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There was just one warm up match for the World Cup today... and it was a high profile one! The hosts India were taking on four-time defending champions Australia. A good sized crowd had materialised even before the toss, which was won by Dhoni.
First Innings
The first thing that hit you on watching this innings was that Lee is looking good, sharp and dangerous. He was a threat from the very first ball, when he got a very good shape into Gautam Gambhir. However, despite what all the other reports might suggest, the rest of the Australian pace attack seemed off colour to me. Too many wides on either side of the stumps was a very uncharacteristic element of their performance today (this statement does not apply to Mitchell Johnson)!
India would be and should be worried by the tendency of the batsmen to play too many casual strokes sometimes. Kohli, Dhoni and Raina were the guilty ones today. Yuvraj, Dhoni and Raina continued to look rusty and jaded. They need to find some inspiration somewhere to lift themselves... because the top-order may not be able to perform 3 matches in a row from the Quarter finals onwards!
It was interesting to watch Jason Krejza bowl. He was way too short a lot of times... but it still looked that he had flighted it up nicely. His height helps him with a good attacking ball trajectory, and also allows more revolutions on the ball before it bounces. The resultant spin was evident by its display today. It was sharp and it was refreshing to watch an Australian spinner do it.
He was a little expensive today though! And that will be Australia's biggest problem. Ponting has too many attacking options - Lee, Johnson, Bollinger, Tait (did not play today) and Krejza. He will need to get a good few overs out of Hastings, Watson and Hussey to bring stability to the attack, because three of his attacking bowlers (Johson, Tait and Krejza) have a tendency to be expensive sometimes (two of them erratic too)!
Since 2 of these 3 are bound to feature in the XI, Ponting will need someone who can do a holding job with the ball. Hastings showed he can do it and we all know Watson can do it. But the interesting question for me is: can Ponting afford to and will he dare to play Mitch and Tait together in the XI?
Second Innings
Though it became a Ponting and Chawla show later on, the second innings for me was all about Shane Watson and how different he is from the rest of his team! Watson was super confident and in imperious touch today. He never looked hurried, let alone troubled! And the pace at which he was getting his boundaries, I immediately started thinking way ahead of him as a contender for the Player of the Tournament award.
Sreesanth looked very good today and he will need to maintain this rhythm for a month and a half more for India to have a strong chance of winning the World Cup. Munaf and Nehra were pathetic to the point that Dhoni might now seriously consider playing 2 spinners and 2 pacers in his attack. There was one fielding effort (or rather, the lack of it) where Nehra did not bend enough to stop a drive that convinced me that the time has come to drop him for at least a couple of games.
All the spinners were good, but I am still not convinced about Chawla's place in the XI. This pitch was supportive, and he bowled well. When pitches are flatter and not supportive, will he be as good or even half as good? I have my doubts! And to be fair, Ashwin bowled just as well as Chawla in my opinion, without having anything significant to show for it.
Australia should be concerned by another batting collapse... something that has become fairly regular in their cricket now. Their middle order situation is even worse than that of India's, and that's saying something!
Conclusion
Both teams are strong enough, despite the shortcomings, to reach the semis. Ian Chappell reckons they will meet each other at that stage... and if they do, expect it to be another cracker like this one!
A square cut for 4 and Rohit Sharma got to his second ODI century in 3 days... this time against a more reputable opposition and in a winning cause as well.
I had read of Rohit Sharma first time in early 2007. He was just a name in the newspaper then. When he got selected for and played in India's victorious World Twenty20 campaign in South Africa that year, he looked good. He was then selected for the ODI tri - series Down Under in early 2008.
The famous match-winning partnership he shared with Sachin Tendulkar in the first final of that Commonwealth Bank Series won him many fans and admirers... including the likes of Ian Chappell. He made 60-odd in what was an extremely mature knock coming from a very young player in a high-pressure situation. It did help that he had the guidance of a certain Sachin Tendulkar at the other end.
After that, the inaugural edition of IPL was held. Rohit Sharma was the only bright spot in a very disappointing campaign for the Deccan Chargers. After that, things started going wrong. Since then, whenever Rohit has had an opportunity to play for India, he has looked good... till a bad shot at the wrong time does him in (much like I mentioned about Mohammed Ashraful in my previous blog).
His inconsistency and a change in selection panel meant that he was no longer a regular in the Indian team. Every good performance for Deccan Chargers since then has caused a lot more heartburn for Team India fans, who keep wondering why he cannot perform just as well for the country as he does for his club. Every outing in the Indian colours, which is usually another frustrating failure, makes the fan in me wonder that is this just another extremely and obviously talented youngster that will be wasted like many before him?
His twin centuries here may have redeemed him somewhat... but I am still not satisfied, like many others. He needs to perform on a big occasion... when the chips are down. Rohit Sharma needs to do full justice to the enormous skills that he possesses alongwith that cool head. He needs to play and perform for the country more consistently against stronger oppositions. Sri Lanka is a good team... but in Zimbabwe, they are a second-string unit.
Rohit Sharma has a lot of fans... but most of them are angry fans! They are waiting to see if he can truly become what he is capable of. For that to happen, he will need to stay grounded. There were a few moments during IPL 2010 that made me feel that he will need a few keep-your-feet-on-the-ground lessons... and here is where Gary Kirsten could help.
He might have a bright future ahead of him... but the journey will have to be undertaken manfully. RG Sharma, do you have it in you?
History repeats itself. Boys have emulated the men. Seven months ago, the senior Team India lost out in the second round of a tournament in which they were the defending champions. Now, it’s the turn of the junior Team India. In both the cases, expectations were high. In both the cases, the team stumbled through the first round with the help of a couple of victories over minnows.
Am I being too hard on the boys? Yeah, I think so. The expectations from them were generated on the basis of the performance of a completely different unit. Virat Kohli’s men (o sorry, I meant boys) had gone the distance and won a Cricket U-19 World Cup Tournament in 2007. Ashok Menaria’s boys, a different set of lads with big dreams and glorious ambitions, could not match them.
Yet, I have a feeling that Ashok Menaria will not be as disappointed about losing in the Quarter Finals as he will be about having lost to Pakistan. Almost 14 years ago, these two countries were involved in another Quarter Final at Bangalore. That turned out to be an epic contest producing come never-to-be-forgotten moments. This one was no less than an epic contest either.
Pakistan went on to win by 2 wickets with 3 balls to spare after the situation looked a little bleak for them. This is not the first Pakistan team to have done that (remember Javed Miandad’s six). The coach of India’s U-19 team, Chandrakant Pandit remarked, “We are shattered. I feel as low as the team felt when Javed Miandad hit THAT six in Sharjah off the last ball. We didn’t speak to each other for nearly two hours after that and here too we were just trying to gather ourselves. Yes, cricket is a tough hard game, but it is played by human beings and human beings have emotions. At this age, the boys can get very upset. Its two hours after the game and I can see some boys are still crying.”
I feel sorry for the boys who lost out to Pakistan. Their match acquired that extra edge and bite due to no fault of theirs. It wasn’t their fault that 26/11 happened. Nor was it their fault that no IPL franchisee decided to pick a Pakistani player at the third player auction (for reasons I’d rather not comment on right now). And now, after this shattering loss, I hope the boys recover as soon as possible. They have a bright future ahead of them and they cannot allow one loss to change it all. The coach, Chandrakant Pandit, a man who knows what shattering losses are like, needs to ensure that boys regroup to perform well again in the remaining matches of the tournament (the 5th to 8th place deciders).
Not even 48 hours have passed since the game ended, and voices from across the border are calling this win a fitting reply to the IPL snub received by the Pakistani players. Rameez Raja describes, “It (the win) comes at a time when this IPL incident has taken place and when our senior team is struggling in Australia.” Former Test player Basit Ali goes one step further, “No matter what he (Lalit Modi) does, he should know the base of Pakistan cricket is very strong and we will keep on producing winners.”
The boys don’t need all this. And here, I mean both sets of boys – Indians as well as Pakistanis. The Pakistan team needs to realise that there is a tournament to be won and that this game was not a be all and end all for them. The Indian team, on the other hand, will be on a self – depreciatory mode thinking that they have let the country down with this loss. No, the boys certainly do not need all this. But this is where they will become men. Or at least some of them will.
Adversity brings out the best in some, the worst in rest. Like Ian Chapell says, you tend to learn more when you lose rather than when you win. The Indian boys have had a big lesson. And we look forward to them learning and coming out better. These boys are the future of Indian cricket. But the future needs to come to terms with the present first.
