ChinmayC Blog

Two days back I wrote ‘You hardly come across tied T20I matches…!’ now; circumstances force me to cancel that kind of condescending writing style and write ‘the tying spree…’! Because, after the Hamilton tie you get on your platter another Wellington tie—the second successive tie with, as usual, New Zealand snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and India winning again in the super over. Thus, winning the Wellington 4 th T20I match today Team India makes it 4-0 in the five-match Series. Hamilton: the Kiwis win toss, elect to field first, India set a target of 179, New Zealand lose two wickets in the 20 th over, fail to score 2 runs off 4 balls and ties the match at 179; in the super over New Zealand set a target of 18 runs, India overhaul it winning the match and the Series. Wellington: the Kiwis win toss, elect to field first, India set a target of 166 runs, New Zealand lose four wickets in the 20 th over, fail to make 20 runs off 21 balls with seven wickets standing at one stage...

You hardly come across tied T20I matches any part in the cricketing world; but today the third Twenty20 International match between India and New Zealand in Hamilton became one, and incredibly so. Indian opener Rohit Sharma starred in the Indian innings after being put into bat with 65 off 40 balls in a team total of 179/5, and yet again in the super over overhauling the New Zealand challenge of 18 runs with two sixes in the final two balls. A terrific 95 off just 48 balls by Kiwi captain Kane Williamson was in vain as he fell to Shami with just 2 runs needed off 4 balls of the final over. New Zealand needing 9 runs to win, Shami started the 20 th over conceding a six to Taylor, then 1 run to Taylor that brings Williamson into strike, third ball gets him out caught in the gully, next ball dot to Seifert, fifth ball yields a bye, and the sixth ball bowls Taylor ending the match in a tie allowing a super-over finish. Mohammed Shami was justifiably the Game-changer of the match while Roh...

It's always a great feeling beating Australia anywhere; greater if winning a series against them. India have achieved a series win beating the visitors in the third and final one-day international match by 7 wickets in Bangalore today. The match was India's the moment opener Rohit Sharma took full charge chasing 287 and blasted his way to a century (119, 8 fours, 6 sixes). Captain Virat Kohli gave him exciting company quickly getting to his half century and better. The versatile KL Rahul had to open again in place of injured Dhawan, and this time failed to make a defining contribution. Earlier Australian captain Aaron Finch gave an indecipherable googly at the toss: he won it for the third time, and decided to have the first strike this time, to Kohli's surprise and glee. Maybe thanks to India's dominant batting in Rajkot after being put into bat Finch must have planned for a huge total to put pressure on India in the final encounter. But it was not to be as the Indian ...

Shikhar Dhawan Outplayed in the first ODI match in Mumbai, India started the second must-win match in Rajkot with two psychologically adverse factors: first, Kohli lost the toss again and obviously put into bat for the second time; second, India was yet to win an ODI in Rajkot, losing to England and South Africa earlier—batting first on both occasions. However, three of the Indian top four had played well, Rohit, looking great for a blast, could not complete his half century getting out for 42 off 44 ballas while Dhawan went on nicely, but missing a century—getting out for 96 in 90 balls, and captain Kohli was in full flow playing a useful knock of 78 for the team. This, at least, has ensured India putting up a big score—a 300+ target, however, Australia looked good to assail even a 400+ total in Mumbai. Today India came with two changes in the final eleven: Manish Pandey replacing Rishabh Pant who had a concussion injury, and Saini coming in for dropped Thakur. While Virat Kohli got b...

Player-of-the-match David Warner Recently Team India played ‘kings’ beating Bangladesh, West Indies and Sri Lanka in the shorter formats at home, and several conclusions had been drawn about a ‘young’ team. However, those were relatively weaker teams with only West Indies offering some resistance, and the conclusions made on team performances cannot hold good against tougher rivals. Of course, the basic fact still prevailed, then and now: at least two of the Indian top-four  batsmen must have long innings for any chance of winning a match, and after today’s match against Australia in Mumbai and in light of the ICC World Cup-2019 experience it seems certain that apart from the top 2 either Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli must score high—preferably a century. In the first of the 3-match one-day international (ODI) series against Australia the hosts did poorly in the field and the visitors thrashed the former by 10 wickets with more than 12 overs to spare. Except for staunch Australia fan...

Assam, a state of the North Eastern India, is up again with a mass movement against the provisions of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) which implies granting citizenship on religious grounds. Numerous petitions from students, advocates, intellectuals and others against CAA are pending the Supreme Court, and so, although the matter is sub judice the various issues involved are in the public domain and are being continually debated and discussed. Therefore, I intend to bring up here certain aspects of the issues involved in relation to the realities in Assam and in other states of the North East. The crux of the CAA as far as Assam is concerned is again in relation to the ‘foreigners’ issue for which the state had to undertake a mass movement during 1979 to 1985 when the All Assam Students Union (AASU) provided the leadership that culminated in the signing of the Assam Accord with the Congress government led by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The newly-formed Assam Gana Pari...