India stared against SA on a green pitch, which had plenty of seam and bounce. As usual India lost 3 quick wickets and started struggling against the likes of Pollock, Morkel. There's a lot of positives about bringing in fresh blood into the team. Innings which Robin Uthappa showed a lot of maturity, very high for his age. I've seen him play in Eng, India and now in South Africa. This guy has a terrific foot work, plays with a straight bat and good on both sides of the wicket. He should be a handful for the Australia series. I knew SA would have a hard time chasing 150+ in Durban but did not expect them to lose ;-). Pace bowling and India are two hardly related terms. Thanks to Greg Chappell (or the person who got RP.Singh and Sreesanth into the side), for the first time I see these two hitting the deck very hard. On a average both bowl 83-84 mph with good seam positions. Real surprise was Irfan Pathan, short stint at MRF Pace Academy with the likes of Dennis Lillee and Troy Cooley seems to have restored confidence back in the young man. He has improved his pace quite a lot, currently faster than both Sreesanth and RP Singh. The ball he cleaned up Andrew Symonds was 140Kmph. I saw the highlights again just to confirm if it was Irfan Pathan bowling at 140 and indeed he was ;-).
Rohit Sharma, another youngster seems to enjoy pace and bounce the most ;). His shots were mostly from the middle of the willow except for 1-2 edges which are always bound to happen at Kingsmead. Yuvraj's 6x6s needs a mention. It's hard hitting 6x6s in an over, be it against Zimbabwe or Kenya or England. This guy's splendid timing was back in groove and all he needed during the semifinal was to middle it and Aussies pace will do the rest.3 gorgeous sixes, 2 off Brett Lee and one off Clark's short ball. Chasing 180+ under lights was never going to be easy, I knew Aussies would fold, thanks to Hayden they did put up some fight.
Coming to the finals. It's always a pleasure playing Pakistan and beating them that too in the finals. For a moment I thought Joginder messed up and the 3rd ball of the last over would land just in front of ropes, fortunately it went straight to Sreesanth and India won a major tournament after years . Is this dawn of a new age for Indian Cricket?, may be. I'd like to Closely watch the forth coming Australia series (both home and away) to confirm it. Lets keep our fingers crossed.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
ODI Series in England 6th ODI
Yes the talk today is about 6th ODI in England (vs India). I still can't comprehend how England made 310?, thank God they did not hit all sixes in the last over, would have been an embarrassment to the cricketer's bowling career (Yuvraj).
Just wondering what makes a good bowler. I can't help but think about how Michael Clarke and Symonds would have handled the situation, pls note that I'm not talking into consideration Mcgrath or Tait as it is not fair to compare them to Yuvraj Singh (as a bowler). Clarke or Symonds would have never gone for more than 12 runs in the last over, I'm pretty sure. Both are shrewd enough to vary their pace sufficiently. So what it takes to be a very good ODI bowler?.
I've been closely following Nathen Bracken and Brad Hogg lately. Bracken toured India in 2003 and proved handful with his medium pace (He bowls round about 120s most of the time and sometimes 110s for ppl who believe pace is a must and Irfan Pathan gets the treatment only because of his medium pace). The latter was a pretty much 5th bowler till this World Cup. To watch these 2 in World Cup was a real treat!. The former was lethally accurate and varied his pace and pitch of the delivery beyond any one could comprehend. The latter who was pretty much one dimensional since his career began showed beautiful variations in spin, pace and bounce that even batsmen of Flintoff's calibre struggled to read him. From a fifth bowler he became an unsung hero for Australia. He took 20 wickets in WC (too much for a fifth bowler, pretty much same as Muralitharan at a better average) .
Coming back to Yuvraj's bowling, I think Ajit Agarkar himself would have bowled better in these conditions. Dravid's ODI bowling rotation has been pathetic. But atleast they won the match. Good temperament from Uthappa handed us the match!
Just wondering what makes a good bowler. I can't help but think about how Michael Clarke and Symonds would have handled the situation, pls note that I'm not talking into consideration Mcgrath or Tait as it is not fair to compare them to Yuvraj Singh (as a bowler). Clarke or Symonds would have never gone for more than 12 runs in the last over, I'm pretty sure. Both are shrewd enough to vary their pace sufficiently. So what it takes to be a very good ODI bowler?.
I've been closely following Nathen Bracken and Brad Hogg lately. Bracken toured India in 2003 and proved handful with his medium pace (He bowls round about 120s most of the time and sometimes 110s for ppl who believe pace is a must and Irfan Pathan gets the treatment only because of his medium pace). The latter was a pretty much 5th bowler till this World Cup. To watch these 2 in World Cup was a real treat!. The former was lethally accurate and varied his pace and pitch of the delivery beyond any one could comprehend. The latter who was pretty much one dimensional since his career began showed beautiful variations in spin, pace and bounce that even batsmen of Flintoff's calibre struggled to read him. From a fifth bowler he became an unsung hero for Australia. He took 20 wickets in WC (too much for a fifth bowler, pretty much same as Muralitharan at a better average) .
Coming back to Yuvraj's bowling, I think Ajit Agarkar himself would have bowled better in these conditions. Dravid's ODI bowling rotation has been pathetic. But atleast they won the match. Good temperament from Uthappa handed us the match!
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