India Vs Australia T20I Cricket: India Now Looking More Like the Team It Had Been!

Although the ‘experiment’ scare is far from over Team India is now looking more like the one it had been in the national sense as regards the international tournaments. Doing justice to the expectations of a decider the third and last T20I match in Hyderabad last night went down the wire keeping the thrill on till the penultimate ball of the match. It was a high-scoring match in a pitch that helped both the batsmen and the bowlers. Australia put up an imposing target of 187 runs for India after Rohit Sharma won the toss for the second time. And India skillfully handled the early losses of both their openers with Virat Kohli (63) and Suryakumar Yadav (69) having a rollicking partnership of 104 runs thus nearing the target with enough wickets left. However, the ride was still not without thorns as the Aussie fast bowlers started delivering beauties and scoring boundaries was difficult. With the demolition-man Suryakumar gone Kohli and Pandya got into some kind of a spot—India needing 32 in 3, then 21 in 2 and finally 11 in the last over. Before getting out in the second ball Kohli did an immense service by hitting the first ball of the last over by Sams for a six and the target got tantalizingly reduced to just 5 in 4 balls. Dinesh Karthik came in and scored a single off the third ball. Pandya failed to connect a outside-off wide fourth ball and with the wide not given the equation got a little tough with 4 runs in 2 balls. Luckily, Pandya managed to nick another wide ball and the lone slip fielder missed it. It went to a four in the third man area and India won the match by 6 wickets and the Mastercard T20I Series against Australia 2-1, thus providing the much-needed impetus for the team to go to Australia next month for the World Cup.

 

The defending World T20 Champions Australia would’ve much liked it to go home with a series victory to prepare well for the tournament in their own turfs. Apart from the match being a very close one that could’ve gone in either direction there were huge positives for Australia though: it fought all-out to win the first match and could’ve won the next two also; their pace and spin bowlers coming good most of the times to put the hosts under pressure; their batting depth remaining perfect as ever to help the team come out of any adversity; and the revelation that Cameron Green as an opener proved for the team and the management. This exciting new-age power-cricketer has become a tremendous prospect for Australia in the coming World Cup and his sparkling performance has put up question marks for the retention of quite a few stalwarts including even the legendary Steve Smith in the playing T20 eleven in the World Cup. Refreshingly enough, Green has debuted successfully in all the three formats during the last two years only. In this match he notched up his second half century (52 in just 21) and also bowled beautifully and economically.

 

The last five-over woes continue to rattle India though with their bowlers conceding too many runs in those death overs consistently in the last few internationals. Of course, the main strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah has come back to the team, but it’d be unrealistic to expect him to strike immediately after almost rusting for weeks. More hopefully, now in the company of Bumrah the other class pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar is set to pick up soon. For the second time, spinner Axar Patel stole the show by capturing three vital wickets apart being part of the crucial runout of Glen Maxwell. This time he was joined effectively by Yuzvendra Chahal who removed Steve Smith early. Their efforts reduced Australia to a precarious 117/6 in 14^th over when Tim David came to the rescue with a brilliant innings of 54 in 27 balls. Daniel Sams did a cameo of 28 in 20 balls to aid David and the team. Next, India meets South Africa at home too in the last three-match T20I Series before the start of the World Cup. Pandya is supposed to be rested for that Series; we pray against more experiments and the only exception should be Rishabh Pant who was dropped for the third match.

(Photos from bcci.tv)

Amidst the Rohit Blitz Karthik Had His Moments as India Level T20I Series Against Australia!

Chasing a tall target of 91 runs to win in 8 overs (the second T20I between India and Australia was reduced to 8-overs a side due to rain affected pitch and outfield) captain Rohit played out of his skin remaining not out at 46 off just 20 balls to steer India to a win by 6 wickets against Australia before a packed house in Nagpur. He kept his cool and hit some terrific shots all around the park as he has been known for despite the failures of KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. For a change, we’ve used ‘India’ instead of ‘Rohit Franchise’ because the team finally looked like a national team with main strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah coming back and batsman-keeper Dinesh Karthik retained notwithstanding what happened in the first match. This is not at all due to India’s win. Of course, one of the main weapons for a national side Bhuvneshwar Kumar was dropped or rested as he’s been giving away crucial runs in his second spell in the last few matches. However, the fact that the IPL rookie fast bowlers have been consistently given the privilege of bowling the last over could’ve affected his confidence and form. Even with Bumrah around the last over in this match was also handed over to Harshal Patel and that over cost a lot of runs.

 

Earlier, during the extended pre-match panel discussion Sunil Gavaskar had welcomed the inclusion of Bumrah for the do or die match and made a far more important observation that with Bumrah or Shami bowling from the other end Bhuvneshwar just gets transformed bowling to a tight length and getting the rewards too. Gavaskar also welcomed the move to retain Dinesh Karthik saying that Karthik has always been a finisher and a team would love to have him coming in at a crucial juncture. His comment simply means that a ‘finisher’ must be utilized before the match gets actually finished.

 

In the match played last night, 23^rd September 2022, we justifiably had a nightmarish thought about having to watch Axar Patel coming in when a struggling Pandya fell in the fifth ball of the penultimate over and India still needed 14 runs in 7 balls. But to our heartfelt relief we beheld Karthik coming in occupying the non-striker’s end as Rohit did cross over during the Pandya catch. As a cruel blow to the Aussies who again saw themselves back in the match the sixth ball was a wide coming from an experienced Pat Cummins and the next ball was hit for a four by Rohit; the final equation being reduced now to 9 runs in the last over. Karthik was facing the last over.

 

He hit the first ball of the last over by Daniel Sams for a huge six and then the next ball for a resounding four. And the match was over as Rohit rushed to embrace Karthik. The ‘finisher’ sent ahead of Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel at long last seized the opportunity to prove his mettle and helped his team romp home to 92/4 with 4 balls to spare. Well, giving your key players the trust and confidence almost always works. Now what happens next is eagerly awaited as both the teams clash for the decider in Hyderabad tomorrow; the ‘experiment scare’ just refuses to leave us alone.

 

Put in to bat Australia had captain Finch blasting away in a determined frame of mind to seal the Series. But Rohit just then produced a masterstroke handing over the ball to Axar Patel in the very second over with, mind you, Bumrah around. Axar first affected a Kohli-fueled brilliant runout of the first-match destroyer Cameron Green and then clean bowled the dangerous Glen Maxwell for a first-ball duck in the last ball of the same over. Probably as there were only 8 overs to be bowled in all he was not taken off and was given the fourth over too, and in that over Axar clean bowled Tim David. He effectively prevented Australia from running away with a 100+ total in spite of the late charge by Matthew Wade (43 not out in 20 balls). Adam Zampa did more than an Axar capturing the top three Indian wickets, but could not force a win thanks to Rohit and that each bowler could bowl only two overs each. Josh Hazelwood was the most expensive Aussie bowler giving away 20 runs in 2 overs.

Web Series ‘Hush Hush’: A Promising Plot Peters Out to a Morbid Melodrama!

The Web Series Hush Hush Season 1 started streaming on Prime Video from the 22^nd of September 2022. It has at least three very important reasons for being watched eagerly by a lot of viewers. First, filmmaker Tanuja Chandra whose intense flick Dushman (1998) is still remembered by movie fans features as one of the directors and producers in a clearly women-oriented story with mostly women in the crew too. Second, the cast is tremendously interesting and exciting with two of the most beloved babes of Bollywood since the eighties Juhi Chawla and Ayesha Jhulka coming back/appearing on the OTT Platform for the first time, and joined by the immensely talented Soha Ali Khan, Shahana Goswami, Kritika Kamra and Karishma Tanna. Third, the story begins on a very taut and promising note, seemingly doing justice for a mature series in the Suspense genre. But unfortunately, that lasts only till the third episode, and then, rather inexplicably, the storytelling breaks up and meanders to a morbid melodrama with all the focus on domestic affairs while we ardently expected it to roar to a shattering climax.

The story basically consists of four close friends—Juhi as Ishi, Soha as Saiba, Shahana as Zaira and Kritika as Dolly. While Saiba has an established family with husband and two kids Dolly is into a three-year-old unhappy marriage and the other two are supposed spinsters with Shahana having suffered a breakup previously. The story opens in Kolkata in 1978 establishing Ishi as an orphan having a close sister-like ties with the younger Meera (played by Ayesha in the older role) who is among others in the same orphanage. Then, the story cuts to 2019 in extremely posh environs in Gurgaon or Gurugram in Haryana showing Ishi as a high-end mover & shaker, the role almost inspired by the controversial real-life Niira Radia, and a huge scandal just breaking out in the media involving Ishi. Meera reappears much later in the plot. As per the time-period Ishi should be in her late forties, Saiba and Shahana possibly in early forties with only Dolly most probably in the late twenties.

 

The overwhelmingly female-cast is joined by Karishma as the tough cop Geeta who starts her investigation in a very promising note too as the four friends land up in a shady mess with Ishi dying a violent death the same night when the anniversary party of Dolly’s parents-in-law was going on. The plot moves intriguingly till the third episode and then, as we mentioned earlier, it falls flat. Instead of going into the detailed storyline that could possibly lead to spoilers we’ll just point out the main disappointments that mar the suspense elements that could have been built up in a telling manner.

 

·       The biggest disappointment is with Juhi Chawla’s comeback to the OTT. She dies in the very first episode and then appears only momentarily in various flashbacks or revelations. She apparently has no solid stuff to prove her towering performance-related abilities, because the makers do not allow her or us to know how she moved up in her career as the most upmarket influencer Ishi and what had been the pros and cons in her success ride. The only point of reference as regards flashback is the consistent ‘five years ago’ which does not help anyone—performing or viewing.

·       The ‘five years ago’ reference also applies to Ishi’s extremely close three friends and we hardly know anything about how their friendship started and grew and bloomed over time. Matters are not helped at all by the age-differences that we pointed out going by the time-period revealed in the story between the four fast friends.

·       Karishma Tanna as the tough cop Geeta hardly does anything that proves her ‘toughness’ and never tries to go deeper into the shady affairs of a violent death, a missing person and the three clearly nervous friends. No doubt, she must’ve been hampered in her investigations by her obstinately unreasonable, unnecessarily foul-mouthed and apparently ignoramus lady boss ACP Madhu played by Vibha Chhibber. While we kept on expecting Geeta to excel as an honest and bold cop she gets more and more into a frame of mind to let go of the three ‘implicated’ friends, perhaps a tad more ardently than the writers-directors who’d really want to protect them for future use, and in the supposedly climaxing seventh episode we get treated only with Geeta’s lesbian leanings.

·       Of course, being an out and out women-oriented story, the male characters have to be sketchy at best. However, it does create more roadblocks for the storytelling, because the seemingly important husbands of Saiba and Dolly and the photographer-friend of Shahana have been rendered clueless about what to do and how effectively to contribute toward the story.

·       The reappearance of Meera in later episodes only adds to the melodrama rather than building up the tension. Anyhow, Ayesha Jhulka is able to do some justice to the insufficient role give to her.

·       Finally, the makers of the web series Hush Hush should essentially have done much more to present a mature suspense series than indulging in endless hugging cum teary-emotional outbursts cum domestic-affair scenes of the most upmarket kind between the three friends in the glaringly disappointing last four episodes of the Series.

 

Hush Hush fails to live up to the suspense genre primarily because of not being able to give enough meat to the star performers and of trying to cover the whole matrix of the degenerating system of powerplay, corruption, criminality and human trafficking clearly prevailing in the society, as per the story of course. Perhaps, this is being done to have more Seasons in the coming months. This suspicion gets more emboldened by the ominous dialogues between the main villain (gets revealed much before the supposed climax) and the main associate in the last minutes leading to two more murders which are promptly taken up by the CBI as indicated earlier by Geeta’s abusive cop boss instead of the investigating police team. Well, we definitely expect more maturity and magic touches from Tanuja Chandra in the coming seasons, if indeed.