The oz’re on rampage" now 15 in row"

Aussies destruction is on and inching past the great wining spree of consecutive test matches against the same side, they did last time. Last time it was in visitors home soil and now its time to turn things in their own home ground, well the first, test started with lots of positive note India doing well on the first day of boxing day test match,what was looking a one sided affair after a rock solid opening partnership between Phil Jacques and Mathew Hayden. They both batted beautifully for the 137-run partnership, but from there on Kumble strike back with his beautiful wrong ’un deliveries which was completely misread by Australian middle order batsmen. But then Mathew Hayden anchored innings took the Australian to a safe score of 343 runs.

(Methew Hayden MOM)

Mathew Hayden finally clean bowled by Zaher Khan delivery, he made belligerent innings of 124 off 183 balls. Restricting the home side for runs, kumble once again showed his class by taking 5 wickets for 84 runs. When the sun was setting dawn on the first day of test match, India too looked in even steven position in the match. Indian’s started the innings quite concisely to see out the new ball ,but soon lost the plot by giving too many chances to the opponent to strike back hard on them, Australian ripped through the so called strong batting line up of team India.
(All smiles as Australia wobbled India's top order, Australia v India, 1st Test, MCG, December 27, 2007)

Dravid the make shift opener of team was the main culprit. He managed only 5 runs of 66 deliveries.Sachin showed some glimpse of his silken touch by stamping his authority against Hogg. He made 62 runs off 77 deliveries.Sachin too was quite shy at playing the hook or pull shot against the speed star Brett Lee. His wicket was finally castled by Clarke, same dismissal, as has been in the last test series against Pakistan and England. Both Dhoni and Yuvraj crumbled under pressure and both got out without adding runs to the total. This series would be the tough acid test for this two young lads.Dhoni never looked like test batsmen to me who could play test cricket at this level. His technique is too brittle. India finally bowled out for 196.

When Australians strolled out to bat in their 2nd innings, it all looked ominous that Indian are going to have big task to bowl them out .Australian’s finally declared the innings on 351 having a lead of 498 runs. The writing was there on the wall and India only managed 161 runs in their 2nd innings once again the little maestro failed to lift the game for his country in 2nd innings.


It all started well for the team India on the first day of test match but soon we found over selves in a very difficult position at the end of second day of test match,when our batsmen failed to grind hard on the Australian wicket. as far as our bowling department is concern they bowled well in patches but were not consistent enough to rip through the strong Aussies batting line up.Every Indian players will now have to re-group and show some sternness against the mighty Australian else it will be soon 16 in row…......

SERIES DOWN UNDER

Finally the much awaited series against the oz started today with India doing good well on the first day of Boxing Day test match at Melbourne. This test series is well set for the number of reasons. sachin just 141 run short ,to become the second Indian to score 2000 runs against one country.kumble need 16 more scalps to get into 600 wickets in test cricket and many more records for different player. Australians have not tasted defeat in their home soil since 1992.Indian team in fact came close to that mark by drawing the series against the oz in 2003-04.Aussies were push down in that series due to injury of their spearheads bowlers Glen McGrath & Brett Lee. This was a blessing in disguise for the team India .Rahul Dravid and cool Laxman’s innings helped India to won the crucial match at Adelaide. This series also saw the farewell of legend Steve Waugh.


The series down under would be the last tour for the senior brigade of team.sachin would love to get past Lara’s milestone of highest run getter in longer version of the game. Dada would be eying a big hundred in his 100th test. This series would be great testing platform for the young players of the side. Especially the poster boys M S Dhoni and Yuvi. Both of them aggressive in style and fragile in technique. It would interesting how they will cope up with seaming condition of the Australian wicket.


On the other hand, Australia would continue the unabated wining spree of consecutive 14 test matches. They would be looking to break their own record of 16 consecutive win against India.


This series would be highly anticipated by the Indians since they love their side playing hard and tough cricket against Australia. Spin attack of India would be quite crucial against the Aussies. Australian player’s record against slower bowler has not been great for long period. This factor was quite evident on the last ODI tour of oz in India.



Well on paper, our side batting order looks quite formidable. But we would have to wait and see how this long batting line up would counter attack the Australian bowling line up. Brett Lee is now just four short of 250 wickets in test cricket. Brad Hogg will have big task to restrict Indian batsmen to score against him. It would interesting how this series will go on. Indian team in fact have played some good cricket in the past by wining test series against WI, RSA and England. I will be keenly following this series and would love to write more on the same.

Kumble ka kotla

Perfect start to kumble’s captaincy by wining the 1^st test against the old time arch rivals Pakistan. It was the test where pendulum swung on both the sides, but finally Indian made the best out of it, by taking the initiative of picking early wicket in the second innings of middle order Pakistan batting lineup.this match was quite important for two important players of the side. First kumble for his debut as captain for India where this game is no bigger than the god, and then the demigod figure for Indian cricket amchi Tendulkar who crossed the Allan Border milestone for getting maximum runs in the test cricket, is now behind my all time favourite prince of Trinidad Brian Lara. This test match was interestingly poised till the fall of Dravid wicket but then the good partnership between the Sachin and Ganguly sealed the victory on our side. Pakistan team body languages haven’t been great this season losing both ODI and test series against the RSA in home, and then ODI to the Indians.

What I felt in this series was the tenacity between the two sides. I no longer felt the excitement which these two sides have brought to the game. My mind still wonders for the fire power of Waqar and Wasim.Even Boria Mojumdhar article in TOI speaks to this loss of interest battle between the two sides.

Any way coming onto the series between the Aussies and Sri-Lankans.Series started with lots talk between Murali and Warne and then verbal onslaught between the former Srilankan captain Marvan and SL cricket board. Aussies was again rubbing salt on the others wound, won both the test matches quite comfortably. I wanted to see murali getting past warn’e milestone in Hobert which favours spin blowing. But as usual Aussies live up to their words that they will not allow murali to cross this milestone in their home soil. Murali now have to wait for the home series against England to achieve the same. But it was great to watch sangakara blitz innings of 194.

Finally a sigh of relief for me that brian lara has signed the deal with ICL and will be playing in the ICL league matches. He will be captaining the Mumbai champs. I would love to watch one of these matches. Lara will defiantly produce some gem of innings which we have been looking in the hindsight.

It will now be quite hard for the Pakistan to bounce back in the series. I still feel the trump card for the Pakistan will be Daniesh Kenaria. He really has shown some great quality spin bowling against the Indian batsmen. One battle that I am really looking forward to see is the tussle between Sachin and Daniesh. It will be interesting to see how Sachin will play against him.

Ruthless Aussies

Ruthless Aussies

In my first stint as blogger I just wanted to started writing something on cricket which is a game I always followed after watching prince of Trinidad brain Lara scoring a cliff hanger innings of 153 not out against his old time arch rivals Australian…

Let’s start with the ongoing series between India and Australia. Australian as usual stamping their authority over the Indian’s poor performance in all departments of cricket. Indian looked lacklustre in fielding, bating and blowing. The men in blue were really fortunate in the first game of future cup at chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore due to rain god…Australian posted a imposing target of 307 for 7 after overcoming initial jitters. This time Michael Clarke came to the party. He struck blistering innings of 130. Sree bowled well in patches or early over’s of the innings but lost is cool at the end of 40th over of the match.

What Sree really lacks is the cool temperament. As a fast blower you should have a mix of both aggression and cool temper. The kind of gesture he shows in the outfield don’t look too impressive to me. He should first concentrate on his consistency and that will only increase his chances of being in team…..otherwise it will always be in & out stuff for him….


Moving on to Kochi I always thought that rain is going make a spoilsport for 2nd match too…but, great the rain stayed away and match started in time. India were brought down to earth after the euphoria of the T20 world cup….Australia won the lop sided match against the India by 84 runs…in this match much of talk was regarding the on field behaviour of players of both the team. India blowers were trying to get to the skin of Australian batsmen. Instead the host found themselves in big mess.Sachin was subdued in his innings.Sachin should now consider his career in shorter version of the game. I just think of a jarkhandi guy who told me that sachin woh gai (cow) hai jo 10 lite dodh deti hai par pani wala…..opponent no longer think of sachin as threat.

Once again meek surrender in 3rd ODI at Hyderabad. In no uncertain Aussies won the match by 47 runs. But good on India’s perspective that they lost the match by 47 runs. Yuvi, continued, the good work , it was his solidity that whittled the target to 74 runs.He scored magnificent 121 runs off 115 balls.


As usual Indian media were dump and down mainly because they were not getting the masala for prime time news. It has been really sorry affair for our media people that they do not highlight the weakness of Indian team in comparison to the mere number of wins for team India, may be because the foolish sentiments of Indian people towards the team india.




Dhoni has his own style of supporting his young team mate…ye sab to chalta hai…. Some times we win some times loss.


With Indian team trailing by 2-0 it looks ominous that Australian will once again stamp their authority over the depleted Indian side…Indian finally managed to sneak a narrow win by 8 runs. In fact aussies out played Indian’s in all department but at the end of day jo jeeta wohi sikandhar.

This week also show the retirement of one of the great player of Pakistan Inzy…the big men is going to have his final swansong in the 2nd test against SA…..i really loved his game and the number of great innings he has played over the years.


Now it’s down to three matches and I am sure aussies will rule over the men in blue and will come out triumphant…….