict the Pakistani's batsman who seems to be getting better with every match. Otherwise pretty soon it might end up in a one sided contest.

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Ways of getting out in Cricket : Obstucting the field (Inzamam's Video)

India vs Pakistan 1st One Day International, Peshawar.

Inzamam ul Haq once again was able to get himself out in a controversial manner after his run out dismissal from the last series against England. As per the law for obstructing the field it's pretty clear that a batsman should not deliberately try obstructing if the fielder is trying to catch or throw the ball at stumps in an attempt to get the batsman out. Infact the throw from Suresh Raina in all probability would have missed the stumps. Still Inzamam managed to get him out is funny.

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Amazing Cricket Clips

Here is the Pathan's Hatrick from the Karachi Test.




Amazing Fielding by Indians



Mathew Sinclair's Amazing Catch.



Collingwood's Catch .....Watch Action Replay



Magic Balls by Warne



Sobers Six Sixes

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Is this the End of Sachin Tendulkar

India Pak Test Series has ended and so now starts the most funny part of it. Atleast someone needs to be identified who must have made the mistake because of which India lost. So let's guess who it might be. Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman scored atleast one century. Let's try to write about somebody which can make news. Ganguly and Greg Chapell already had their share for past few months. So the choice is very straightforward since Sachin Tendulkar also scored the lowest runs in the series.

Here are some of the most amusing reasons I read indicating the end of sachin tendulkar's career. Just because he thought he was out against Shoaib Akhtar when he was not and he walked on his own means he is scared of Shoaib Akhtar fast bowling. This is one of the most funniest comment I have heard about Sachin Tendulkar. That it came from Moin Khan who has played against Sachin amuses me even more.

May be it's true that Sachin had a bad series so did many others. Also he just had a single innings before Karachi. To me in second innings at Karachi he looked in great shape to play another big one when he got out to a ball which kept low. Bad phases comes in life of each player including Sachin Tendulkar and that he will come out of it for sure and there are lots of chances this can happen in One day Series that starts in an hour from now on.

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India vs Pakistan 2006 Karachi Cricket Test Postscript

The cricket series between India and Pakistan which was supposed to be one of the most interesting and most intensly fought cricket series turned out to be a no-show specially after 2 boring tests at Lahore, Faislabad and last at Karachi which provided a contest probably for no more than 2 days.

When Pakistan started bowling in their second innings at Karachi it became pretty clear that Indians will need to pull out something out of this world to even save the match. Suddenly the pitch which seems to be dead when Indians were bowling became unplayable. Specially the deliveriy from Mohammed Asif which took Virender Sehwag's wicket almost sealed the match atleast in the minds of Indian batsman.

What India missed was probably a genuine fast bowler and a genuine opener. As long as the pitch was not doing much Rahul Dravid was doing pretty well as an opener and probably he was best suited to accompany Sehwag among the eleven that played in the final test. But then we need to understand there is a specific job, opener is supposed to perform which a One Down batsman can probably fill in but may not succeed always and that made the difference as Indians needed Dravid more than anybody else in the middle order to save the match. Not to say that Tendulkar or Laxman or Ganguly could not have done that. But they would have still required somebody at the other end like Dravid to hold the innings.

India definitely needs a genuine fast bowler in the league of Shoaib Akhtar who can rattle the batsman from the other end and have them guessing about the next delivery. In the first innings when Shoaib hit Tendulkar on the helmet it was probably another blow to a batsman confident. It might not take a wicket but gets you near to it. Similarly the first ball of Mohammed Asif's first over in second innings moved outside and left Sehwag's bat. It was probably one of those balls which were supposed to move to one side as even the Wicket keeper Kamran Akmal moved to the leg side but ball went the other way. The next ball then came sharply in and Sehwag managed to just hang on to it. By the time Mohammed Asif delievered the 3rd ball of the over Sehwag to me looked like had his foot glued to the ground because of the doubts that the earlier 2 deliveries had created and the ball uprooted the middle stump.

There can be lot of other factors which can be said like Indians were fatigued with 2 previous tests with a lot more overs bowled as compared to Pakistan bowlers and they played with 3 left arm seamers and should have played with atleast a Right Handed seamer but then you can't expect your team to win a test where one team bats for more than 250 overs and other gets out in a little over 100 overs. Most of the people expected India to if not win atleast draw this match, but in the end it was a performance much below what they promised in the earlier 2 matches.

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