January 27, 2010
India Clean Up Bangladesh
Finally, the champs played like one and went on to win the two-match series 2-0. India beat Bangladesh convincingly by 10 wickets to ensure that they kept their number one position intact. The new ball bowlers did the trick for the Indians and restricted Bangladesh for 233 in their first essay. The score they finally reached was largely because of yet another brilliant performance by Mahmudullah Riyadh who has been in tremendous nick. He scored an unbeated 96 and batted wonderfully with the tail enders.
The Indians started off briskly as usual and both the openers scored their fifty. Sehwag was the first to be dismissed and then walked in Dravid. Gambhir missed reaching the elusive record of 6 centuries in 6 matches when he was dismissed for 68. I felt that he deserved a century for the kind of consistency he showed. Then it was the Tendulkar-Dravid show and both dominated the bowlers mercilessly. Dravid was hit on the head off a Shahdat bouncer and was declared retired hurt when on 111. Tendulkar made 143 and then Dhoni chipped in with a well made 89. Indians eventually reached 544/8 and ended their innings as Yuvraj Singh was out with a torn ligament.
Bangladeshis made it a point to apply themselves and play and Tamim Iqbal scored a wonderful 151. He was well supported by Junaine Siddique (55) and Shahdat Hossain (40). They were comfortably placed at 228/3 at the end of Day 3 and trailing India by just 83 runs. But Day 4 had a different story altogether. Zaheer Khan riped through their bating line-up and ended with figures of 87/7 in the innings and the match tally of 10 wickets. Bangladesh set India a total of 2 for victory and then the Indians won the match when they ran 2 byes off the bowling of Shakib. The Bangladeshi have themselves to blame for as they imploded to defeat.
January 20, 2010
Advantage India
Yet another century by Indian opener Gautam Gambhir ensured a solid foundation and the Indian middle order built on this to set Bangladesh a target of 415 runs. This is Gambhir’s 5th test ton in five consecutive Tests placing him among some of the famous names in the history of Cricket. He was ably supported by India’s night watchman Amit Mishra who scored a well made 50. More over, the pair scored their runs at quite a brisk rate before they were separated. That ensured that the Indians had enough time to pile on some good runs through the day’s play.
After the fall of Mishra, almost every Indian batsman got a good start and then perished when they looked set. V.V.S. Laxman started slowly but later paced his innings beautifully to score 69 and remained not out at the end of the innings. There was some good contributions throughout which saw India go past 400 run mark. Sehwag kept up his promise and ensured that the Indians didn’t lose all their wickets (which would have made it 20 wickets in a test match). India declared when the score was 413/8.
This was also India’s second best run-rate when scoring over 400 in an innings. Indians batted just for about 20 minutes after the tea break. The Bangladeshi batsmen were troubled by the Indian pace attack. Zaheer Khan was very accurate and kept on asking the batsmen questions. He was hitting the right length from the begining and his perseverence paid off when he had Imrul Kayes caught behind. He was pretty unlucky as Shahriar Nafees was dropped by Laxman off his bowling. But Ishant Sharma ensured that there wasn’t much damage by picking up Nafees later.
Everything is set for an interesting final day’s play. Bangladesh need another 348 runs while the Indians have to snap up another 8 wickets to come out victorious. Anything is possible but I feel that the Indians have a good chance of going one up in the series. They should attack the Bangladeshis tomorrow and should never let them out of the groove. The Bangladeshis looked scratchy today and India should capitalise on that.
Gambhir’s Feat :
16 & 137 – India Vs New Zealand – Napier – 26th March, 2009.
23 & 167 – India Vs New Zealand – Wellington – 3rd April, 2009.
1 & 114 – India Vs Sri lanka – Ahmedabad – 16th November, 2009.
167 & DNB – India Vs Sri Lanka – Kanpur – 24th November, 2009.
23 & 116 – India Vs Bangladesh – Chittagong – 17th January, 2010.
India Fightback
After the dull second day where only about 30 overs of play was possible, there was finally some sun light and hence some entertainment. Indians had managed a respectable 243 on Day 2, thanks largely to Sachin Tendulkar’s unbeaten 105. This was his 44th Test ton and he also went past the 13,000 test runs mark. He batted well with the tail to ensure a decent score.
The Bangladeshis started well with a 50+ opening stand and lost way to be 59/3 on Day 2. Day 3 was not very different and they were struggling at 98/6 before Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah fought back, Rahim scored 44 before being dismissed. Mahmudullah carried on his wonderful form from the ODI series and went on to score his maiden test fifty. He was later dismissed for a well compiled 66. Bangladesh were bowled out for 242, 1 run short of India’s total. The Indian bowlers shared the spoils with Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra picking up three wickets each and Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth picking two wickets each.
Indians started off well in their second essay and were scoring runs at will. Both the openers took the attack to the opposition and were successful. Virender Sehwag fell when the score read 90. He scored 45 runs by then. India sent in Amit Mishra as the night watchman and he did a good job. At the end of day 3, India are 122/1 with Gautam Gambhir unbeaten on 47 and Amit Mishra on 24. The Indians will try to force a result which would subject for interesting last two days.
January 17, 2010
Bangladesh On Top
Yes, you read it right. Bangladesh are on top on Day One of the Idea Cup Test series. After Sehwag’s comment that their team was an ordinary test team, they’ve really pulled up their socks and bounced back strongly. India were 8 for 213 at the end of days play. No one would’ve expected this specially with the way the Indians started. They were 63 for no loss at lunch after a delayed start. Sehwag and Gambhir played some shots though the ball wasn’t coming onto the bat. Earlier Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and put India into bat. The moisture made the conditions tough for the batsmen.
After a steady start, Indians faltered badly and lost wickets with not much runs on board. It wasn’t hostile bowling from the Bangladeshi bowlers, but rather some lose cricket by the Indians. Sehwag fell to a lose stroke when he pushed at a ball whcih didn’t come to him as fast as he expected. Gambhir chased a wide delivery outside the off stump the very next over. Dravid was bowled by a late out-swinging full length ball. Laxman was rather unfortunate when he mishit the ball and it rolled to the keeper and was stumped. Yuvraj Singh holed out at mid on off a full toss. Dinesh Karthik played a drive even before he was set and was caught at gully.
Tendulkar waged a lone battle and the tail gave him some sort of support. The Indians didn’t apply themselves and have only themselves to blame. Shakib and Shahadat Hossain were the pick of the bowlers, picking up four a piece. Whatever said and done is over. The Indians have to put their head down from here on and look to play positively. Indians will probably look for as many more as possible and then the bowlers should take the responsibility to keep them in the hunt. Absense of Harbhajan Singh doesn’t help India’s cause. But it is a good chance for the likes of Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma to make their presence felt. As Tendulkar said, there is still a long way to go and a lot of cricket left. Sehwag and his men have to play their best game on the field to prove a point to the minnows.
P.S. : Pics Courtesy – Cricinfo
March 9, 2009
When The Batsmen Ruled, The Sixes Rained!!!
Christchurch did see an amazing display of Batsmanship. The crowd couldn’t have asked for more. The climate, for once, was amazing and it was something that all of us had been waiting for. MSD again won the toss and decided to bat first. Sehwag fell early without being able to make the most of the splendid wicket. The ground looked small and I felt that Indians won’t score so much after Sehwag departed.
Gambhir walked in and he didn’t look his usual self. He looked very scratchy and he was not even able to put the bad balls through the gap. He looked completely out of touch. I was not surprised to see him get out to such a weak shot. Then came the turn in the tide. Tendulkar joined hands with Yuvraj Singh and the duo just did everything right. They kept clobbering runs of every over at an alarming rate.
Yuvraj made the best use of the small dimensions and kept clearing the rope every now and then. The duo were particularly deadly during the third power play during which they managed to score 78 runs off 5 overs!!! But Yuvraj fell 13 runs short of the century. By then the damage was done and the platform was set for a big score. Later Dhoni took over from Yuvraj and joined hands with the Little Master.
Tendulkar reached his first centuryin New Zealand at almost run a ball and then completely changed gears. He went from strength to strength and he looked like the vintage Tendulkar. He was set to score a 200, but then he got injured and retired after an amazing knock of 163*. Raina then came in and smashed a 18 ball 38 to ensure that the scoring rate didn’t fall.
In the last two overs, the Kiwis came back and ensured to keep India under 400. Clearly they missed Daniel Vettori and it showed. New Zealand also started off briskly and Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum seemed to take the game away from the Indians. Both scored at more than run a ball and Ryder was ruthless. He smashed his ton off just 71 balls. The duop put on 164 for the first wicket. After that they collapsed to 217/7. The tailenders then took the game alarmingly close. Kyle Mills scored a 50 in about 25 odd balls to put them back on track. But his dismissal opened the gates again.
The Kiwis were caught 53 runs short of the target. Clearly Brendon McCullum had a tough day as the Captain. A total of 31 sixes were scored in the game ( India – 18, New Zealand – 13 ) which is the new record. The total runs scored in the game stands second only to the 400+ chase that South Africa made against Australia. Many more records also tumbled in due course. Tendulkar was adjudged the Man Of The Match.
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