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Kautilya
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Name: Sameer
Birthday: 3/22/1983
Gender: Male
Interests: Reading and all sports involving any sort of balls. (no pun intended)
Expertise: International Relations, Current Affairs and Sports
Occupation: Student
Industry: Other
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Member Since:
6/24/2003
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| My blog can now be found at http://www.chanakya.wordpress.com hope to see you there.
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| What a riveting test match!!
The 1st Test between India and England ended in a draw, which was probably a just results for the efforts put forth by both teams. The standout moment of the test being that 5 over spell by Hoggard on D3 which ensured that India were always going to be behind the 8 ball.
Now moving onto T2 in Mohali. This venue should offer the English their best possibility of a result on paper. The track is known to help good accurate quicks and hence one should see another keen contest.
The following are the key aspects which both teams need be concerned with:
1. India & England - How will they take 20 wickets?
India may have been able to take 20 wickets had they not produced a shambolic D4 fielding effort coupled with some of the more egregious umpiring moments of the game.
England never looked like taking a wicket till India decided to have a dash late in D5. For all of Monty's economy ... the fact still remains that he took all of 3 wickets in the match, how long before one of Sehwag, Yuvraj, Dhoni or Pathan give him a good shellacking. A better paced track at Mohali may give them that opportunity.
2. Pace of Batting - India was particularly faulty in this regard ... both of their innings barely ever threatened the 3 rpo mark. This is fine initially or when the bowling is posing a major threat. However, the unwillingness or inability to take more singles will pose a major hurdle to getting results.
3. Wicketkeeping - England has conveniently ignored criticizing Jones for a shamblic display behind the stumps. He missed two critical chances; one off Kumble on D3-- a game changing miss IMO, the other a tougher chance off of Dravid which could have given England a much better sniff.
4. Spinner's incisiveness - India is struggling in the spin department. Although both Kumble and Bhajji have kept the run rate under clamps they have struggled to garner any wickets. This is both a reflection of ordinary form and a better prepared english batting unit. India must decide whether the more obvious turn of Chawla is worth a punt in the next match.
5. Quickies workload - The Engish quicks bowled a lot of overs in this test match and this was despite the Indians rarely ever threatening to take the game away from them. Can the continue this workload especially given the propensity to break down?
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| Day 3 saw some interesting cricket ... first of the myth of the Indian middle order should be ended as quickly as possible. This middle order is past its use by date and I hope to see some further changes soon.
Hoggard bowled a stupendous spell which brought back memories of Gillespie's spell at this very ground in 2004. The difference was this was much better since there was nothing in the track. Hoggy just produced an outstanding spell of reverse swing. Sehwag, Dravid, Jaffer, Laxman and Pathan makes for a high quality 5fer.
Kaif, the much maligned Kaif whose inclusion caused much ire amongst critics played a very ugly but highly effective knock. It reinforces the thought amongst many who think he has a test match outlook, but his dismissal also highlighted the fact that he has never scored more than 120 runs in an innings.
This match has had the feel of a well contested late 80's game, run rate never threatening the 3 mark yet a highly compelling battle nonetheless.
It remains to be seen how the match unfolds but all three results are possible at this stage. | | |
| India for the umpteenth time let a team get away from the noose. India has a sorry habit of doing this in both test match and ODI cricket. It baffles me how it continues occurring but it seems to me that it has something to do with the Indian mindset. This lack of a killer instinct is seen in all walks of my life in Indian culture.
Some call it the 'Chalta hai' culture. For non-hindi speakers that translates loosely into 'Let it be'. This has always been a pet peeve of mine and in my mind is one of the reasons why Indians are rarely the toppers at anything. We are damn good at many things and as an average are often superior to most others, but we more often than not get trumped by some other team/individual/'fill in the blank'.
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| The first test match between India and England commenced yesterday. The starting time on East Coast is 11:30 pm. Clearly perfect to actually be able to watch the entire day's play but very inconvenient seeing that cricket viewing is not the only item on the daily agenda.
India lost the toss and England chose to bat, the day ended at 245/7. A thoroughly professional performance on what was a highly benign surface. This team slowly but surely is coming to embody its leader; Rahul Dravid. Professional is the word that best epitomizes Dravid.
I expect India to deliver a bug victory here.
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