Apr 17, 2006 09:43 PM
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(Updated Apr 17, 2006 09:43 PM)
India again wins another ODI series this time against England, 5-1. This was preceded by 6-1 tennis match score thrashing of Sri Lanka and the 5-1 rout of Pakistan in their home ground. Anyway before I begin this article, a small announcement for all cricket lovers on MS, I am starting my own blog series on cricket titled “The Six Sigma of Cricket” which would deal with various issues related to the game, and more specifically Indian cricket. The URL for this is https://6sigmacricket.blogspot.com/. I request all cricket lovers here on MS to visit this blog and give your feed back on the articles posted there. I would also be starting another two blogs on World Cup Football 2006 and the Grand Slam Tennis tourneys.
England ODI Team
Disappointing to put it very politely. England might give out the usual excuses of inexperience and missing players, but to be honest, it was an awful display. Take the very first ODI at Kotla itself, 117-3 and just 3 runs an over to be scored, not even Bangladesh or Zimbabwe would have lost a match from that position. And its not as if the Indian spinners were bowling grenades. England’s batting was just too dependent on Pietersen-Flintoff, when they departed, the batting just folded up. Consider this in all the 6 matches played throughout the series, England were bowled out in all matches except one at Jamshedpur. Even on a batting paradise like Indore, they could not score 300 runs plus. The bowling was good in patches, but frankly some of their replacement players wouldn’t even had made it to a Ranji side. But I doubt even if they had come with Vaughn-Trescothick-Jones it would have really mattered. Maybe the series would have been somewhat closer, but the fact is England was never really a great ODI side, and while they might think themselves of Test champions, the return Ashes wouldn’t be such a cake walk.
India ODI Team
Did well again. For me this win was more satisfying than the one we achieved in Pakistan, as this time it was our much maligned bowling attack that played a significant role. The bowlers restricted England to modest totals in Faridabad and Kochi, while they were responsible for the win in Kotla. Pathan bowled well with the new ball, getting the breakthroughs, while Shreeshanth made sure the tail didn’t wag much at Faridabad and Indore. The slow bowlers were outstanding. Ramesh Powar was a revelation, and I liked his attitude. Even when he got hit, he didn’t lose his confidence and he always came back. And he proved he could bat as well. Nice to see Bhajji back to his old self, and Yuvi proved he could be more than a useful bowler too. The fielding was also much better than in Test matches, and some of the catches were outstanding. In the batting department Dravid as usual provided the solidity, while Yuvi, Raina, Dhoni, Uthappa shone. The biggest concern is the lack of form by Sehwag and Kaif, and the brittleness of the top order. We need to get a proper opening partnership soon. What I like about this team is that they are willing to scrap and this series win is a total team effort. We are on the right track as far as ODI’s r concerned, and we need to now concentrate on the Test team.
Dravid vs Flintoff.
Rahul Dravid led his side well, with some good field placing and switching the bowlers well. Of course there were some baffling decisions, like that of persisting with VRV Singh in the slog overs in Indore, even when he was getting hit all over. His batting as usual was solid. His absence was keenly felt in Jamshedpur, when India sorely needed some one like him to prop up the innings. And he played some elegant strokes and kept rotating the strike well. I wouldn’t say he is an outstanding captain, but he is doing well enough and learning. Andrew Flintoff led his side well too and bowled superbly, but he failed with the bat. Freddie captained the side well, but the problem was he was saddled with a team which didn’t have players with even 10% of his talent and temperament. He was a hero leading a pack of jokers. But still I would rate Freddie a much better skipper than Inzamam * “The boys is played well “* Haq who simply seemed lost on the cricket field, and Marvan * mumble, mumble * Attapatu who seemed totally clueless. I felt sorry for Freddie, he didn’t deserve such a bad result. Nothing to choose between both, but Dravid had the much better team at his disposal.
The New Heroes
The series saw some players who were on the sidelines come into their own. Suresh Raina with that marvelous 81 in Faridabad, and he showed it was not a fluke with equally good innings in Goa, Kochi and Indore. Ramesh Powar bowled superbly throughout the series, and at Jamshedpur he showed he can bat also. Robin Uthappa lived up to all the hype with a brilliant innings at Indore, and but for an idiotic run out, would have scored a century on debut and maybe even finished the match for India.
Yuvi & Dhoni
This duo played a major role in the ODI series win in Pakistan and they continued the good work here also. Dhoni has shown that he is simply not a one dimensional slogger, and he can change gears. In Faridabad he allowed Raina to take center stage, in Jamshedpur, he came up with a brilliant innings, and it was a pity that he fell short of a century there. And in the midst were the useful cameos at Delhi, Goa and Kochi. We have a good choice now between Dhoni and Dinesh Kartick as wicket keeper batsmen. Yuvi was totally dominant, and at the rate he is taking the Man of Series awards, he would need a whole cupboard for it. We knew he could bat, but he showed he was more than a useful bowler in the series and came up with some great catches. And of course that knock at Goa was simply outstanding, when he simply tore apart the English bowlers.
The support Staff
Irfan Pathan scored useful runs at Delhi, Goa, Kochi. And he bowled superbly always getting the initial breakthroughs, with his clever variations of pace. Shreeshanth though a tad expensive bowled well in the death overs in both Faridabad and Indore, making sure the tail didn’t wag, and he is indeed a great find. Bhajji of course started the momentum with his brilliant bowling in Delhi and he kept the runs down in the middle overs always. Munaf and VRV Singh didn’t make much of an impression, but they were too raw and hence I don’t want to pass any verdict on them.
The failures
Sehwag came up with another string of low scores, Gambhir doesn’t seem to have learnt the lesson of staying at the wicket, Kaif’s scores looked like a postal pin code and R.P.Singh needs to add more variety in to his bowling, if he is not to get hammered around the park.
