A Defeat with many fathers……

It is a measure of a Cricket team mired in mediocrity, that should take a contest against the very best to lift their game. Improvement hinges on survival, not on standards set for oneself. For India, this has been the case and it is basically down to the fact that they are not as good as Australia. Playing Australia results in two things:

1. Defeat.
2. An improvement in the defeated teams game.

For India, who are experiencing a version of second season blues, this defeat must surely have many fathers. They did not win and Mohali, and in terms of this individual match, it was down to the fact that nobody produced anything exceptional with either bat or ball. The core ingredients of a good performance were very much there – at least with the bat. The approach was measured, embodied by Sachin Tendulkar, who seemed to have batted with the sole intention of seeing off the new ball. He is no longer as good as he once was, and on this wicket, with an India in form, or with the Tendulkar of yore, we might have seen him going after Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee from the word go….. disturbing their length just by his intent as he did so famously in Nairobi in 2000.

The bowling, by all accounts was terrible. I was afraid that the Indians would try to test the middle of the pitch. Ian Chappell wrote about the use of the short ball in this tournament and warned that India trying this tactic against Australia’s batsmen may not be the same as Australia trying it against India’s. And so it proved. All the hard earned chips from the batting were squandered in 15 mad overs at the start of the Australian innings. From then on, it was a matter of pulling things back, just like it was against the West Indies.

They say that Victory has many fathers, but Defeat is an Orphan. This has been a defeat with many plusses, and for India to wage a realistic World Cup campaign early next year, this defeat must have many fathers. Chappell must zero in on his World Cup squad – i suspect that hes still looking for 1 batsman (to replace the disappointing Suresh Raina, Hemang Badani must be wondering what he might have achieved had he played as many games as Raina has).

India clearly has an inexperienced team right now. Indeed, the average age of the Indian squad for the Champions Trophy is 25). But experience comes from results like these, because they tell you more about a teams strengths and weaknesses than victories. India batted well yesterday. With Tendulkar failing and Yuvraj unavailable, and error of sending Raina ahead of Irfan, 250 was about as many as they would have got against this line up on any day. The bowling had a bad day.

Quality is a function of the number of bad days that a unit has. Australia are the team they are because they rarely have bad days – batting or bowling. That is what India have to aspire to. It is the sort of quality which it is possible for a team to build within them. Brilliant strokeplay and natural talent is something that is probably God’s gift, but the number of bad days are in one’s hand. This is never revealed more acutely than when a must win, sudden death game has been lost.

India’s subsequent success will depend on how many people apart from the Captain take ownership of this defeat. India are not the best gifted team in the world right now. But to change the question from “How good are we really?“, as is being asked now, to “How can we be the best?”, as was being asked last season, when success and India seemed to be firm friends, it will take responsibility – from Chappell and Vengsarkar. This can begin by making the following assertions:

1. Tendulkar is not as good as he once was. Therefore he is no longer the undisputed best batsman in the side. The logic of the best batsman getting the most overs does not therefore hold. India need to take a stand on this, to let it lie is a strategy fraught with danger. A third opening option – Gautam Gambhir would be a good selection.

2. 4 or 5 bowlers is a stand India need to take. If 5 bowlers play, then Powar and Harbhajan have to play, simply because they offer a range of options to the captain. While Irfan the batsman has been used a great deal, Dhoni the batsman has not yet been tapped. If 4 bowlers play, then India need to be sure that Tendulkar will bowl. While Sehwag, Yuvraj and Mongia are excellent part time bowlers, Tendulkar has wicket taking ability.

3. They need a settled batting order. Flexibility worked fine, when the players in the batting order were all new and had not yet settled in as a batting unit.

I would go ahead and present a batting lineup and a squad for the world cup. In batting order it would be

Gautam Gambhir, Virendra Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid, Mahendra Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel

The reserve players would be Kaif, Sreesanth, Mongia, VRV Singh

This is the best Indian squad right now. Part of the problem with flexibility is that after a while it descends into randomness. This is not good for allocation of responsibilities. Tasks get allocated, but not responsibilities.

Food (well… atleast Pav Bhaji, if not Poli Bhaji) for Vengsarkar and co…..!

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Dravid’s India face their biggest Test yet……

Richie Benaud’s criterion for a successful captain, is that he must be lucky to the successful. Most captaincies are defined by results in important games. Rahul Dravid has been Captain of India for more than a year now. In that year, he has achieved a great deal, in both the Test and ODI arena, with his young team (the average age of the Indian side for much of the past year has been under 25). Some important wins have been achieved, some important talent has been identified.

Currently though, the team seems to be going through classic second season blues. Ideas are not working, players are not delivering, confidence is down. All in all, team India is not a winning team at the moment. Apart from the return of Sachin Tendulkar and the superb disciplined display of skill and control by Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel, India have nothing much going for them. The Captain himself, by his standards has not enjoyed the best period in terms of runs. Since the start of the West Indies ODI series, Indias batsmen have achieved 1 ODI century between them – Tendulkar’s 141 against the West Indies.

To make matter worse, the Test they have set themselves is possibly the most difficult one in cricket today – to play Australia in a must win game on a Mohali wicket which has been a fast bowlers dream in this tournament. In the last 2 games played here, Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Shane Bond, Umar Gul and Iftikar Rao Anjum have taken 18/236 in 65.3 overs. If a Test Match had seen 18 wickets fall in 65 overs, there might have been questions about the quality of the wicket. 3 out of the last 4 innings on this wicket have been worth less than 225 runs, the last one being Pakistan’s 89 all out. Runs have come as well, Sri Lanka made over 300, Bangladesh replied with 265 and New Zealand made 274 here in the Champions trophy.

I just wonder what Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Mike Hussey and Andy Symonds make of all this.

But most importantly, i wonder what Sachin Tendulkar makes of all that he has seen since he returned to the Indian side. In 2005-06, Tendulkar, dogged by injury watched Rahul Dravid’s India win match after match, chalking up a world record 17 consecutive successful run chase. He has returned to find the fearless winners of 2005-06, to be a shadow of their erstwhile selves – racked by doubt, starving for runs, increasingly sapped by the elusive nature of success. He sees before him an Australian side in a not dissimilar situation – in spite of their ODI success, Ponting is far from being a popular well-regarded leader. With a titanic Ashes battle looming, defeat in this game will not sit well with the Australian Cricket fraternity. Ponting’s own batting form, which is threatening to assume 2001 proportions, is another worry.

This game is crying for someone to rise above the contest, and champion a victorious effort for his side. Tendulkar is familiar with this idea. Has been for at least a dozen years now. Whats more, i am pretty certain that he is keen to make some runs against this Australian attack. The sight of Glenn McGrath at the end of his bowling mark should fire Tendulkar up. In Malaysia, their battles have lacked the professional antagonism of yore.

It is time for Tendulkar, for the umpteenth time, to lead India out of a hole. I see nobody else with the ability to put to it past the Australians. There has been nobody in the past 10 years who has done this. In 23 runs chases which Tendulkar has played in vs Australia, India have won 15, and Tendulkar averages 75 in those run chases.

Over to Sachin Tendulkar then….

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The Recreational Vehicle in Swades – Symbolism or Error?

Yuhi Chala Chal Sathi
Dekho Na song from Swades

Watch these two scenes from Swades. The Recreational Vehicle that Shah Rukh drives in Dekho Na is a right hand drive recreational vehicle. In the other song (Yuhi Chala Chal Sathi), the RV alternates between being a right hand drive and a left hand drive. Each of these shots, where the RV alternates has a shot of the wheel, from the respective side before it.

On the face of it, such an error would be very difficult to make – it would require 2 RV’s, or some video editing involving mirror of some of the shots. The RV is a right hand drive.

The only other explanation is that this is some subtle symbolism about the USA and India….. Shah Rukh Khan and India. Such symbolism would seem to be contrived, especially in the context of the rest of the film, which is full of some very penetrative metaphors.

Food for thought then…….

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India inflict sudden death upon themselves…

West Indies beat India by 3 wickets, with 2 balls to spare at Ahmedabad to qualify for the semi-finals stage of the Champions trophy for the 3rd time in 5 editions. India have made the Semi-final twice before, and just to give you an idea of the mountain that looms before them, if they are to make the semi-final summit, the last time India beat Australia was at Brisbane in January 2004. Since then there have been 5 consecutive defeats. But wait… it gets worse, the last time India beat Australia chasing was in 1998 in Sharjah, when it would be fair to say that it was Sachin Tendulkar who beat Australia, inspite of the the rest of the Indian batting. Looking back before that, India’s wins over Australia in ODI cricket came from Tendulkar’s blade.

Indeed, in India’s wins over Australia, chasing runs, Tendulkar averages a phenomenal 75.00 in 15 games. So, for the umpteenth time, India, a nation of a billion, tatters and all (to use a brilliant phrase from one of Times of India’s columnists), will look to the pint sized champion as he walks out to open the Indian innings at Mohali. Even in todays multi-talented, multi-faceted, successful Indian squad, when it comes to Australia, this is an inescapable truth.

Right now, the national team is facing a crisis of sorts. I wrote during their victorious phase that even though India were winning, we did not seem to have a settled first team. With 2 non-performing batting assets – Raina and Sehwag, and one mercurial all-rounder – Pathan, India desperately need some champagne cricket from some of their individual match winners. A team effort is unlikely to be enough. They need some one to play a great innings or some one to get 4-5 cheap wickets.

Over to Mohali.

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New Zealand qualify for the last 4 in Fleming’s match……..

In his record 194th match as captain of New Zealand, Stephen Fleming lead New Zealand to a 51 run victory over Pakistan at Mohali. This is New Zealand’s 4th consecutive victory over Pakistan. It is not for nothing that they rank 3rd in my ODI Rankings. They have beaten South Africa and Pakistan in this tournament.

Effectively, South Africa v Pakistan is now a winner takes all, sudden death match. New Zealand with 2 wins have already qualified. Given the way Group B games have gone, only 2 teams in Group B can end up with 2 wins – New Zealand, and one out of South Africa and Pakistan.

In Group A, it is a different story. India could beat the West Indies today and still not qualify if West Indies beat England and Australia beat India. If England lose to the West Indies, then Group A is likely to be decided based on net run rates, so winning by a significant margin will be important.

Im having a particularly difficult time with my predictions….. i didn’t think New Zealand would beat Pakistan, but they have. I hope im wrong about Group A as well

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South Africa win…. Sri Lanka on a prayer….

So much for predictions. Before the tournament began, i felt that Sri Lanka would be the team to beat. So did Harsha Bhogle. Two defeats later, Sri Lanka along with England are on the verge of elimination. Englands only chance of qualification is for India to win all three games and for England to beat West Indies and somehow emerge with the best net run rate. Sri Lanka’s position is now similar. They need to pray that the only unbeaten team in their group – Pakistan wins all three matches and Sri Lanka beat New Zealand and emerge with the best net runrate.

After the well timed 2 day break, the tournament has now moved on to the business end. The people who designed the schedule for this tournament have to be congratulated. They have designed it with a keen understanding of how the stakes develop in a round robin format. With atleast 3 teams still in with a realistic chance of making in to the semifinals from each group, and with the 4th team having a slim chance, the tournament is set up perfectly.

The low scores in the tournament so far have been a matter of much discussion. I think there has been a combination of factors which has resulted in low scoring contests. For one, its still early season in India, and the wickets have not really settled down, especially in North and Western India where the monsoon has just ended. Most teams seem to have come with the expectation that they will make 300 without too much effort on Indian wickets, irrespective of how they play. Most of the wickets have fallen due to the batsmen trying to do too much.

So we enter the last 10 days of the tournament with India, West Indies, Australia, Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand all having 1 win each under their belt. Even though i have been proved wrong before, i will stick my neck out and make another prediction:

The following teams swill qualify for the semifinals:

West Indies
Australia
Pakistan
South Africa

Now theres a reverse woof if there ever was one….

Australia keep the group alive…..

England are on the verge of elimination from the Champions trophy. The only remote chance they have of qualifying is as follows:

1. India wins all 3 matches
2. England beat West Indies.

This will result in England, West Indies and Australia staying on 1 win each, with India having won 3 games. I suppose it will then come down to run rates. In such an event, Englands low totals against India and Australia will count against it.

The much touted Ashes contest ended in a damp squib, with the lack of depth in the English batting, and their indecisive use of Andrew Flintoff being shown up, as England were bundled out for 169. They will doubtless blame the wicket, however i would point out that once Kevin Pietersen was dismissed by Mitchell Johnson with some good pacy bowling – softening Pietersen up with the short ball and then getting him with the wider, fuller sucker ball, the English batting order was looking at 1 specialist batsman – Collingwood. It was no surprise that he remained not out scoring almost a run a ball.

Flintoff was wasted at number 4 in the batting order. If there is 1 slot in ODI cricket which has always remained the domain of the specialist batsman, it is the number 4 slot. England would have been better served by using Flintoff as an opener, and letting Ian Bell play in his normal middle order slot at number 4.

England will doubtless try to distance itself from the “pre-ashes skirmish” commentary (which both sides were very much part of before the game). Everyone will agree that this is one contest in the Champions Trophy which has gone as per the formbook.

The next big games in the tournament, apart from India v West Indies of course are South Africa v Sri Lanka and South Africa v Pakistan. Group B is looking like an evenly balanced group, with any of the 4 sides being good enough to make the knockout stage.

In group A, barring a miracle, the contest for the knockout stage is between India, West Indies and Australia. India v West Indies suddenly becomes a very important game. The winner qualifies for the semi-finals. If West Indies win, then India will be left with the difficult task for playing a must win game against Australia for the semi-finals place.

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England v Australia in the Pink City…..

England have played Australia in India twice before – once in that famous World Cup final in 1987, and then during the Nehru Cup in 1989-90. That era, from 1987-1992 marked the hey day of English ODI cricket. Since then, England have been in steady decline in ODI cricket – their inherent advantage of having well developed domestic ODI tournaments and consequently experienced professional ODI cricketers have been significantly nullified by the evolution of the international ODI game. It would not be remiss to point out that their interest in ODI cricket has also been in consistent decline from that point on. England were the first team in the world to have seperate ODI an Test Match captains, and this has served over the years to ensure that “specialists” never got a look in in the ODI side, with the result that English teams often got outclassed in international cricket. Bits and pieces journeymen, however experienced, could not counter the relentless quality of international heavy weights.

Australia on the other hand, have gone from strength to strength – are the undisputed Champions of the World today, having made the last 3 World Cup Finals and won 2 of them.

England meet Australia in the Pink City of Jaipur today in a sudden death match – the loser of this game, is for all intents and purposes eliminated from the Champions Trophy. There is a significant sub-text to this game, or so they say, given the much anticipated Ashes series in Australia this year. This is in itself quite interesting, because the anticipation can be put down to the realistic possibility of an even contest in an Ashes series in Australia for the first time in 10 years. In 2002-03, Australia won the first 3 Test Matches playing 10 days of Test cricket, in 1998-99, it was a similar story, as it was in 2001 in England. The last time England won the first Test of an Ashes series was in 1997. After this long run of non-contests, we suddenly have an Ashes series, which is also a contest to decide the number 1 Test team in the world (it is not – Australia are too far ahead even if England win the Ashes. England winning the Ashes would merely signal Australian decline, not their removal from the number 1 slot)

The relationship between todays contest in Jaipur and the Ashes later this year, is at best tenous. England have been a poor ODI side for the best part of 12 months now, and the Australian ODI side, given their perennial obscession with experimentation and quest for the right combination, is a far cry from their brilliant Test team, which is not only settled, but is oozing with genuine class. Most importantly, Justin Langer and Shane Warne – two vital cogs in the Australian Test match machine will not be playing the Jaipur game (even though both would walk into the English ODI side today).

Even so, it is to be expected that the relationship and “impact” of todays game on the Ashes will be discussed to death by the distinguished panel consisting of Navjot Singh Sidhu, Charur Sharma and Mandira Bedi (her presence is an absolute mystery to me). Whether this group is infact capable of discussing anything is still an open question, but one can grant them the benefit of the doubt for the moment. With Andrew Flintoff not bowling in todays game, this game is at best a One Day International between Australia A and England A-. To consider that this will have any impact on the Ashes is to miss the whole point of One Day Cricket and the sudden death encounter. It is also a shrill reminder of the absolute disregard for the present tournament.

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The Formbook is ignored….. the tournament is wide open…

The Champions Trophy has finally come to life after a series of one-sided demolition jobs which seemed to get over in the blink of an eye. The formbook, and reputations have been thrown out of the window, and the favourites have been dealt some serious blows. If we consider the fact that the format of this tournament suggests that a team can afford at the most 1 defeat in the group stage if it wants to win the tournament, then Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka are all facing sudden death situations now. If we consider the formbook, and take into account other factors such as reputation, venue etc. one would have expected India, Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka to make the last 4. 3 of these teams have lost their first game, and the other has managed to win, without looking convincing during their batting innings.

The Brabourne stadium has given us a 450 run game, hopefully putting complaints about the Brabourne wicket to rest. I envy the Mumbai spectators, who watched Lara make 71 and Gilchrist make 92 on the same day. You couldnt ask for a better treat of left handed batting in a days play.

The rankings after West Indies beat Australia are as follows:

Australia 0.599
South Africa 0.584
New Zealand 0.562
India 0.533
Sri Lanka 0.507
West Indies 0.495
Pakistan 0.478
England 0.433
Zimbabwe 0.310

The way Zimbabwe are going, im going to have to include Bangladesh in this rating very soon.

The Champions Trophy is well and truly underway though. Pakistan came through adversity superbly to win against the in form Sri Lankans. This is the 5-6th time in the last 2 years that Sri Lanka have been unable to defend 250+ with Murali in their ranks, after going 5 years without losing a game after making 250+ batting first, with Murali to defend their total for them. Teams are beginning to sort Murali out – atleast to the point where they are able to deny him wickets.

Predicting the Semi-finalists from here on, is a risky exercise…. which is how it should be in a great tournament.

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India beat England, but is Sehwag going the Ganguly way?

In his last 100 ODI games for India, Virender Sehwag has made 17 scores in excess of 50, and only 2 in excess of 100. Contrast this with his first 58 games, where he made 13 scores in excess of 50, with 5 of these being hundreds. Even allowing for “I’ll continue to play my natural game”, it is clear that Sehwag’s run output has been in decline. It almost seems as though he goes through prolonged troughs, after which he makes a few scores, only to return to his troughs. This is in start contrast to his Test scores, where his run output as opener is well above anyones wildest dreams.

One wonders whether “learning” is part of Sehwags natural game. He seems to find newer ways of getting out and throwing away easy confidence building runs. It was almost poetic that John Wright was on commentary when Sehwag played his outlandish waft at a very wide delivery from the wayward Harmison.

It would be very sad that the cloak of confidence that Sehwag wears, is not infact a sign of denial and disregard of reality, that marked the beginning of the end for Ganguly.

India on the other hand seem to learn with every game. The immaculate line and length of the pacemen which built up the pressure which eventually resulted in England’s batsmen self-destructing is becoming a happy habit. I believe that the nature of leadership defines the mould of a team. In Indias pace attack, Munaf Patel is fast emerging as a leader, and his special emphasis on line and length.

A 4 wicket win may seem unimpressive, and indeed it might have been better, but in a knockout tournament, a win is worth its weight in gold. India need to build atleast 4 different teams to win the tournament, and they have beaten 1.

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