Tri-Series Cricket: Team India Demolished!

Team India has gone down to the last position from the top of the table in the Commonwealth Bank Tri-Series one-day cricket being played in Australia. In today’s match at the Gabba, Brisbane Sri Lanka thoroughly demolished Team India though not being able to earn the bonus point thanks to some resistance displayed by the ‘youngsters’. And breaking news! Rohit Sharma was finally dropped or rotated or rested. Scorecard

The buzz is that the ‘senior’ players have let the team down. Yes, they did let down the team in the Test series earlier and you did not consider rotating or resting or dropping them then. Now in the one-day tournament you have hardly allowed them to play! They never know when they are going to figure in the team and when not. Sehwag came in as the skipper in today’s match and captained the team where he does not even find a place most of the time. The rotation policy had been consistently followed, but even then Gambhir or Tendulkar played when they were not due to be in as per the same policy. Zaheer Khan just does not know what he is doing—helping the team win or helping the policy become unwritten law. There was no method in the madness.

Hailed as the most positive Indian captain ever, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been busy dividing the team and putting in a lot of negative spirit. Like the tactics adopted by an Indian politician along caste lines Dhoni had divided team India into ‘seniors’ and ‘youngsters’ clearly favoring the latter. He did not allow the ‘seniors’ to settle down with the justification that these seniors tend to cost the team 20 extra runs due to poor fielding in Aus outfield. To our cricketing experience Tendulkar had always been praised as a committed batsman, bowler and fielder on the field. The other two—Sehwag and Gambhir—had never been termed slow or slothful either. All three figured and contributed positively in the best World Cup-2011 Team India that won the cup.  Dhoni must blame himself for giving away at least fifty runs extra in most of the matches and his ’20 run justification’ stands nowhere. If you are not fielding the best team possible you have no business to talk about winning. Dhoni’s negativity has been so overfilling that he took resort to slow overrate in the last match for which he penalized and could not play today’s match.

When seniors fail to deliver consistently they do need to be dropped or they should indeed seriously consider retiring. Rickey Ponting was dropped from the Aussie team and he retired from one-day cricket today. But he was not harassed by some weird policy and was given lots of opportunities before the inevitable decision. In fact, he captained in his last match coasting his team to a huge victory over India. All is not at all well in Team India.

From hereon Team India’s journey looks  set to go further downhill Down Under!

Temples of Alandi and Dehu, Pune.

On a visit to Pune recently we found some time for visiting a few famous temples at Alandi and Dehu in the outskirts of Pune, a major city of Maharashtra, India. We found peace and tranquility in the temples and the surroundings. Here are some of the moments captured:

 

 

 

Saint Dnyaneshwar(1275-1296)

Temple at Alandi.  

 

 

Leading to the Temple

 

 

And Surroundings....

 

 

Saint Tukaram (1608 - 1650) Temple at Dehu.

GathaMandir or Temple at Dehu

Have peace of mind and enjoy! 

Cricket Tri-Series: India Restore Australian Pride!

Australia had been in bit of a spot after its last-ball loss to India in the fourth match and the thrashing in the hands of Sri Lanka conceding a bonus point too in the sixth match of the cricket Tri-Series played in Australia. But when there is Team India, there is always a way! ‘Hum hain na!’(We are there, not to worry!). And, they have risen to the occasion at the Gabba, Brisbane for the seventh one-day international of the Commonwealth Bank Tri-series today in all glory!

Australia won the toss and elected to bat. India started in their generosity mission by dropping catches. Thanks to rotation Zaheer Khan came in, but out went R Ashwin who had been consistently bowling well and also providing good and crucial batting knocks too. Because Irfan Pathan, the weakest link, needed to be kept in the team maybe to prepare well for the IPL-5 that is round the corner. In the earlier match the last ten overs gave Australia only 57 runs. Nothing doing, Team India vowed. So, 110 runs were given away this time helping Australia to get to a mammoth 288/5 in fifty overs.

Indian batting started disastrously. Gautam Gambhir was supposed to be rotated out, but due to some injury or whatever Virender Sehwag was rested and Gambhir continued to be in the team. But since he was almost resigned to his fate Gambhir could not adjust to the sudden responsibility imposed upon him and got out cheaply. Besides, you cannot go on depending on just one batsman to keep you winning or tying. Tendulkar gave a catch in the third man area and it was dropped. No problems! He gave another one in the same area in the next ball and it was taken gratefully. Kohli, Sharma, Raina, and Jadeja came and went as usual. They can never be dropped or rotated because they have the impregnable virtue of being ‘bright’ youngsters. Maybe they too desperately need some good practice for the IPL-5. Dhoni got to a half century again, but this time amidst the ruins of exemplary generosity. India lost exactly by 110 runs. ‘Hum hain na!’ worked wonders and restored Australian supremacy in full measure helping Ricky Ponting whose place in the team has been under question mark register a big win with a bonus point too as stand-in Aussie skipper.

To talk some genuine cricketing sense, the Gabba had a bit of a bounce that seemed to overpower India like in the Test series. The main Aussie demolition man for India, Ben Hilfenhaus, staged a come-back in this match and justified his selection fully by capturing five hapless Indian wickets for 33 runs becoming the player of the match. Well, it was just a one-sided match that you tend to get sometimes. And of course, Australia roared back into the series by superlative batting, bowling and fielding performances.

There was some more humor in the match. Mike Hussey was given out stumped by the third umpire at Australia 119/3. But as Hussey started walking the two field umpires raced towards him and brought him back. Well, it transpired that the third umpire pressed the wrong button—‘out’ when it should have been ‘not out’! Cricket experts commented, ‘How ridiculous! He is paid to sit there whole day just to select one of the two buttons only! How could he go wrong in that?’ Captain cool Dhoni must have lost his cool, just once!

For Team India, the questions remain. When would they revoke rotation and stick to a winning combination? Do they seriously want to reach the finals or win matches? Is just IPL-5 the overriding perception for the ‘star’-ridden team?