India vs England Video Highlights 1st ODI Firozshah Kotla, Delhi

Time for a quick post.

Indian Innings

Here are the highlights from the Indian Innings, Some fours and sixes and wickets



England Innings

Brilliant bowling by Pathan and Bhajji and Some good catching by Gambhir and Kaif

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India vs England ODI Series 2006 1st ODI Firozshah Kotla, Delhi

The ODI Series between India and England kicks off today. India will be eager to take the lead in the first match and try to erase the bad memories of the test series.

Of the 13 matches played here team batting first has won 6 and team batting second has won 7. Intersting after 2000 India has played 2 matches at this ground and lost both. They lost to Pakistan in 2004/05 by more than 150 runs and to England in 2001/02 by 2 runs. In the both instances India was chasing the target. Not that this is an indication of anything to go by. But keeping India's recent record of chasing targets it will be interesting to see if Indians are able to chase the target successfully.

I personally feel any time batting first will need to score in excess of 275 runs to atleast feel comfortable.

India will surely be missing Sachin and probably Munaf Patel too. Kaif and RP Singh will probably replace them. Kaif especially after his knock in Nagpur and the his century against England in the practice match would be eager to make a point. Same for RP Singh who missed the Test Series against England. Another probably change might be inclusion of either Suresh Raina or Romesh Powar as a all rounder. Since Super Sub rule being scrapped India will probably play an allrounder. In such a scenario probably they will drop Bhajji.

Looking forward to an interesting battle.

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India vs England Test Series: Somebody's Loss is Somebody's gain

The title of my post reminds me the "Law of Constant Mass/Energy " or something along that lines I remember vaguely from Physics which I studied like ages ago but still can't make any head or tail out of it. It's more apt when a depleted England team meets the powerful Indian team who is fresh from their success from Pakistan tour.

Well to begin with England had everything to gain from this tour and India had a lot more at stake being the favorites and at home. From the start it was very imperative that India would have to have a perfect game for all the 3 tests played and even a slight lapse of concentration would cost them exponentially. It happened the same in Pakistan in the 3rd test at Lahore and now at 3rd test at Wankhede. Probably a pattern which Rahul Dravid will definitely have in mind when he plays a third test against WI.

Personally my memories of Wankhede had never been good. I was at Wankhede when India lost to Aussies in the famous 2004 series which they eventually won 2-1. But that fateful morning when the lunch was called India still had Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar at crease almost the same like this time. That India lost the test match after the departure of Rahul and Sachin the very same way as they lost this time. The only difference was India lost to Australia in about 3 days but that was the team who were one of all the time best Test Teams as against this Injury Depleted England team.

I always feel Post scripts once the match has ended are so boring because it robs you of excitement as the match is already over and you know what happened. So Dravid made a wrong judgement, India should have gone with 7 batsman, Laxman/Kaif should have played sounds so rhetoric that I personally will not even go into that. So much has been written about everything it will just be repetitive.

In the end it's just one loss. That it happened against a half strength England side in Dravid's 100th and Tendulkar's 132nd match makes in all the more worse. But as Lance Klusener famously said after South Africa's famous loss to Aus in WC semis "No one died".

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Dhoni Controversial Run out Video: 3rd Test Ind vs England 2006

Here is the Dhoni's controversial run out from the Indian first innings (India vs England 3rd Test at Mumbai) after he hit 3 consecutive fours of Flintoff.

It's a very close call. Though Dhoni was out of crease when ball hit the stumps he was probably in when the bails were dislodged from stumps.



Other Cricket videos

Best ODI ever SA vs Aus
Amazing Cricket Clips
Inzy Controverisal Out Ind vs Pak

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India vs England 3rd Test Mumbai Preview: An Interesting Dilemma

The 3rd test match provides Rahul Dravid with the an interesting dilemma whether he should play with 4 bowlers or go for a kill with 5 frontline bowlers.

Scenario I

4 Bowlers: To me this is the most obvious choice. India has 2 very good spinners. Kumble has just completed his 500 wickets and Bhajji will be desperate to be back among wickets. Definitely Peeyush Chawla will be dropped. Munaf Patel is definitely in after his wonderful performance. Irfan Pathan will not be dropped since he slowly developing into an all rounder which India missed since Kapil Dev. That leaves India to select between Kaif and Laxman. The choice is tough but Unlucky Kaif seems to be obvious choice after his fighting knock in 1st Test at Nagpur.

Scenario II

5 Bowlers: India going out with 5 bowlers will be an interesting propostion. Interesting because Steve Harmison being injured England is not with the same bowling power and probably that might be the reason India no longer needs the 7th specialist batsman. Especially after some good batting performances from Kumble and Bhajji in the last tests India can go all out for Enland in this decisive test. With Dhoni and Pathan contributing India should not be overtly conservative. The entire reason for having a good allrounder in the team is to create a place for a 5th bowler. Well if India does go with the 5th bowler both Sreesanth and R P Singh have a fairly decent chance. I think although that Sreesanth has the upper hand.


Which of them will work for India is the question that only time can answer but will be appreciated only if India wins. This is Rahul Dravid's 100th test and he would not definitely want to lose the golden opportunity to win his 100th test and that too for being blamed for making a wrong decision.

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South Africa vs Australia Video March 12 2006: Best Cricket Match Ever

"Miracles do happen" and that two of them will happen in a single day is probably expecting too much. But it did happen when first Australia made 434/4 in 50 overs and then an unbelievable second time when SA successfully chased it with one ball and last wicket remaining. It undoubtedly was THE best one day match ever played. What made it more exciting was the fact that the series was tied at 2-2.

Here is the video from the australian and South African innings. Probably the quality is not as good as expected. But for anyone including me who missed seeing this match it should be more than enough.

Scorecard

Aus Innings (Ricky Ponting 164(105 Ball)



Here is the SA 438/9 chasing Aus 434/4. Gibbs 175 (111 Balls)

Part I



Part II

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Mohammed Kaif - An unlucky batsman.

Cricket is a funny game but what I have realised of late is Cricket selectors are even more funnier when they are making team selections. The selection at the second test at Mohali confirmed that. Laxman was dropped and so was Kaif for reasons called Yuvraj. Well the decision might not have been easier for Indian selectors.

What made Indian selectors drop Laxman. It's pretty obvious, he hasn't performed well in the first test and ofcourse age is not also on his side going by the Ganguly's example. He is not among the top 10 Indian fielders in the field. If you go by this assumptions Kaif is completely opposite to what laxman is. He is swift, agile and probably one of the best fielders in the Indian team. Had he not recently dropped some catches he might have been probably called the best. But then he scored runs when India wanted the most. That should have really counted for him.

Well the problem with the current Indian team once Kaif and Laxman departs is their is nobody besides Dravid who has the temprament to stay at the crease for long. Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan can all score at the brisk rate but then it's test match not One day. If India needs to play a couple of sessions they will definitely require somebody other than Dravid to carry the load. I would have personally preferred Kaif. Problem only in this case is you can't drop Dhoni being a Wicket keeper, Pathan being a bowler and Yuvraj being the Man of the Series against Pakistan. Well that doesn't leave any options does it when you want to have five specialist bowlers.

Well I hope India doesn't fall into such situations but they are inevitable in Test matches when you are only playing against the time. Kaif will probably need to wait for one of those situations before he will recalled in the test team.

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Saurav Ganguly vs Greg Chappell : The Controversy Continues

Greg Chappell - Saurav Ganguly episode has gone for so long it reminds me of TV serials like "Sas-Bahu" which keeps on dragging till the point no body wants to watch them, in this case no body wants to hear about them.

It all started with Arrogant Indian Captain "Saurav Ganguly" opening the Pandora's box when he stated that he has been asked to step down from the Captaincy. Now this was the same Ganguly who bought Chappell as Indian coach and had in the past seeked his advice for batting improvement. The things started getting worse with the Chappell's email which was leaked to the press. Now Mr Chappell seems to be hell bent on either continuing the controversy or On making the last statement or may be both.

What he has done in this case is reignited the discussion at the moment when the strong established Indian batsman have failed to perform in the 1st Innings at Nagpur and returning cricketers like Kaif and Jaffar have made a statement with their batting. It would be interesting to see how Indian selectors select the Indian team when Yuvraj Singh becomes completely fit and returns to Indian team.

What I found surprising is when Indian cricket board can reprimand Harbhajan Singh for making any irresponsible comments. How in the world has it not asked the Indian coach to refrain from making any comments. Indian board has now reprimanded Chappell for his irresponsible comments but like in the all the previous cases it's too little too late and damage is already done.

For all said and done about Saurav Ganguly fact remains that Ganguly is the best Indian cricket Captain and deserves a lot more respectful exit than what he has got.

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