Win That Really Mattered For India !

One has to congratulate Indian test squad for doing a fantastic job by winning second test against South Africa (SA) today. This win was important as India would have lost its number one position otherwise. The highlights of the match were centuries by four batsman of India including little master Tendulkar and captain himself MSD, Amla's unbelievable resistance in the second innings and Harbhajan's magical spell to which Morkel fell for to give India the badly needed victory. India has retained number one position and Tendulkar made it very obvious how important it was for the team to retain no. 1 position in a post match interview.

Now we can look forward for ODI series starting in couple of days from now on. The team has just been announced. Ashwin, Yusuf Patahn and Nayar have been included as Zaheer, Harbhajan and Yuvraj are not playing. One can question if Ashwin's inclusion is justified, especially when Ojha is bowling really well and could have replaced Harbhajan. Also, Mishra is in a nice form, so in all probabilities Mishra will play in team of eleven. So what Ashwin will do sitting in dressing room? Instead someone like Maish Pandey could have been given a chance. Coming next to the inclusion of Jadeja, I am always muffed about it. Does he add any real strength to Indian team? Sehwag and Yuvraj (of course he is not playing this series) do the job of fifth bowler. Jadeja can not even clear the ground, so he is hardly useful when it comes to finishing the innings or match. Also one more point to note is that Indian selection committee seems to have reserved Ishant for test and Nehra for ODI's, though there is no apparent reason for it, only except that Ishant will be less ugly in test than in ODI's. But I let these anomalies live strong in Indian team.

This series is important for Kohli. Kohli can actually take this opportunity and cement his place in the team, even after Yuvraj returns. So there is implicit competition between Jadeja and Kohli or even more subtly between Raina and Kohli. So a small triangular series will take place within Indian team. I am interested to see how this unfolds.


At the end of it, I wish all the best wishes to Indian team.

Opportunism at it's best

Events over last two weeks have given democratic principles some rest it needed. Shiv Sena has shown us the way how democracy should function. The way to express regret over anyone's opinion, the way to protest against anyone's view is to attack the cinema halls, cause social disturbance, and to claim victory. Not only that, Congress has shown us how to use government agencies to their own political advantage. I do not say that they should not have given police protection to the cinema halls, in fact it is their duty to do so, but it was quite evident that Congress was trying to built its own image and at the same time deface that of Shiv Sena. They put SRK's controversy to the perfect use. In turn SRK allowed Congress to do that because he is fortifying his image of a star and also giving credibility to newly born "Indian" identity oh his own. Media is as usual being pre - decided as to who should be the "Bakra". Bottomline is that political wisdom has sustained the acme of its opportunism!