Ricky's Masterstroke.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting getting injured for this series was masterstroke. Great captaincy indeed - putting the team ahead of self or is it mutually beneficial.

Anyone who has followed Australia's last two tours to India would remember that Ricky had a horrible horrible time, first against Kumble in 1998 and then against Harbhajan in 2001. His statistics for these two tours are as follows..

And if statistics can lie, anyone can tell you he never looked like making a run in either of these tours.

As soon as Ricky announced that he is injured and would not be available for the first two tests, I was not happy. Knowing that his replacement would surely be Simon Katich and Michael Clarke was not a happy thought for India. During India's tour to Australia, Simon Katich had shown himself to be gritty character, quite an ideal number 3, though he batted at no 6 at that time. He was exactly the kind of batsman that Aussies needed at no 3 in India. And Ricky's direct replacement, Michael Clarke had all it took to succeed in India, good footwork, lots of patience, confidence against spin and temparement to stay at the wicket, things that Ricky clearly lacked.

Imagine a scenario where Ricky would have played at Bangalore. He would have come in at no 3, the scoreboard reading 50 / 1. He could possibly have redeemed himself and gone on to make a big score. But the more probable scenario is that Harbhajan, who had already got a wicket at that time, would have relished the mouth watering prospect of seeing his bunny and bowled with greater confidence. In all probability, he would have cleaned up Ricky for next to nothing leaving the Aussies tottering. Instead what we got was Simon Katich who used his feet beautifully, seemed very stable and comfortable after the initial one or two overs and went on to script the most underrated innings of the Aussie innings. I believe that Only due to his stability was the Aussie score of 474 possible. Had Ricky been there, in all probability the Aussies would have been bundled out for around 350 or so. And Ricky's replacement went on to make 150. The two replacements made 230 between them which was more than the victory margin.

We have to give credit where it is due and applaud Ricky's captaincy in getting injured. Ricky has surely pulled of a rabbit(more like a tiger or a kangaroo) out of his hat here. Bravo Ricky!!

Indian Cricket Team and Bangalore

Indian Cricket Team and Bangalore
India have lost another match in Bangalore. The last time I can remember we won anything here was against a weak New Zealand team. We could have even lost to Naseer's Hussain's England here in the infamous negative line test match but for the rain.
Why is it that India almost always do badly here? or is it that the opponents do well here? In this test match, it was certainly the opponents doing better here than us here.
During the tea session on the 4th day, Sanjay Manjrekar talked to eminent cricket historian Ramachandra Guha and he seemed to make a very valid point for our opponents performance here. That Bangalore's climate is so conductive and closer to home, that the city is comfortable for them, that the city being so cosmopolitan makes them feel at home, that with all the pubs they can party hard and play hard. Probably all these does make the opponents do well here.
However, it does not explain why we should not do well here? The pitch was probably one of the most conductive to our style of play - low, slow and conductive to spin. The weather comfortable to them is comfortable to us also. Cosmopolitan also helps India as most of the team would most certainly feel more at home than at Chennai or Kolkata. Then why our poor performance here? And poor performance it is. For eg, Dravid's highest score is the one he made in the second innings here. Before that it was something like 25 or so? Similarly the table of averages of the members of the current team at this ground, shown on TV during the test, revealed that Irfan Pathan had the highest average of 38. Our "top" order batsmen had averages in the teens here. But as noted in the last post, Sachin always gets loads of runs here - the only person in the current team who does well here. But still we lose.
Is Bangalore a jinxed ground for India? Does the fact that before any series the camps and training sessions are held here have a hand in this? Do the team members have some aversions due to this. Does this make the team members casual and believe that they are having a training session whenever they are here? Does the relaxed environment of the city get them too relaxed? Does the chaotic traffic make them more tense than they should be? Do we scrap the ground due to our non performance here?
Before anyone bays for my blood - I am a Bangalorean and would love to see India win a match here. Waiting patiently for that match.....

bluerpk's Cricket Blog

This is my first attempt at blogging. Can't say how good it will be or how frequently it will be updated.

As the blogs title suggests the main topic of this blog will be about cricket and my thoughts on it.
Of course since I am an indian, the blog will be more on Indian cricket.

First Test match between India and Australia.
Watching the match at the stadium.
The First Test match between India and Australia ended today in Bangalore. As a Bangalore native, I was lucky enough to watch the match in the Chinnaswamy stadium on the first three days of the match. We had invitee passes for all the five days, however on the first day, when we went, we were very disappointed to see that the stand was at an angle which was unsuitable to watch cricket. The ball when delivered by our fast bowlers was not visible prompting my cousin to state that they were bowling at great pace. So, we decided to hunt for better seats and decided to buy the Rs 400 tickets to the beml stand directly opposite to the pavilion. This gave a great view of the cricket. I recommend this stand whenever you are going to watch cricket at the Chinnaswamy stadium. The stand is 'N'.
Watching the cricket at the stadium is strange. There are no replays. Hardly get to know whether a ball was edged, whether the batsmen was beaten, whether the lbw shout is close or not, whether a catch was dropped or whether it was short. In spite of all this, the involvement with the match makes the experience enjoyable, very enjoyable. The crowd appeals, makes a hell of a noise, gets into a mexican wave, applauds a good shot, cheers, boos, etc. Its just perfect.
This stand had the aussie supporters called the Fanatics. They were enjoying the experience of it all a lot. Probably haven't experienced such noise levels ever. They were getting totally involved with the crowd and were also enjoying the (spicy) food. Shows how much sport can do to get people understand other cultures.

Test Match Cricket is Alive!!
At least in India, particularly at Bangalore, which somehow strangely doesn't get as many test matches as it deserves, test match cricket is alive and doing great. On all days the stadium was at least half full. And on day four, I could not get tickets for any stand let alone the 'N' stand.
Back to lack of test matches at Bangalore - This was the first match in Bangalore after the India - England match when Anil Kumble got his 300th wicket. The next match (This one) sees here sees him get his 400th wicket. Says something about the frequency of test matches here. Quite unfortunate as the crowd is really great, knowledgeable and fully appreciate good test cricket. However, the unluckiness of the ground for India may not see many tests won by India here (more on this later).

Aussies Win.
One more match in Bangalore that the Aussies Won after their win in 1998 when they won a dead rubber. Sachin Tendulkar is on record saying that this is the ground that he least likes. With India losing so many, cant blame him, though he always seems to do well here as his record tells.
SR Tendulkar
Matches - 5
Innings - 8
Not out - 1
Runs - 439
High Score - 177
Average - 62.71
100's - 1
How much his presence in the team would have mattered is another question. This test match loss has wounded the India a lot. Everyone is speaking about wholesale changes to the team and there is bound to be some easy scapegoats like Ashish Chopra though he got two rough decisions (more on selection issues later).
Anyway the fact that even on the last day, the ground was more than 50% full and fans cheered loudly is testament to the fact test cricket is alive and kicking in India at least.