The Sorrow of Indian Cricket. Review on India - Australia cricket series

The Comedy of Errors (Part 2)

So finally today the Australian Tour is over and the comedy of errors continue as well.

I wont write about Australia as they are already written over again and again with excellent performances and needless to say how they lift their level of game up and make others look ordinary when needed the most.

Lets start with the test series. All matches played on batting tracks and indian batsmen made merry of the 2nd string bowling attack. Brett Lee coming after a injury was never 100 % in the test series and so was his partner Jason Gillespie. And then after winning the 2nd test, there was Ganguly giving 2 big statements.

1. Dravid batted like God. Uhhh.. I didnt knew god was a batsmen and Dravid plays like God. LOL all Ganguly fans should start worshipping Ganguly now, it seems he has himself made a prophet out of him. If God were to bat then he would surely hit every ball out of universe every single day he played. Gosh this would be Gods score then 90 overs x 6 balls = 540 sixes in a day versus any team leave aside Ganguly's.

   
   




2. Well let me put his exact words here, Sorrow Ganguly: ''I've said before that we are the second-best side in the world at present. If we can win this series, yes, definitely we can (be the best) because a lot of Australian players are finishing and they will probably go through a build-up stage, so it's a good opportunity for us if we keep on playing well,''

   
   

Ganguly's team is the 2nd best in the world. LOL, Drawn Home series to NZ, Lost to NZ 2-0 in NZ, tied 1-1 to England in England, tied with zimbabwe in zimbabwe 1-1, Lost to Ohhhh WI 2-1 in WI with those 4 fearsome bowlers, Mervn Dillon, Cameron Cuffy, Adam Stanford and Pedro Collins, Hahaha those 4, Lost to Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka 2-1 and have lost to South Africa both at home and Away. Home 2-0 and Away 1-0. All these have been between 2001 and 2004. Well he needs to check al this again. Scoring Runs on tracks which unfortunately werent made for bowling and winning 1 test doesnt make anyone a champion.

And when Greg Chappel the guy who was giving batting tips to Dada commented, that if winning one test against Australia can make you No. 1, then best of lucks to the indian team. The dada quickly backed out of the statement giving excuses, I didn't mean that people are reading the other side of it.

Now if you read what he says you will quickly make out the attitude of this man Ganguly. He says there are a lot of Australian Players finishing and they will go though a build-up stage. He means to say that only when Australia lose their current great players and go through a transition phase where perhaps they dont get good players immediately as replacement (Ganguly must be definitely praying this), only then can India become the number 1. So when Australia with these greats are going to be there, Ganguly's team cannot become the number 1. This is the clear message from Ganguly.

Then there was Anil Kumble, whom Ganguly said he is a class act after the series. He played 3 tests and took 24 wickets. Australia in those 3 tests scored near about 2000 runs. Out of these 2000 runs 710 Runs. 35% of the runs that Australia scored were against Anil Kumble. The best bowler India has. And he is the strike bowler or became the strike bowler suddenly. I don't say anything more, except he was the most successful, had 24 wickets to his name and also 710 Runs to his name.

And then there was a comedy statement by indian commentators. That his average and the runs he gave would have been lesser had he got another spin bowler at the other end who was capable of bowling tightly. How many series since 2001 have Harbhajan and Kumble gone together abroad and how many wickets they took. The reason he took more wickets in Australia is he bowled more and more often than not he took wickets when Australia were in a comfortable position already having scored more than 400 or 450. And can anyone tell me why does Muralitharan and Shane Warne doesnt need any other supporting spin bowler at the other end or can show me another spin bowler would tighten the other end, who has bowled alongside them. All excuses....

Finally we came to the end of the tour with the VB series. Everything went fine untill the future world champions as per Ganguly off course, reached Perth. The WACA wicket wasnt the fastest as in the previous years. I have seen most matches at WACA since 1991since Star and ESPN started to broadcast matches and this track was the fastest and bounciest till some 3/4 years back.

Though it was not the fastest it showed how the great Ganguly's and his rest can perform on lively tracks. Once Lee, Gillespie and Williams exploited the Indians INABILITY to play on fast tracks with short pitch bowling, the Rathi's (Soldiers) and Maha-Rathis (Great Soldiers) came down like nine pins. And never got up. The horrors came back to their minds that they cannot play short pitch accurate stuff targeted towards them and they came down and down from Perth, to Melbourne in 1st Final and at Sydney in the 2nd finals.

Even a Zimbabwe's ordinary bowling attack of Andy Blignaut, captain Heath Streak and Sean Ervine all causing the top order major problems for Indian batsmen who were chasing a modest target of 135 and winning it by 4 wickets. I should say scrambling home by 4 wickets to spare.

And the man Mr. Sorrow Ganguly himself, who people said after he scored a 100 in the first test against Australia as he can score against quicks, what did he do. He says he loves to play hard. Whenever bowlers target him all his hard stuff becomes soft and we all know how many runs he scored once the bowlers were pitching the ball up to him. LOL A real hard character with a soft attitude against Pace.

Well there is something to realise after the VB series. A Lee fully fit and recovered with accuracy and Gillespie too getting his rhythm back along with Williams were handy for Indian batsmen in Melbourne in the 1st final and Sydney in the 2nd final on good batting tracks, what would have the Test series been had these 3 been there in tandem on Lively tracks.

All said and done, Sorrow should thank god that he didnt get fast bouncy tracks like they got in New Zealand. Else the scoreline of the test series would have been different.

One last thing. Mr. Sorrow had said before the australian tour started, that they have to put pressure on the Australians as Australians are panicky to pressure situations since they dont come across such situations too often. Now I would like to ask Ganguly what happened to you and your team in the VB series. Seems Ponting and his team took the pressure and made a pressure cooker out of it and handed it over to Ganguly in the VB finals.

And there were some who were on cloud Nine after that Test Victory in Adeliade. They must have surely been back on their feet on planet earth. I don't think with the kind of Sorrow going on in Indian cricket with big mouth there is a chance to become No. 1.

VB Series final score. Melbourne, Aus win by 6 wickets. Sydney, Aus win by 208 Runs and the sorrow of Indian Cricket continues....

Bye

Abby