This is my first attempt to revive the writing on this blog and fortunately there is a lot interesting happening in cricketing world to write about it. Of course with the caveat that writing is lot less easier than playing and that all my comments here are written as a cricketing fan and with due respect to the players.
So, finally India has reached the knock out stage in the tournament. It was expected that India will reach this stage but given its performance in 2007 world cup, some of us were still keeping their fingers crossed. But the long league format in this world cup implies that teams with good performance on an average will go through to the next round. One particular match wouldn’t have much bearing on the end result. As all the top 8 teams (though Bangladesh were higher in ranking than West Indies, I still call west Indies a part of top 8 teams, just because they are better established than Bangladesh) have qualified for knock outs, the purpose of long league format has been served.
Coming to Quarter Finals against Australia, I will speak about few issues only; Raina Vs Yusuf, Ahmadabad, Indian Spinning attack and Australian weak points.
But first take a quick review of Indian performance during the world cup till now; one side of the coin is that we lost only a game against South Africa, that too only by a whisker. Other side of the coin is that we haven't got our bowling right and even our batting lineup has failed to make any contribution in 40-50 overs slot. Against West Indies, once again we were dismissed within 50 overs, after being in a great position till 40th over. On positive side, Sachin and Yuvraj are in great form and Sehwag and Kohli too are going great guns. The worrying fact is that once these 4 batsmen are down there is no one down the list who is performing. Dhoni sadly is busy commenting about the performance of the other players, but when it comes to performing, he is not contributing with batting. Yusuf Pathan has been a major disappointment for the selectors and Indian crowd (not for me as I never had much expectation from him). Again this is discussed in bit detail below. As far as Bowling is concerned, apart from Zaheer Khan, no bowler, I mean specialist bowler has made any impression on the scene. Zaheer has looks fit; he is getting swing and reverse swing both, and is amongst the wicket takers. Ashwin showed enough talent today against West Indies, and I hope he stay in the team. Overall, bowling has looked bit weak though.
Yusuf Vs Raina:
Even while writing up to this point, my mind could not resist writing this part. In my opinion, Indian selectors have got it wrong by choosing Yusuf over Raina. Yusuf is a big hitter, no doubt about it. But does India really need a player who fires once in10 innings and cannot even score responsible 20 runs when needed? He has clearly failed to stay on the pitch, and he has got out not neccessarily hitting the ball. His technique looks doubtful. Imagine a situation where India needs to play out 50 overs because top order has failed or say India need 100 from 120 balls. In either case, Yusuf does not seem to be a right choice. And mind that these are the situations you face as a team more often than say chasing 50 runs from 20 balls. And even then you feel that Yusuf is too much of a lottery to keep any belief in him. On the other hand, Raina is much solid in his technique (though he has few issues with short pitch balls). The main advantage with Raina is that he brings flexibility to the batting order. He can either play at number 3 – 4 and steady the innings of needed or he can even play down the order where he is a great finisher. He has played remarkably well at number 4, before Dhoni started pushing him down the order. In short he looks a more complete and reliable batting package than Yusuf. One of the main reasons India is unable to bat 50 overs is that Yusuf is getting out too cheaply. Sometimes, you need to steady the innings even in 45th over and Raina seem more capable of doing this. As far as off spinners are concerned, I do not have any reason to prefer Yusuf over Raina, and in any case, Yuvraj and Sehwag are there to fill in as a fifth bowler. I don’t have to mention his fielding. It just lifts the Indian spirits by some magnitude. So I do not see any reason why Raina should not play in Quarter Finals. I hope that selectors feel the same.
Sometimes aura stays for long time and same has happened with Australian cricket team. Their performance over last decade has just created mental block in minds of other teams. But many experts have agreed to this that the Australian team now looks much weaker than couple of years back; main reason being their unreliable batting. Though their bowling is still of the highest standards. This is good news for India, especially because Indian spinners are showing some form of late and Australians are weak players against spin. But said all this, one must not forget that Aussies are a great fighting team and they can bounce back from any stage. The best chance India has to beat Australia is to put up a big score (say 300) on board and put their batting under pressure. If Aussies score around 300 or even 275, it looks little difficult for India to chase it down, unless someone stays on the pitch for long.
Spare a thought for Sachin. He has scored two centuries this world cup and India has not won either of those games. This might be his last of the world cups and he wants to make it count this time. Indian players need to play around him when he stays on the pitch and support him. He looks determined and you might see him play some of the best innings in his life in coming knock out stage. (At least everyone hopes this)
To summarize, for me India has a great chance to win against Australia and we should be better off playing against Australia in Motera as against Srilanka in Colombo. So keep your Thursday free and I hope we get to see a cracker of match and hope that India wins this, Pakistan wins their tie and we meet in semis (what a match that would be!!!!!)
That’s it for now
Apoorva Javadekar
(From "far away from the world cup")
So, finally India has reached the knock out stage in the tournament. It was expected that India will reach this stage but given its performance in 2007 world cup, some of us were still keeping their fingers crossed. But the long league format in this world cup implies that teams with good performance on an average will go through to the next round. One particular match wouldn’t have much bearing on the end result. As all the top 8 teams (though Bangladesh were higher in ranking than West Indies, I still call west Indies a part of top 8 teams, just because they are better established than Bangladesh) have qualified for knock outs, the purpose of long league format has been served.
Coming to Quarter Finals against Australia, I will speak about few issues only; Raina Vs Yusuf, Ahmadabad, Indian Spinning attack and Australian weak points.
But first take a quick review of Indian performance during the world cup till now; one side of the coin is that we lost only a game against South Africa, that too only by a whisker. Other side of the coin is that we haven't got our bowling right and even our batting lineup has failed to make any contribution in 40-50 overs slot. Against West Indies, once again we were dismissed within 50 overs, after being in a great position till 40th over. On positive side, Sachin and Yuvraj are in great form and Sehwag and Kohli too are going great guns. The worrying fact is that once these 4 batsmen are down there is no one down the list who is performing. Dhoni sadly is busy commenting about the performance of the other players, but when it comes to performing, he is not contributing with batting. Yusuf Pathan has been a major disappointment for the selectors and Indian crowd (not for me as I never had much expectation from him). Again this is discussed in bit detail below. As far as Bowling is concerned, apart from Zaheer Khan, no bowler, I mean specialist bowler has made any impression on the scene. Zaheer has looks fit; he is getting swing and reverse swing both, and is amongst the wicket takers. Ashwin showed enough talent today against West Indies, and I hope he stay in the team. Overall, bowling has looked bit weak though.
Yusuf Vs Raina:
Even while writing up to this point, my mind could not resist writing this part. In my opinion, Indian selectors have got it wrong by choosing Yusuf over Raina. Yusuf is a big hitter, no doubt about it. But does India really need a player who fires once in10 innings and cannot even score responsible 20 runs when needed? He has clearly failed to stay on the pitch, and he has got out not neccessarily hitting the ball. His technique looks doubtful. Imagine a situation where India needs to play out 50 overs because top order has failed or say India need 100 from 120 balls. In either case, Yusuf does not seem to be a right choice. And mind that these are the situations you face as a team more often than say chasing 50 runs from 20 balls. And even then you feel that Yusuf is too much of a lottery to keep any belief in him. On the other hand, Raina is much solid in his technique (though he has few issues with short pitch balls). The main advantage with Raina is that he brings flexibility to the batting order. He can either play at number 3 – 4 and steady the innings of needed or he can even play down the order where he is a great finisher. He has played remarkably well at number 4, before Dhoni started pushing him down the order. In short he looks a more complete and reliable batting package than Yusuf. One of the main reasons India is unable to bat 50 overs is that Yusuf is getting out too cheaply. Sometimes, you need to steady the innings even in 45th over and Raina seem more capable of doing this. As far as off spinners are concerned, I do not have any reason to prefer Yusuf over Raina, and in any case, Yuvraj and Sehwag are there to fill in as a fifth bowler. I don’t have to mention his fielding. It just lifts the Indian spirits by some magnitude. So I do not see any reason why Raina should not play in Quarter Finals. I hope that selectors feel the same.
Sometimes aura stays for long time and same has happened with Australian cricket team. Their performance over last decade has just created mental block in minds of other teams. But many experts have agreed to this that the Australian team now looks much weaker than couple of years back; main reason being their unreliable batting. Though their bowling is still of the highest standards. This is good news for India, especially because Indian spinners are showing some form of late and Australians are weak players against spin. But said all this, one must not forget that Aussies are a great fighting team and they can bounce back from any stage. The best chance India has to beat Australia is to put up a big score (say 300) on board and put their batting under pressure. If Aussies score around 300 or even 275, it looks little difficult for India to chase it down, unless someone stays on the pitch for long.
Spare a thought for Sachin. He has scored two centuries this world cup and India has not won either of those games. This might be his last of the world cups and he wants to make it count this time. Indian players need to play around him when he stays on the pitch and support him. He looks determined and you might see him play some of the best innings in his life in coming knock out stage. (At least everyone hopes this)
To summarize, for me India has a great chance to win against Australia and we should be better off playing against Australia in Motera as against Srilanka in Colombo. So keep your Thursday free and I hope we get to see a cracker of match and hope that India wins this, Pakistan wins their tie and we meet in semis (what a match that would be!!!!!)
That’s it for now
Apoorva Javadekar
(From "far away from the world cup")
PS: I just realised that I forgot completely to write about Indian Bowling combination. I feel India should go with two spinners and two fast bowlers. Whether Nehra or Munaf is a choice similar in spirit to the choice between say taking a job in Uganda as against Haiti; I suppose.
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