Test Match Report (IND-ENG) 2nd Test: Indians rule the Britishers

No sight is worth watching than seeing the sea of Tricolors flying high in a country that never allowed our ancestors to fly the Tricolor when they were in India. They say Zaheer prefer blue over pink and i say that they prefer to be f***** by Men in Blues. Indian performance is best described by the last picture of the match. It is incumbent on me to delineate the performance of Indian players

1. Waseem Jaffer (7/10) 62+22=84 runs
He played his role with perfection along with Dinesh Karthick and laid the foundation of great Indian Victory.
2. Dinesh Karthick (7.5/10) 77+22=99 runs
The highest scorer for India in this match and he started the Indian proceedings with great assertiveness. He has enough talent to reserve a regular opener place.
3. Rahul Dravid (6/10) 37+11*=48 runs
He found some touch in this match. He made some very good decisions like taking new immediately in the English inning, giving ball to Ganguly in first Inning and asking England to bat first. He has started learning the art of captaincy and we all know that he is a fast learner.
4. Sachin Tendulkar (7.5/10) 91+1=92 runs
He found his nemesis in Simon tauffel in first inning. He was well set for that inning but luck deserted him, nevertheless he produced a inning of character.
5. Sourav Ganguly (8/10) 79+2*=81 runs and 1 wicket
He is going from strength to strength in this series. He was instrumental in curtailing England first inning by dismissing the highest scorer of England. His figure (8-4-11-1) resembles with the figure of a top class bowler. His first inning was one of the most fluent inning of recent past and second best inning of the match after the Vaughan's innings. He also found his nemesis in Simon Tauffel just like Sachin.
6. VVS Laxman (7/10) 54+DNB=54 runs
He also played his role with perfection and proved all the nonsense about the credibility of Indian middle order wrong.
7. MS Dhoni (2/10) 5+DNB=5 runs
After the Lords heroic he decided to take rest and did nothing in the match apart from catching the leather.
8. Anil Kumble (6/10) 6 (lower order wickets) and 30 runs.
He was not that Kumble that we all know. Some how he managed to grab the lower order wickets but he was far from impressive. His first inning 30 runs was the most impressive contribution he made in the match.
9. Zaheer Khan (9/10) 9 wickets and 10* runs
He was Man of the Match. His performance was exemplary in both the innings. He has been giving scathing replies to all his detractors. By showing bat to English players after that insult he showed that "Gone are those days".
10. RP Singh (7/10) 1+2 = 3 wickets
He took the key wickets of Pietersen in both the inning and the ball he bowled to Matt Prior was the beauty. He played his role as a partner of Zaheer with perfection.
11. Sreesanth (3/10) 1 wicket
He was far from impressive in this match but no one will forget the beamer that he bowled to Pietersen. He was partially responsible for the prize wicket of Pietersen in the second inning.

It was a well deserved victory and India dominated all the sessions of the match except the first two sessions of the fourth day. It was a sight to watch Sourav and Sachin performing under Rahul and they say they were conspiring against Dravid for the sake of captaincy.

Test Match Report (IND-ENG) 1st Test: Lord Rain God saved the Indian blues

Well, I dont have any obnoxious comments left in me to censure Indian players. But as some of our great players are playing probably for last time in England so its worth while to view a glimpse of their greatness in flicks. So this post is delineating the performance of Indian players in the Lords Match.

1. Waseem Jaffer (5/10) Runs 58+8=66
He played an anchored inning in India's first inning although that inning was deprived of any sheen still good enough to save blushes. He failed miserably in 2nd inning. I gave him 5 points because he is partially responsible for the draw as he played more than 156 balls in the first inning.
2. Dinesh Karthick (5/10) Runs 5+62=67
He was at sea in first inning, dropped the catch of Strauss that cost eventually the match, played a brave knock in second inning.
3. Rahul Dravid (1/10) Runs 2+9=11
He got one of the best delivery in first inning and in second he was bit unfortunate.
4. Sachin Tendulkar (3.5/10) Runs 37+16=53
He along with Dravid were responsible for the pathetic showing of much vaunted Indian top order.
5. Sourav Ganguly (6/10) Runs 34+40=74 and wicket of Cook in first inning.
He brought India back into game twice first by taking the scalp of Cook in first inning when Indian bowling was exposed by the Englishmen and second by saving the Indian doom in the 4th day after the decimation of Dravid, Jaffer and Sachin. He got a beauty in first inning by Anderson.
6. VVS Laxman (4/10) Runs 15+39=54
It was not a great sight to watch Laxman felling with the bells in second inning. His second inning partnership with Dhoni eventually saved the match for India.
7. MS Dhoni (6.5/10) Runs 0+76*=76
Got a debut duck at Lords and started poorly in second inning but his guts and pluck saved the match for India. A great inning under pressure.
8. Anil Kumble (4/10) 2+1= 3 Wickets
He didnt get any chance to play his role and some times he was just looking like an addendum.
9. Zaheer Khan (6/10) 2+4=6 wickets
He started the attack as he has done 5 years back in World Cup final. He was consistent in bits and pieces nevertheless he played his part.
10. Sreesanth (5/10) 3+0=3 Wickets
He was arguably the best bowler in first inning and impressive in the later as well. He will go places.
11. RP Singh (8/10) 2+5=7 wickets
His bowling was as majestic as the batting of Kevin Pietersen. The ball he bowled to Vaughan was one of the best Indian swing ball in the recent past and the short ball that surprised Collingwood was the best Indian bouncer i have ever seen.

Now over to Nottingham with a hope that Fantastic four will fire there. Amen.

P.S. My favourite living legend has just completed his office tenure. My best wishes to him in all his future aims and i hope that i will be able to play a role in his Mission 2020. Amen.

All Time Best Indian ODI Cricket Team

The second and the last post in the current sequence regarding the selection of all time Best Indian ODI Team. Needless to say that i am considering the ODI generation of Indian players i.e. after 1971 AD and minimum qualification for a player is 50 Matches (i.e. He should be a veteran of 50 matches). There is not a huge vier for selection. And the team is:

1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Sourav Ganguly (Captain)
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Mohammad Azharuddin
5. Yuvraj Singh
6. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
7. Irfan Pathan
8. Kapil Dev (Vice Captain)
9. Zaheer Khan
10. Javagal Srinath
11. Anil Kumble

12th Man Virendra Sehwag/Harbhajan Singh

The openers were obvious choices and we are fortunate to have Sachin and Sourav as our openers. Both are having 40+ averages and both can be called as all rounders. Sourav has taken nearly 100 ODI wickets with a decent average of 37 and Sachin has taken almost 150 wickets with an average of 43 not bad at all.
There was no contest for number 3 slot and Rahul was right there.
There was a huge contest for middle order slots between Vengsarkar, Ajay Jadeja, Kambli, Azharuddin, Yuvraj, Siddhu and Sehwag. Azharuddin got the place because of his exemplary fielding skills. Yuvraj was able to win over Sehwag (for fielding and average) and Jadeja (for strike rate).
Dhoni was an obvious choice for wicket keeper.
People may laugh over the selection of Irfan pathan but he has a great ODI average in bowling as well as in batting(nearly 25 in both). He was given preference over Manoj Prabhakar and Ravi Shastri. All other bowlers were obvious choices.
I have chosen Sehwag as 12th Man over Jadeja because he has a comprehensively better strike rate than Jadeja as well as he is a better bowler.
This is a great team with 4 players having 40+ batting average. 4 world class fielders in Yuvraj, Azhar, Pathan and Kapil. 2 World Class all rounders in Kapil and Pathan. 3 average all rounders in Sourav, Sachin and Yuvraj. 4 players with more than 9000 runs each and 3 bowlers with more than 250 wickets each.This team has scored more than 60,000 ODI runs, 93 centuries and has taken nearly 1500 wickets, what else is required.

All time best Indian Test Cricket Team

After reading and learning a lot these days about all time best Indian Cricket Team i contemplated for a while and then i thought to pen down my Team. This series is divided in two parts ODI team and Test team with my best possible reasons.

My all time Test Team

1. Sunil Gavaskar (Captain)
2. Vinoo Mankad (all-rounder)
3. Vijay Hazare (all-rounder)
4. Rahul Dravid
5. Sachin Tendulkar
6. Mohammad Azharuddin
7. Farokh Engineer (Wicket Keeper)
8. Kapil Dev (all-rounder and vice captain)
9. Amar Singh (all-rounder)
10.Anil Kumble
11. Subhash Gupte

12th Man Sourav Ganguly (as an all-rounder)

There was a close fight between Vijay Merchant and Vinoo Mankad for an opening slot, and Vijay Merchant got the place because of his all round abilities. There was no contest for second slot and Gavaskar was right there.
There were close fights between Vengsarkar, Dravid, Hazare, Sachin, Azhar, Laxman, Mohinder Amarnath and Ganguly for middle order. Dravid and Sachin were obvious choices. Vijay Hazare got the place because of his all round ability. After that there was a close call between Azhar, Vengsarkar, Ganguly, Amarnath and Laxman for remaining 1 place. They all are equally capable batsmen (I am slightly unjust to Azhar). Taking Ganguly as an all rounder will add variety to our bowling attack as he is rather susceptible to fast bowling but he is equally good against Spin bowling. Azhar got the place because of his acrobatic fielding and thus he was able to beat Vengsarkar, Laxman, Amarnath and Ganguly. We need a proper full time keeper. Dravid wont work so i am taking Farokh Engineer over Syed Kirmani and M.S. Dhoni.
There were no great fights for the bowlers. All the bowlers deserved their places.

I have given Captaincy to Gavaskar and Vice Captaincy to Kapil Dev. Sourav Ganguly is the 12th Man in the team but he has been taken for his all round abilities so he has to work really hard otherwise place may got to either Laxman ,Dilip Vengsarkar or Mohinder Amarnath.

Wait for the next article for the the all time Best Indian ODI team.

A visit to a rainy paradise.. Mahabaleshwar

Last Sunday due to enthusiasm of my junior Shiv i experienced the bliss on earth. Mahabaleshwar a place near to Pune (You can reach there from Pune in 3 hrs by public transport). So we reached there to explore things. Our Taxi driver "Raja Hindustani" told so many anecdotes about various films that shot there. It was raining and raining and water pouring every where due to heavy downpour that lasted for about an hour followed by sporadic showers of rain and between all this we captured and relished the nature at its best. Our Raja Hindustani gave an animadversion about the place that this place is second only to Cherapoonji in terms of Rainfall. It was bit fogy and rainy out there so we were not able to make our camera click. Some fortunate pics are located here. One thing i learned there that "Its sacrilege to visit Mahabaleshwar without your girl friend with you". I dont know how much time i will waste in this no so google search.