KEVIN PIETERSEN THE OPENER

A combustible move... might just backfire!

England tried out Kevin Pietersen as an opener with Andrew Strauss in their first practice game against Canada yesterday. They have confirmed that they will be resorting to this opening pair for the World Cup (unless it proves to be disastrous failure, I assume)!

It is interesting that England, after having tried out about a dozen openers over the past few months in ODI cricket, have finally turned to their biggest impact cricketer to partner the their skipper at the top.

What are the merits of this move?

1. It is said that in Limited Overs cricket, your best batsman should get to face the maximum number of overs. Kevin Pietersen is arguably England's best batsman in ODIs. The move to the top will give him maximum possible time to build his innings and cause the biggest impact.

2. As an opener, Pietersen will start off by facing the faster bowlers initially (unless some captain decides to go the Martin Crowe-way). This means that he won't have to face spin (especially, left arm spin) as soon as he comes in to bat. Not that he is bad at facing spin, but he is definitely much better against the pacers.

Now, what are the demerits?

1. First and foremost, this move suggests that the England think-tank is almost bare of ideas now. I don't want to use the phrase "panic-mode" with Andy Flower, but this move does show a bit of desperation in their decision-making processes now.

2. With Pietersen as an opener, the English middle order wears a pretty flimsy look now. There is no Morgan and Collingwood is out of form. After Trott coming in at the fall of first wicket and Bell after him, the English batting does not inspire much confidence. Prior did score a fifty in the warm up game, but I wouldn't bank on him to get the team out of trouble in case of a top-order collapse.

This move will certainly make anyone following England in the World Cup a lot more interested. And Pietersen is such a colourful character that there will be a lot of ammunition, one way or the other, after every match! If I were to make a prediction, I must say that this move is potentially combustible... and might well backfire big time against one of the smaller opponents.

YOU BEAUTY!

Collingwood leaps to catch an edge from Ponting during the Third Ashes Test at WACA, Perth

RANDIV'S SUSPENSION - OVER THE TOP!

Now this is what I call an over-the-top reaction. I have just read the news that Sri Lankan off-spinner Suraj Randiv has been suspended for 1 game and docked off his match fees for bowling the deliberate no-ball that denied Virendra Sehwag his century. And what's more, TM Dilshan has also lost his match fees for being the one who suggested such an act to Randiv.

I have already stated in my blog two days ago and by way of comments on numerous other blogs that the act by Randiv was not right! I don't know about the Spirit of Cricket (no one really knows, but everyone wants to pretend they know)... but it certainly left a sour taste at the end of the match. The match should have been remembered for India's win with more than 15 overs to spare... not for Sehwag's almost-century.

Coming back to the point... the suspension and the fines is too much! Well, Sri Lanka Cricket says that they are proud recipients of ICC's Spirit of Cricket award for two years in a row and that's why they came down hard on this issue. But in their minds, the Sri Lankan officials should know that this was way too hard!

The matter, in my opinion, should have ended with Randiv's apology to Sehwag! Maybe the captain / coach / manager / match referee / Board official should have had a quiet word with Randiv thereafter. At the most, the Board should have given him a slap on the wrist. A one-match suspension is way too much!

I mean, Simon Taufel was not suspended when he gave Sachin Tendulkar out LBW on 99 to a Paul Collingwood delivery that would have missed the off-stump quite easily! He later apologised to Tendulkar, and both got along with it. It was the same with Rudi Koertzen and Kumar Sangakkara when the latter was wrongly adjudged to have edged the ball when on 192. Then why should it be different now?

True, the umpires were not deliberately trying to deny the batsmen their landmarks... but they still did make wrong decisions that did or could have influenced the result of the match. Allow me to insert here that Steve Bucknor was punished for an entire collection of mistakes... not just one! So please do not bring on that angle of the argument over here in this issue.

Back to the point now... it is a sad and a sorry state that Sri Lanka Cricket resorted to acting against their player in a move that seems quite evidently an act to appease the BCCI. I doubt a stronger Board would have taken such an action!

CAPTAINCY CONTRASTS

When Paul Collingwood announced that England would field after winning the toss, many minds (atleast in India) went back to that crucial day in March 2003 when Sourav Ganguly had made a similar decision against the same opponents at the Wanderers, Johannesburg. It was arguably the worst decision that Ganguly took in his stint as a captain.

My mind went back to another big final on the same ground at Johannesburg not so long back ago. In the finals of Indian Premier League 2009 held in South Africa, Anil Kumble took the same decision as Paul Collingwood (and Ganguly before him) against another Australian captain. And well, the result was not good for him either.

But the two Aussie captains then were strong players... they led from the front. Unlike the younger Michael Clarke, who, simply put, lacks the ability to play good Twenty20 cricket. So despite his leadership abilities, he will always be a liability to any batting lineup. Ponting scored a World Cup winning century after lossing the toss and batting first. Adam Gilchrist may have gone for a duck... but he had played an IPL semi-final winning knock just one match ago... when his whirlwind knock toppled the table-toppers and the favourites Delhi Daredevils. Clarke scored a laboured innings, ran out David Warner, and his eventual 27-ball 27 turned out to be his highest of the tournament. See the difference?

And now I'll come to another point that few have highlighted. Clarke's captaincy. I have read a lot of bloggers, media reports and articles that have found his captaincy impressive. In this tournament as well, many have lauded him for his rotation of bowlers and field settings. It was bound to happen considering that Australia was unbeaten till the finals. But for me, Clarke's captaincy was rubbish.

Firstly, in my books, a captain's position in the team should be without doubt. Pup's case is a whole lot different. He himself doubts his place in Australia's Twenty20 squad going by what he had to say to the press after the loss.

Secondly, a captain should be able to come up with a strong Plan B when his Plan A is not working. All through the tournament, Australia's game plan has been to unleash its fearsome bowling attack on batting lineups... and watch them disintegrate. When for the first time in the tournament, a team found a solution to this strategy as Pakistan did in the semi-finals, he looked clueless and allowed Pakistan to score a massive 190+ score. Had it not been for the brilliance of the freak Mr. Cricket Michael Hussey, Clarke would have boarded an earlier flight back home (there is no volcanic ash on the way)!

Thirdly, any player should be able to learn from his mistakes... more so a captain. I had the same complaint of some of the Indian players in this World Twenty20... I have the same complaint of Clarke. He had chance to formulate a string Plan B after scraping through against Pakistan. But he did not. Was it overconfidence? We may never know. But England exploited his lack of Plan B to attack his backup bowlers like Watson and finished the match as undisputed champs. Doesn't look so good when he is under fire, does he, Watson! It's very good to bank on the pressure created by your extremely good fast bowlers and take wickets. But it takes greater ability and a bigger heart to create the pressure yourself and take wickets.

Paul Collingwood, on the other hand, did a far better job. He entrusted with Luke Wright with the 16th over... when Australia had started gaining momentum with the help of their future captain, Cameron White. Wright, who had not bowled a single ball in the entire tournament, bowled a tight 5-run over that also included the wicket of White. Many would pin it down to luck. But what Collingwood did next was not luck... it was I believe the best move he made! Many captains would have been tempted to give Luke Wright another go in the 18th over and maybe, even the 20th over.

We will never know if that would have been a good move or not. But very often, we have seen the backup bowlers smashed at the death on being given that one additional over. Collingwood avoided that fate. The 18th and 20th over went for 21 runs in total, with a wicket of David Hussey... but we never know what Wright would have conceded. It's always better to trust the performers who have brought you to that stage, rather than do something different and mess it up.

Sachin Tendulkar promoted Harbhajan Singh up the batting order in the finals of IPL 3... in a move that backfired horribly. Questions were raised about why you'd want a Harbhajan batting before Pollard. Collingwood ensured that such questions would not need to be answered.

Little less than a week ago, I had predicted an Australian win over Sri Lanka at Kensington Oval in the finals. My prediction went horribly wrong. But I am still happy... because the better team won! Australian supporters may say that they were better than England through the tournament... and that England were almost knocked out of the tournament by Ireland. But had they gotten two full matches at Guyana, you never know what would have unfolded. In my opinion, England was better than Australia through the tournament because better teams may lose sometimes... but never with 3 overs to spare!

DISTURBING CROWD

South Africa tried very hard to pull off an England, and Hashim Amla tried to be the Paul Collingwood. In the end, South Africa choked when the No. 1 ranking was up for grabs. And Amla ended up pulling off an Andrew Strauss (check my previous blog).

I have already blogged a lot about my joy in watching the crowd at Eden Gardens. I read Sidharth Monga's article of Cricinfo - The rot in rotation yesterday, and I must say that it made a lot of sense. I'll quote a bit of what he said:

"In a recent piece in the Hindu, S Venkataraghvan, the former India offspinner, wrote about the Pongal Test in Chennai. "In Madras, this festival [traditionally in mid-January] used to be synonymous with Test cricket at Chepauk," he wrote. "Schedules were carefully drawn so that a Test match was played at Chepauk during the season."

That is like the Boxing Day and New Year's Tests in Australia and South Africa, annual events that people plan for from months ahead. The last time Chennai saw a Pongal Test, though, was in 1988, and there have been only 10 Tests there since. With nine venues and only five or six home Tests a year, it is impossible to develop such Test culture."

India has ten Test venues (alphabetically, no favouritism involved) -
1. Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai
2. Eden Gardens, Kolkata
3. Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium, New Delhi
4. Green Park Stadium, Kanpur
5. M.A. Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk), Chennai
6. M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
7. PCA Stadium, Mohali
8. Sardar Patel Stadium (Motera), Ahmedabad
9. VCA Stadium (Jamtha), Nagpur
10. Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai (temporarily unavailable due to renovation)

The most disturbing crowd attendances in Test cricket have been at Mohali, Ahmedabad and Nagpur (as stated by Sidharth Monga). And the cities where crowd has been the most disturbing for the visiting team are Kolkata and Chennai.

India plays about 5-6 Tests at home every year. I would suggest that 2 of these are awarded to Kolkata and Chennai every year. In fact, it should be so managed that like the Boxing Test (MCG) and New Year Test (SCG) tradition, Kolkata and Chennai should have a tradition of their own. In the long run, it will help prospective spectators plan their holiday schedules around it. They won't have to wait for BCCI to release the tour itinerary in order to confirm their own travel plans if they are travelling from other cities to watch these Tests.

The remaining home Tests should be awarded on the basis of a ranking system. This ranking should consider factors like last Test official crowd attendance and pitch preparation. Even domestic crowd attendance can be considered. The Ranji Trophy Final and Duleep Trophy Final showed very encouraging signs. And it's high time that Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium is inducted into the list of India's Test venues.

And why only in India - may be, ICC could create a ranking system for Test grounds based on various such parameters. Then, a news flash in the future might read: India climb to No. 1 in Test Team Rankings and Eden Gardens climbs to No. 1 in Test Venue Rankings.

GOLD: STEYN; SILVER: VIRU; BRONZE: BADRI - SO FAR ON DAY THREE

As I write this Dhoni has opened his account on the 15th ball that he faced and Badrinath has reached his maiden Test fifty in his Test debut. All this after Sehwag's responsible-till-his-dismissal-shot innings of 109 very valuable runs for India and Dale Steyn's fiery spell of fine swing bowling in the morning (very ably supported by Morne Morkel).

South Africa dominated India over the last 2 days (except for the first hour on the first day). And they have continued their dominance even today, despite Sehwag's knock. It's weird that no Indian batsman, apart from Sehwag, averages 50+ against South Africa in India. There will be chances over the course of this series, but it will not be an easy task if Dale Steyn has his say.

Dale Steyn has been in tremendous form since his return after injury in the Second Test against England. His spell to Paul Collingwood in the Third Test would have fetched him a 5-for on any other day. Lady Luck was just not happy with him that day. But he made up for it in the Fourth Test, finally getting a 5-for that he deserved in the previous Test itself. And now, with his outstanding spell this morning, he is well on his way to having an outstanding series here in India as well.

However, despite India's troubles, I think that the most likely result of this match is a draw. There are 7 more sessions left in the match. Assuming that South Africa would want atleast 2 sessions of batting for themselves to set India a reasonable target, India has to bat out 5 sessions for 16 wickets. Given the batting form of the team, I do not think this should be a very difficult task (despite having two debutants).

I hope that Badri can manage a good score here and push Yuvraj Singh out of the Test spot. At the age of 29, his chance was overdue.