Mohammed Siraj Powers India to Their 8th Asia Cup Title!

Powered by an incredible surge of the rising Indian fast bowler Mohammed Siraj India have crushed Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in the Asia Cup-2023 Final played in Colombo today, winning their 8^th title of the tournament, followed by Sri Lanka with 5 and Pakistan with 2 title wins. The hosts won the toss and as expected chose to bat first. So far in the tournament, all matches were won by teams batting first; however, in the Final today things took a different turn. The match was also delayed by rainy weather and the Indian pacers smelt some swing in the pitch of which they took full advantage. After Jasprit Bumrah removed Kusal Perera in the very first over of the match, Mohammed Siraj achieved the rarest of rare feats by taking four scalps in just one over or in just six balls—his second and only the fourth over of the match. Four wickets in the Lankan top order reducing the hosts to a sorry 12/5. And the slide did not stop there. Siraj fired on to his fifer in just 16 balls and then to 6/21 overall. Pandya delivered the final blows for his 3/3 figure bundling out the Lankas for just 50 runs—their second lowest total ever in ODI cricket. It was all over for Sri Lanka in 15.2 overs and India looked at the target of 51 runs in 50 overs which they did achieve in style—openers Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill hauling it up in 6.1 overs.

Mohammed Siraj becomes the first ever Indian bowler to capture 4 wickets in 6 balls and the third in ODI cricket history. Incidentally, the first two cricketers to have achieved this are both from Sri Lanka: Chaminda Vaas against Bangladesh in the 2003 World Cup and Lasith Malinga in the World Cup-2007 against South Africa. But I think Siraj’s feat should be judged as the best ever from two standpoints: first, it was the Final of an international tournament, and second, he initiated the damage in the very top order of the team, never relenting till the finish. We talked about India’s rarest of rare kind of feat in the Super-4 match against Pakistan earlier: whereas it was an incredible display of Indian batting in that match, in the Final today it was an incredible display of fast bowling.

Team India is immensely capable of such feats whenever its immensely talented cricketers play to their true potential, and this point naturally brings up the most crucial point about the constitution of the team: when you do have your best team at any juncture, why don’t you allow it to go on playing and winning! Why, like in numerous other occasions in Indian cricket history, did you need to change the team in the match against Bangladesh? Why your players needed to be given rest in the midst of an important tournament and that too in the run-up to the ODI World Cup-2023? You still experimented just because your team had already reached the Final and thus let your team lose unnecessarily. Why do you have such repeated urges to lose? A win against Bangladesh would perhaps have further pushed India up in the ICC ODI rankings. Was it not better even otherwise to prepare for the World Cup with the maximum possible wins? And, had either Tilak or Prasidh or the perplexingly axed and demoralized Shami and Suryakumar or the enigma Shardul played the matches of their life would you have selected them for the Final? If not, obviously, then why was that experiment necessary? For accomplishing a consistently performing team you must stick to the best team available and you must be ready to drop any player in any position if out of form or just non-performing for which, luckily, you do have plenty of options.

Now, for the Final of an intensely competitive tournament in its two stages the final match was a perfect anti-climax—a real letdown for the thousand of enthusiastic cricket fans. Again, for a tournament that’d been dominated by the spinners all the way the Final was entirely on a different footing with the spinners not getting a chance even to bowl a few overs, forget about taking wickets. Although for the Indian fans the Final proved to be a huge relief of sorts the Sri Lanka fans and genuine cricket lovers were thoroughly frustrated, a 100-over match getting over in only about 22 overs. However, cricket has always been the game of glorious uncertainties and such things do happen and will continue to happen. And star performers like Siraj will also continue to dazzle us. 

And India in Asia Cup-2023 Final!

 

Dunith Wellalage

Just when this writer expressed his extreme disillusionment with the cricket of Team India thanks to the haphazard style of player selection cum mindless experimentation in the run-ups to all possible international tournaments, and even threatened to permanently lose interest in the matches India play or is going to play, Team India had bounced back to the winning habit by first bamboozling Pakistan into one of its most crushing defeats of all time in the reserve-day yesterday, the 11^th of September 2023 and then defeated the hosts Sri Lanka in a low-scoring match today, the 12^th of September 2023, thus making way to the Asia Cup-2023 Final to be played on Sunday, September 17. India have now 4 points from 2 matches continuing to top the points table with a formidable net run-rate (NRR) and either Pakistan or Sri Lanka can join them in the Final depending on their virtual semi-final clash on Thursday, September 14. Conceding two defeats from their two matches Bangladesh is out of the tournament and can look forward to having two points at best if they manage to defeat India in the last Super Four match on 15^th September.

In the momentous match against the archrivals yesterday all in the top four of Indian batting delivered, and delivered in a roaring style. It is indeed the rarest of rare kind of feat for India with its openers, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, helping themselves to half-centuries each and then in a memorable display of strokeplay the next two of the top order, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, notching up their unbeaten centuries. Amid the ecstasy generated for Indian fans it was also a huge sense of relief that finally Kohli had found his long-lost century touch and Rahul who had joined the team after a long hiatus got into the act immediately. This also proves the fact that once the India top order plays to potential no rival team could hope to win on that particular day, and this is also part of the main problem as most often all or most of the top order continue to fail to serve the team, so much so that the team almost loses the winning habit and the hopeful management never daring to apply the axing policy on them. Anyhow, the glorious unbeaten partnership between the two augurs well for the upcoming ODI World Cup-2023. India raced to a mammoth 356 for the loss of only the two openers, and Pakistan looked so lost and totally demoralized that they failed to offer even a worthwhile fight, folding up their reply with a paltry 128 in 32 overs after a devastating spell by the Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav (5 for 25 in 8 overs). No Pak player could even register an individual fifty. The result of India winning by an incredible 228-run margin came in the reserve day which was also affected by repeated rain interruptions, but luckily not enough to wash out the match completely. On the first day of the match Pakistan won the toss and chose to field. The Indian openers laid a solid launchpad on which flourished the Kohli-Rahul partnership in the second day.

That terrific batting display naturally prompted India Captain Rohit Sharma to choose batting first after winning the toss against the hosts in the same venue in Colombo today. After a fairly sound start by Rohit and Gill things, however, began to change as the Sri Lanka spinners, true to their ‘choking’ fame at home turfs, successfully controlled the supposed masters of spin and the wickets began to tumble. The 20-year-old star spinner, Dunith Wellalage, who made his international debut just a year ago dictated the goings-on by achieving his maiden 5-wicket haul and later was ably assisted by Charith Asalanka (4) to restrict India to a modest 213 all out. Even as the Indian spinners were expected to have their tight grip in the Sri Lanka innings the vital blows struck by Jasprit Bumrah and Mohd Siraj helped India to go on taking regular wickets. They knew that taking wickets was more important, because with a target of only 214 restricting the hosts was not going to be effective. And as the match progressed Sri Lanka kept on losing wickets while the runs required were always less than the balls available. The Sri Lankans tried very hard indeed to get to the target for a secure place in the Final, but finally ran out of wickets. Incidentally, it was the youngster Wellalage again who kept the Lankan hopes alive with the bat too (42 not out).  Kuldeep following the match against Pakistan had success in this match too with four scalps and two each by Bumrah and Jadeja. India won by 41 runs and sealed their place in the Final. The Asian war is on for the second spot. 

Asia Cup-2022: Teams Playing for National Pride, India Played for IPL Pride!

That India had been kicked out of the Asia Cup-2022 should hardly come as a surprise or some kind of a setback for the Indian cricket board, the Selectors, the India captain and the India coach, because this tournament too has been another clog in the machinery of experimentation for determining a ‘national’ squad for the ICC T20 World Cup-2022 that starts in October in Australia this year. While the ICC had been trying laudably hard to provide valuable practice in the shortest format for all the contesting national sides Team India or the franchises thereof or the team management had been basically trying to justify the IPL and to vindicate the selections therefrom. During this time most of the cricketing superstars of India had been rested or allowed to recuperate from supposed injuries, and as a crucial part of the experiments the superstars, all IPL-captain stuff, were brought in for this international tournament which totally neutralizes the earlier experiments with the IPL stars and rookies. No doubt, as we indicated in an earlier post, after the epochal revenue deal struck for the IPL, cricket in India has virtually become IPL-oriented, and so the endless experiments that are set to continue even during the upcoming big international event. Since the IPL is the future of Indian cricket there’d hardly be any national side for any international event in the coming years, and therefore, in this particular tournament Team India has right royally played for IPL pride, thus disappointing and frustrating the genuine cricket lovers and fans of the country.

 

We see no other alternative but to stick to this opinion after considering the ‘decisions’ regarding the playing eleven in Asia Cup-2022. First of all, knowing fully well that most of the crucial Super-4 matches are to be played in the pacer-friendly Dubai pitches the selectors included only three pacers in the squad, that too consisting of two IPL rookies, and fielded four spinners. Apart of course, from the ‘definitive’ all-rounders like Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja and it has not been clear at all if they were bowling or batting all-rounders. Perhaps, the absolute drive to make Jadeja a superstar batsman, also an IPL-must, contributed toward his becoming unfit in quick time and repeatedly over the last two years, and he being ruled out of the tournament seemed to have made the entire team utterly useless, even making Pandya so frustrated that he could not bat nor bowl effectively. And all the while the team management talked of a cohesive and fighting playing eleven.

 

Dinesh Karthik, the experienced keeper-batsman, was included in the squad and was allowed to face just one ball in the group matches, and was dropped inexplicably from the Super-4 matches. As the India batting saga in the Pakistan and Sri Lanka matches unfolded it was Karthik who was missed sorely and almost fatally; in both matches India fell short by 15-20 runs and lost both. A genuinely promising batting all-rounder Deepak Hooda was included in those crunch matches; but Pandya superseded him in the batting order every time, and in the bowling department despite Pandya being hit mercilessly and ceaselessly Hooda was not at all tried by the ‘experienced’ India captain as the sixth bowling option. Why? Because the promising IPL-captain stuff had to be promoted at all costs.

 

Of the pacers, the rookie called Avesh Khan got injured and was ruled out of the tournament; therefore, the other rookie Arshdeep Singh had to be included along with the experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Now who is Arshdeep Singh? That he was trolled for the simple catch he dropped in the penultimate over against a struggling Pakistan just could not be a national news with all the masala ingredients. It was simply a reaction of the hapless fans, caught in the continuously frustrating chain unleashed by the selectors or the captain or the coach or the Board or the IPL mandarins or whoever concerned. There are other more pertinent questions that are integral to the experiments: where is Deepak Chahar? Where is Mohammad Shami? Where is Mohammad Siraj? Where is the fiery Umran Malik? Of course, the superstar captain-stuff Jasprit Bumrah is too delicate to be wasted in the mundane international matches or minor tournaments. Of the spinners if the experienced Ashwin was to be considered he should’ve been considered from the beginning of the Super-4 stage. However, when he was finally considered he replaced Bishnoi who, though another IPL rookie, fought spiritedly in the Pakistan game instead of replacing the listless Yuzvendra Chahal. Well, contradictions are bound to happen in a mindless quest!

 

After the Asia Cup hosts Sri Lanka came roaring back into form eliminating an equally determined Bangladesh at the last group match the Super-4 stage was bound to be tough and fiercely competitive. Pakistan too asserted their determination after routing Hong Kong, and Afghanistan was waiting eagerly for their encounters, being the group topper along with India. With the exception of India all the three teams have fighting-fit national sides not beleaguered by the senseless changes, and are fighting for sheer national pride, determined to enter the World Cup as serious contenders. In cricketing terms the basic differences between India and the three teams are the former’s batting inconsistency cum a haphazard batting order and their bowlers, particularly the spinners, lacking the intensity required in such competitive tournaments.

 

Afghanistan was extremely unlucky to falter in the last over against Pakistan, losing a low-scoring match while Pakistan’s fighting spirit till the last man outstanding must be appreciated. With that win by one wicket Pakistan entered the Final to meet Sri Lanka on 11^th September, making their Super-4 encounter on September 9 inconsequential, but of great value for both in gaining confidence for the Final. Meanwhile as expected, Team India experimented in an exemplary manner in the match against Afghanistan with the captain dropping himself (read resting himself) and giving another go to the franchisee captain KL Rahul. In some kind of a sadistic joke the selectors included Dinesh Karthik again and also decided to try Deepak Chahar. My God! What apathy and total disregard for the national spirit of the country!

 

With the ICC still providing more T20 practice by facilitating two three-match T20 series of India Vs South Africa and India Vs Australia India later this month in India the India experiment-juggernaut can still go on testing their IPL rookies priding itself of having the strongest bench-strength in the world with limitless choices of players and give a much-deserved rest to their superstar cricketers, again. But unfortunately, at almost the same time the glorious Selectors will have to finally announce their ‘dream’ squad for the World Cup even as the dream of an India-Pakistan Asia Cup final, the third much-awaited encounter of a rare variety of cricket, got cruelly dashed by that same bunch of businessmen of cricket.  Amen!

Ind Vs SL 2nd Test: Pant Hits The Fastest Fifty, Indian Batting Extends It To The Third Day!

Source: BCCI

Having all the time in the world India didn’t really need to hurry setting a target and so batted on till the 9^th wicket fell, and luckily extending the pink-ball Test match to the third day. Given their pitch-specific one-day cricket tactics India scored at a very healthy 4+ per over run rate scoring 303/9 in the 69^thover setting a target of 447 runs to win for Sri Lanka. This target is a tall order for the side batting last on any kind of pitch anywhere. The highlights of the Indian innings include the fastest fifty in Test cricket for India by Rishabh Pant (50) who achieved the feat in just 28 balls, bettering that of Kapil Dev in 30 balls; good opening partnership with Rohit (46) tackling the spinners well scoring all around the park including reverse sweeps, unfortunately missing his much deserved half-century; and Shreyas Iyer, the hero of the first innings, lapped up his consecutive second fifty of the match with an exciting 67-run innings. Except for Kohli (13) all batsmen contributed well and the bowlers too scored runs with Shami remaining not out at 16 when the declaration came.

 

It has been the class of Team India in all departments of the game that stood out in sharp contrast in this match than the pitch behavior. The Sri Lankans did poorly in both bowling and fielding—their pacers not at all matching the might of Bumrah-Shami and their spinners, particularly Lasith Embuldeniya, were let down often by the slip catchers. In India second innings Embuldeniya had to be content with 3 wickets and Praveen Jayawickrama with 4—both of them deserved a fifer in at least one innings. With just 7 overs left in the second day to start chasing the mammoth target Sri Lanka lost opener Lahiru Thirimanne for a duck in the very first over by Bumrah. Fortunately, captain Dimuth Karunaratne and Kushal Mendis saw through the day with the team score of 28/1 at stumps. It is to be seen tomorrow whether India would need one or two or three sessions to sweep the series 2-0, now a foregone conclusion.

 

Earlier in the morning session today, India needed just about 6 overs to get the remaining 4 Sri Lanka wickets bundling them out for a paltry 109, taking a huge lead of 143 runs. Jasprit Bumrah, firing all cylinders since the first day, achieved a fifer which is his first on Indian soil while R Ashwin got into the act with 2 wickets. In batting, apart from Iyer, Rishabh Pant sparkled in both innings and in the Series too with his brilliant 96 in the first test. Only it’s still a long wait for Virat Kohli to score a century as he ends this Series without even a single fifty. We already mentioned about Ravindra Jadeja’s all-round glory of 175 not out and a haul of 9 wickets in that test. Test Cricket is over for some time to come now as the IPL-2022 gets underway later this month with 10 franchises ready to fight it out.

Ind Vs SL 2nd Test: The Pink Ball Blues Or The Pitch As 16 Wickets Fall On 1st Day?

Source: BCCI

As many as 16 wickets fell on the very first day of the Second and last Test match, a day-n-night pink ball affair, between India and Sri Lanka at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru today. Pink ball test matches have been a very recent addition to the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Test Championship (WTC) schedules and this is perhaps only the third match played in India so far. India demolished Bangladesh in the first ever Pink-ball test in Kolkata and then England in the second pink-ball Ahmedabad match. Normally the pink ball is associated with more swing, particularly in the twilight period when the lights come on, even though this is still not a proven fact. In this particular match more than the pink ball blues the pitch seems to have played a far pivotal role. The pitch has proved to be a turning one from day 1 combined uneven and variable bounce which helped both the seamers and the spinners. The way the wickets fell in heaps on the very first day the match could very well be over in two days in which case the curator may have to face the ICC probe.

 

India won the toss and obviously elected to bat first. The Indian batsmen seemed to have sensed the nature of the pitch and accordingly decided to make hay as long as the pitch shines, attacking the bowlers in the short-format style with opener getting runout in the very second over. Captain Rohit Sharma tried to blast his way out, but was cut short by Embuldeniya for 15 runs. Kohli (23) and Hanuma Vihari (31) then adopted the sheet-anchor roles, but could not save their wickets for long. India were reduced to 86/4 and then to 148/6. Shreyas Iyer, surprisingly coming after Pant, played a terrific innings of 92 runs thus restoring India to a respectable total of 252 all out in just the 60^th over which could very well be a winning one proving the Indian batting tactics right.

 

Given the nature of the pitch the Sri Lanka bowlers failed to take advantage of the conditions, particularly the fast bowlers, Lakmal and Fernando, with only the former managing to take a wicket. The spinning trio of Embuldeniya, Jayawickrama and Dhananjaya de Silva captured 8 wickets between them. As India got all out just before the dinner break the Sri Lanka batsmen had the arduous task ahead of facing the Indian seamers under the lights.

 

And yes, Bumrah and Shami proved lethal for them making the ball swing both ways and took 5 wickets between them, Bumrah taking 3 scalps. Axar Patel, replacing Jayant Yadav after a long rehab break, took the 6^th wicket. Sri Lanka were precariously placed at 86/6 at stumps with only Angelo Mathews (43) providing some resistance. If the Indian spinning trio of Ashwin, Axar and Jadeja along with Bumrah and Shami have their ways on an already deteriorating pitch we might see a very dramatically eventful second day tomorrow.

 

Since this two-match Test Series is part of the WTC schedule India’s probable 2-0 sweep over Sri Lanka would improve their ranking significantly.

Two Weeks Of Ukraine Invasion, The Sumy Rescue And Cricket Tragedies!

Russian President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has entered Day 14 leaving a trail of devastation and loss of lives across the country. We pointed out earlier that the war was totally unnecessary, and now it seems abundantly clear that it was in the interest of the West that Russia did invade Ukraine so that the latter’s strategic presence in Europe could be checked, if not eliminated. The surprising resistance by Ukraine is mainly thanks to the baits by the West in terms of entry into the European Union and a membership in NATO. Russia also made a mistake by not anticipating the support to be extended to Ukraine by the US, most European nations and other strategic allies to fight the war. The main objective of the Western allies seems to be the justification to impose the economic sanctions to isolate Russia in a bid to force it to submit. But unfortunately, they’ve decided to ignite a dormant volcano instead by ignoring its demands, also as strategic as theirs, and by abandoning the universally accepted method called international diplomacy.

 

President Biden has been maintaining that ‘Putin cannot defeat Ukraine’ which means that he along with his allies expect a protracted war so that at the end an isolated and economically bleeding Russia calls it a day. However, the Biden allies have conveniently forgot that by isolating Russia, a major supplier of natural gas, petroleum and weapons, they have nearly plunged the world into an economic crisis—a global economy just recovering from the Pandemic. Crude oil prices have touched almost $140 a barrel and with the US decision to ban all Russian oil imports can further accentuate the oil fire. Among other countries it could hit India in the most severe way because India has already been suffering from insufficient consumer demand to boost the economy. With the assembly elections over it’s to be seen how long the government can fend off the inevitable price increase in petrol an diesel.

 

President Zelensky has let the cat loose. First, he demanded NATO to declare No-fly zone in Ukraine; NATO refused, obviously because it would mean a war between Russia and America, possibly a Third World War which could be nuclear if Putin’s threats are taken seriously. Then, Zelensky wanted more arms, weapons and fighter aircrafts from NATO, in a way, directly asking NATO to involve itself in the war and to protect Ukraine. Thwarted on all requests, the Ukrainian President is now crying hoarse calling it a betrayal by the West and that he would give up his on his promised NATO membership. And, that’s exactly what Russia wants. Putin has been saying clearly that he would instantly end the war if Ukraine gives up on its aspirations to join the EU and the NATO. Well, at the same time the rights of a sovereign nation to do what its citizens desire cannot be repressed, whatever be the strategic interests of whatever power blocks.

 

In the meantime, a humanitarian crisis with unbearable consequences had been developing in the Ukrainian city of Sumy where around 700 Indian students were trapped in the bunkers as food, water and other amenities were drying out. As the attacks outside intensified they were even frightened to switch on the electricity at those endless nights. There seemed to be no way out to evacuate them as it was extremely dangerous to venture out in the missile-raining streets. We must commend the efforts of the Government of India by not giving up and resorting to the much-forgotten diplomacy. A tripartite diplomatic mediation between Russia, Ukraine and India resulted in Russia agreeing to declare ceasefire in four cities to ease the process of civil evacuation. Yesterday, the Sumy students were moved out to Poltava by road, then moved to Western Ukraine by trains and finally to be airlifted to India. We must congratulate the die-hard efforts the Indian Air Force, the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs and of course, the pilots and staff of Air India (now operated by the Tata group).

 

Moving to other fields of world affairs we must mention the double-tragedy suffered by Australian Cricket losing two of their veteran cricketers—wicket-keeper batsman Rodney Marsh (74) and the legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne (just 52)—within 24 hours on 4^thMarch 2022. Shane Warne, undoubtedly the best-ever leg-spinner in world cricket with his 708 Test wickets (the first to reach that mark), has been fully active in cricket even after his retirement in 2007. He played for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL apart from his other international assignments. We have been aware of him all the time as he never failed to comment on the performances of Team India in its international matches. Warne, fondly called Warnie by his pals, reportedly got three months of leave from Fox Sports for whom he had been working, and went to Thailand to start his much-deserved holidays along with his friends. Tragically, the very next day he was found unresponsive in his room. His friends did CPR on him and then it was done repeatedly at the hospital, but the legend could not be revived.   

 

It is indeed hard to put away Shane Warne from our cricket-loving minds. When he dominated the Indian batsmen, prominently Sachin Tendulkar, we admired him, and when he was hit all around and out of the park by Tendulkar, we loved his open admiration and wonderment at the living legend’s prowess. This had been typical of the essence of Warne’s personality who lived his life on his own terms and was not bogged down by the few controversies thus created. And we really feel great talking about the times of the greats. Shane Warne has been bestowed the 4^thplace in the list of Wisden Cricketers of the century along with the greats of Donald Bradman, Garfield Sobers, Jack Hobbs and Vivian Richards.

 

Earlier on 4^thMarch Rodney Marsh passed away—a cricketing great who excelled during 1971-1984 as a wicket-keeper batsman and created history of achieving a record 355 Test catches behind the stumps, mostly combining with the lethal fast bowling legend Dennis Lily. Of course, we could not watch his antics on the field as in those times our only means of tuning in to cricket had been the radio commentary. Interestingly, both of Marsh and Warne had had very ordinary debuts. And more disconcertingly, Shane Warne had twitted his condolences to Rodney Marsh’s demise, not knowing his own destiny. We cannot still believe Warnie is no more.

 

Meanwhile, India made mincemeat of a listless Sri Lanka in the first Test at Mohali winning by an innings and 222 runs. The highlight of the test match is the tremendous comeback of Ravindra Jadeja into the Test team after months of nursing an injury—he made a historic 175 not out in India’s defining first inning total of 574 and went on to take 9 wickets in the Sri Lanka two innings with a fifer in the first innings. Now, Jadeja could justifiably be termed as one of the greatest all-rounders in world cricket. Earlier, India swept the 3-match T20I Series 3-0 where Jadeja also figured prominently. 

(We acknowledge wikipedia.org, alzazeera.com and google maps for the images.)

Explosive Iyer Helps India Seal T20I Series At 2-0 Against Sri Lanka!

Shreyas Iyer, one of the most promising youngsters for India in all formats, picked up his second consecutive and equally explosive half-century (in 31 balls) to guide India to a comfortable victory by 7 wickets over the visiting Sri Lanka in the second T20 International match at Dharamshala this evening, again remaining not out with a superb stroke-filled 74 in 44 balls and thus sealing the 3-match Series with an unassailable 2-0 lead. Iyer made 57 not out in just 28 balls in the first T20I match in Lucknow and combined very well with opener Ishan Kishan who came into his own with a fluent 89 runs in 56 balls helping India set a formidable target of 199/2. Sri Lanka batsmen faltered in the chase making only 137 runs losing 6 wickets. Ishan crafted a 111-run opening partnership with Rohit Sharma (44) in that match.

 

Today India won the toss and elected to field first perhaps because of the possible dew factor. Sri Lanka openers made a good start racing to 67 runs in the 9^th over when Danushka Gunathilaka (38) got out. After his fall the visitors lost the clue for a brief period losing quick wickets. But opener Pathum Nissanka carried on till the penultimate over scoring a brilliant 75 in 53 balls, and with a late explosion by captain Dasun Shanaka blasting 47 runs in just 19 balls. Sri Lanka scored 39 runs in the last two overs and set a target of 184 runs which seemed to be quite competitive for India without their strike batsmen of Kohli, Pant and KL Rahul.

 

Ishan Kishan attacked the Lankan bowlers from the very first over and the momentum was not disturbed ever after Rohit fell early to a fiery Dushmantha Chameera for the 5^thtime in around 40 balls in the last few matches. Iyer took charge from the word go and stroked all around the park in a perfectly cricketing way. Ishan was again stroking well, but got out for 16 runs perhaps a bit shaken after getting hit in the helmet by a Lahiru Kumara bouncer. Sanju Samson, in the team after a long break, lived dangerously for some time and then broke loose notching up 39 in 25. Ravindra Jadeja, also coming back into the team after a long fitness break, made a mockery of the competitive target by racing to 45 in just 18 balls, remaining not out. India won with three overs to spare.

 

Sri Lanka helped the India chase by a lot of misfields and dropped catches, not normally the case with them. Of course, they are too a young and inexperienced team; but they have a lot of promise in most of the batsmen and bowlers. For a change, we are seeing furious fast bowlers leading the attack for the team, Chameera and Kumara going past 90 miles an hour often, as against their traditionally strong spin attack aiming mostly to choke the opponents. The fairly grassy pitch at Dharamshala helped the fast bowlers of both sides in the initial overs. The Sri Lanka foursome pace-battery can be formidable in the first Test match in Mohali that also offers a pitch somewhat helping fast bowlers.

 

And, for the first time in the pandemic-hit India we’ve seen today a good and noisy crowd after cricket new normal in Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Lucknow. This victory here is the 11^th consecutive win for India in T20I cricket, and the 8^th white-ball triumph on the trot after cleaning out the West Indies 6-0 and now leading 2-0 against Sri Lanka. Although almost all of these victories are on the home turfs the best emerging thing about Team India is that they are winning with different permutations and combinations. The bench strength and the rich options, at least in the white-ball formats, augur well for the upcoming T201 World Cup later this year.

Rohit Sharma Named Test Captain: Pujara And Rahane Dropped For Sri Lanka Test Series!

The Chairman of the BCCI Selection Committee, Chetan Sharma, has today announced the India squads for the upcoming Test and T20I Series against the visiting Sri Lanka, naming Rohit Sharma as the Test Captain with Jasprit Bumrah as his deputy. The out-of-from batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have been dropped along with the experienced pacer Ishant Sharma and reserve wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha—the last being dropped on account of his age (37) as he did not figure in any of the matches in the South Africa tour. This announcement is on the expected lines. Chetan Sharma said that Rohit has emerged as the unanimous choice for Test captaincy while future captain materials like KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Bumrah are to be groomed under the leadership of Rohit which we speculated about in one of our earlier posts.

 

If it was an apologetic gesture or not the Chairman said further that Pujara and Rahane have to be left out to make room for a new-generation Team India, adding that the doors are still open for the experienced duo as this selection is only for the two test matches against Sri Lanka. The chances for their possible comeback look bleak though considering the new blood being injected in terms of opener Priyank Panchal, top order batsman Shreyas Iyer and middle-order batsman Hanuma Vihari. It is indeed sad to see Rahane, only 33, and Pujara, 34, go, as they have been an integral part of the India Test team, particularly Rahane who crafted a glorious away Test series victory over Australia only last year as the stand-in captain. Both of them are currently playing the Ranji Trophy matches; in the IPL-2022 Rahane finds a franchise while Pujara has remained unsold.

 

Ravindra Jadeja who missed out on the South Africa tour and the West Indies matches due to injury has come back in both the squads as well as Mayank Agarwal and Shubman Gill. Wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav who had been largely ignored by the Kohli-Shastri combine also finds a place along with spinner Sourabh Kumar who has played in the World Cup winning India Under-19 team recently. KS Bharat has been included as the reserve wicket-keeper replacing Saha. Ravichandran Ashwin is selected subject to his fitness. While KL Rahul and Washington Sunder have been ruled out due to fitness issues Shardul Thakur is rested.

 

In the T20I squad rookie opener Ruturaj Gaikwad, wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson are selected and bowlers Deepak Hooda, Avesh Khan and Ravi Bishnoi have been retained from the team playing against the West Indies. Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant are granted rest from the bio-bubble for the final ODI against the West Indies and the three T20I matches against Sri Lanka. Experienced pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar is retained in the T20I squad only. The Chief Selector has also asserted that the play-n-rest policy would continue in future too for the overall fitness of the players.

 

If there were any doubts in the minds of the selectors about Rohit Sharma those have been put to rest by his victories over the visiting West Indies in both the ODI Series (3-0) and in the T20I Series (leading 2-0) apart from his winning record as India’s stand-in captain on various occasions. At least till the World Cup-2023 he seems to be the logical choice for India captain in all the formats.

 

The final ODI is to be played against West Indies in Kolkata tomorrow and their batsmen must deliver at least a saving grace by registering their first win. Defeat of the once-mighty West Indies in the second ODI yesterday is really pathetic as they failed to win with 7 wickets remaining and after restricting India to 186. No doubt, the target was challenging and the Indian bowlers have indeed put their hard efforts under an attentive Rohit, but the consistent failures of the WI batsmen must be questioned. With the WI spinners bowling very well on the Indian slow tracks the visitors had a great chance to upset the hosts in their own grounds.

 

The Sri Lanka Tour of India starts on the 24^th February with the first of the 3 T20I matches in Lucknow, and the two other matches to take place at Dharamsala on 26^thand 27^th respectively. The First Test starts from 4^th march in Mohali and the second and the final Test to take place in Bengaluru during 12-16^th March. The T20Is will start from 7 PM Indian time. The first Test match starts from 9,30 AM on all days while the second Test will be a day-n-night affair in Bengaluru starting from 12.30 PM all five days.

 

Test Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Mayank Agarwal, Priyank Panchal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, KS Bharat, R Ashwin (fitness), Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Mohammed Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Saurabh Kumar.

T20I Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Mohammad Siraj, Sanju Samson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan.

Cricket: Asia Cup-2018 Begins, Bangladesh Crush Sri Lanka in Inaugural Match!

The 14^th edition of Asia Cup of One Day Internationals (ODI) between cricket playing nations of Asia began tonight, the 15^th of September, 2018 in United Arab Emirates. UAE hosts this tournament for the third time due to well-known reasons. In the inaugural match played at the Dubai International stadium Bangladesh crushed Sri Lanka by 137 runs. Bangladesh, batting first, innings was built mainly on a superlative 144 runs by Musfiqur Rahim who was the last man out setting a competitive target of 261 runs. Sri Lanka began very shakily and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals including a  run-out, the whole team finally getting bowled out for a mere 124 . With its string of successes in last two years Bangladesh has become the team to watch out for in this two-week tournament. It was nice to see Lasith Malinga back in the Sri Lanka team and also among wickets again.

Asia Cup this year has six teams with Hong Kong joining the five full ODI members—India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The tournament, normally played in the round robin format, this time is having two groups and a Super Four. Group A consists of India, Pakistan and Hong Kong while Group B has Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Winners and runners-up teams of each group will go to the Super Four stage on the basis of points at the group stage and in Super Four all four nations will play each other with the top two teams qualifying for the Final. There will be two venues—Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Omission of Sharjah is perplexing which is also pointed out by Sunil Gavaskar.

After a long while cricket lovers are set to enjoy encounters between the eternal archrivals India and Pakistan. This rivalry becomes far more interesting with the former ace pacer Imran Khan becoming the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The two nations are set to meet on 19^th September in Dubai for the group match. Supposing both teams proceed to the Super Four stage which is the most likely scenario they will meet for the second time sometime after 20^thSeptember. If both teams turn out to be the top two teams in Super Four they will meet for the third time in the Final on 28^th September. Cricket lovers will really relish that possibility. Of course, as we have pointed out earlier, Bangladesh would be a tough team to overcome and Sri Lanka could come roaring back any time.  

India has a new captain Rohit Sharma for the tournament as Virat Kohli was rested after the Test disaster against England. India, the defending champions, has been consistently proving its dominance in the shorter format and the absence of Kohli is not likely to impact team performance adversely. Of course, performance of MS Dhoni is going to be a crucial factor with wicket keeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik also featuring in the team. Selection blues in Team India visibly affected team performance in the England tour, and therefore team management has to be very careful about the final eleven in each match with a lot of options available. The omission of Rishav Pant seems illogical, because he went from the IPL straight to the Tests.

With more teams, interesting format and the extravaganza spreading over two weeks Asia Cup-2018 promises to be absorbing and exciting.

All details about the tournament:

Test Cricket: Skipper Virat Kohli Hopes For India!

Virat Kohli recently made it clear that he should never be compared with legendary Sachin Tendulkar, but it must be said that after Tendulkar he seems to be the main Indian contender to make or break records. In 48 Tests so far Virat hit 13 centuries including a double ton and 12 half centuries having a batting average of above 45. In 2012 Virat was made vice-captain of the Indian test team and since then he had been in the reckoning for the skipper’s post consistently with one of the most outstanding Indian skippers Mahendra Singh Dhoni having both cricketing and non-cricketing ups and downs.

However, Virat Kohli’s entry as India’s Test captain was quite dramatic. First, he was named captain for the Adelaide match against Australia in December, 2014 as Dhoni pulled out due to an injury. He made two centuries in the two innings in that match and nearly pulled in off in favor of India.  Virat showed his positive frame of mind by going for an outright win instead of laboring for a draw. He became the fourth Indian to make a ton on test debut as captain. His second innings century was hailed by Australian commentators as the finest fourth innings performance ever witnessed by them. After the two losses in the series came the dramatic twist—MS Dhoni retired suddenly as Test captain and left his team in the lurch down under.

Virat Kohli was then formally announced as Indian Test skipper from the Sydney test in January, 2015. He hit 147 in the first innings of that match and became the first batsman in Test cricket to hit three centuries in his first three innings as test captain. The Sydney test ended in a draw.

In his less than two years tenure as Captain Virat Kohli won 10 out of 17 test matches played so far having the best winning rate as compared to other Indian captains. Although this is far too short a period for that it may still hold a lot of promise for future considering his performances, strategy and aggression. He had two away series—in Sri Lanka and in West Indies and two domestic series—against South Africa and New Zealand and, a one-off Test against Bangladesh that ended in a draw. India under his leadership broke the jinx of never winning a Test Series in Sri Lanka by winning 2-1 in 2015 and this year won 2-0 against the West Indies. In his two domestic series India beat South Africa 3-0 with one match drawn in 2015 and whitewashed New Zealand 3-0 this year. In the recently concluded Test series against New Zealand Kohli also became the first Indian skipper to hit a double ton in the third and final Test in Indore. However, his string of domestic Test victories has been marred by the controversy of providing tailor-made spinning tracks to the host team.  On his series win against New Zealand Virat dismissed the controversy by defending his spinners, R Ashwin and R Jadeja, as two of the best spinners of the world who utilized the conditions much more than the opposition.

The acid tests for Virat Kohli as skipper would be the away Test series, particularly in Australia, England and South Africa, in near future. However, with his extraordinary batting prowess, his strategically positive leadership and all the cricketing years left in him Virat Kohli may well usher India into a new era of winning more and losing less matches in the years to come. The unique record of his big individual scores almost always translating into wins for his team could also augur well for Team India.  

Cricket T20: Australia Bashers Thrash Sri Lanka To Win Series 2-1!

Ravichandran Ashwin--Player of the Match & Series

India today clinched the T20 International Series against Sri Lanka 2-1. In the 3^rd and final match played at Visakhapatnam Team India annihilated the visitors wining by 9  wickets. For a change skipper Dhoni today won the toss and put the visitors in surprising everyone—perhaps keeping in mind the dew factor. And the decision vindicated him thoroughly. He opened the bowling attack with Ashwin and two wickets fell in that over. Ashwin went on to capture 4 wickets for just 8 runs—a no mean feat in the shortest format. Displaying a total lack of application and spirit the full Sri Lankan team folded up for a humiliating 82 with Nehra taking 2 and part-timer Suresh Raina chipping in with 2 wickets. The victory for India seemed a mere formality which they completed in 13.5 overs with the loss of Rohit Sharma. The slow track where Sri Lankan spinners got some turn delayed the proceedings a bit. Shikhar Dhawan (46) and Ajikya Rahane (22) remained not out.

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Player of the Match CAK Rajitha

Just a touch of the green makes Team India scream! There was some green in the Pune pitch for the 1^st match of the T20 Cricket Series between India and Sri Lanka. If we go by the history of IPL matches played there the Pune ground has been largely a low-scoring one with lot of help offered to the seam bowlers. Sri Lanka skipper Chandimal sensed Team India’s contempt for greens well and cleverly put the hosts in after winning the toss. The Indian top-order batsmen wanting to start from where they left in Australia went for big shots immediately and perished with two wickets falling in the very first over, Virat Kohli missed dearly at the No. 3 spot. The middle and lower order, always in doubt of their ability, did not learn anything and contributed to the collapse with only Ashwin helping the team reach a paltry 101 runs—not even being able to last the full twenty overs. Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets with 12 balls spare—but not before some anxious moments.

Plalyer of the Match Shikhar Dhawan

Team India came back magnificently in the 2^ndT20 international at Ranchi. Finally Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was at home at home. He kept wickets and commanded the team brilliantly. We talked earlier about his tendency to promote himself in the batting order once the top order fires. However, despite Ranchi being his home ground Dhoni resisted the temptation after Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma delivered in great style with some support from Ajikya Rahane and sent Pandya ahead of him which proved to be a very good decision. Pandya built on the momentum provided and kept the Indian run-rate consistently over 10 per over with a quickfire knock. Team India was also helped by the Sri Lanka captain’s decision after winning the toss. Perhaps the fact that the Sri Lankan batting strength was not really tested in the first T20 match influenced Chandimal’s decision to put the hosts in again on a seemingly perfect batting track. The Indians accepted the generous offer and they were unstoppable except for a Perera hattrick in the penultimate over. The target set was 199 and it was almost beyond the reach of the Sri Lankans. And it proved to be like that with just 127 runs put up on the board for the loss of 9 wickets. It was a huge win by 69 runs and the Australia bashers got it right in every sphere of the game ruthlessly.  

The Scorecard:

The 3^rd and final match in Visakhapatnam was thus set up as the decider of the T20 Series and top ranked T20 team in ICC rankings justified their position.

Earlier in Australia, as widely expected after the Sydney ODI and Adelaide T20 victories, India went on not only to win the T20 Series but whitewash the hosts 3-0. After comfortably winning the first match in Adelaide India won the Melbourne T20 in a ‘similar’ fashion sealing the 3-match Series at 2-0. The third and final match in Sydney proved to be the most exciting one. Breaking the ‘similarity’ syndrome Australia this time decided to bat first and put up a mammoth total of 197 on the board with a brilliant century by Watson. The shortest-format Champs still won the match by 7 wickets with no ball to spare. The top order roared with explosive innings by Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan. Raina and Yuvraj in the end scored 17 runs in the last over. It was exhilarating to witness some vintage cricket by Yuvraj Singh. However, the veteran southpaw is not getting enough time in the middle to prepare well for the upcoming ICC World T20. India start as hot favorites for the big event starting 8^th March. But before that it is destination Dhaka, Bangladesh for the Asia cup that kicks off from 24^th February. This Team India, a mixture of experience and youth, augurs well and significantly, Dhoni fielded the same eleven for the third consecutive time today.