India.. Down and Under? Not Quite.. Not Yet.. (We Hope..)

First of all, apologies for the long and sucky title. Not that I always come up with some catchy and innovative titles; but today, definitely not.
What happened today at the MCG was quite stinging. So stinging to the point of getting me to blog about it!
Something like this was bound to happen at some point in the match and even though I was totally ready for it; I couldn’t really accept what I was seeing. Look at the scoreboard; Australia won by 122 runs. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO! That’s a huge margin; but wait, India were not THAT bad in this match. Which is where the problem for your average Indian cricket fan starts. If this had happened on the boxing day test of 1999; all our heads would have been high; “we gave them a fight” “we looked into their eye” “we fought our way”.
(Un)fortunately, an Australian tour in 2003 changed all that. A bunch of boys went under the captaincy of an enigmatic leader and silenced the cricketing world. A drawn series against the indomitable Aussies. This changed the average Indian fan’s expectations dynamically. It changed so much that a 1-2 loss in 2007-08 was a disappointment, but it was taken because of the SCG fiasco.
Why did the average Indian fan expect India to win in Australia after the series I want to forget about?
1. (s)he is crazy like that
2. India had some nice bowling talent coming into the frame with Zaheer Khan fast emerging as one of the best in the world.
3. Formidable batting unit
4. Inexperienced Aussie bowling
5. Waning Aussie batting
To be entirely honest, when Clarke won the toss and failed to put India in; I was sure this was either an Indian victory or a draw. I was sure this was the time to shed the “poor starters” tag. Lo and behold; we get a perfect test match for 3 days. No clear winner in sight. One team goes on top; the opponent then pulls the rug violently from under their feet and goes on top.. and this goes on… A great advertisement for test cricket for 3 beautiful days. And then the rug is pulled from under the feet of the average Indian cricket fan; what a fall! One session was all that was needed to let go of all the hard work; to give up all the fight. I will never understand them!
I am not going to go into the details of when happened what, where the match turned or anything of that sort. This is a rant; not a report.
In order to not sound entirely negative, there were a few positives to take in:
1. SRT was at his fluent best in both innings; augers well for the series.
2. Zaheer Khan in menacing form; looks a lot fitter.. Lean and mean if you want it to sound cool.
3. Ishanth Sharma: pacy and fluent.
4. Umesh Yadav: easily the find of the series; raw pace and good lines.
Negatives, apart from the usual I mean:
1. Rahul Dravid’s laboured 68 was not a good sight at all. Add to that a dropped sitter, you start fretting about the best ever hope you have.
2. Laxman needs to find his feet real quick, though he has never been good at the MCG; his away form is starting to creep in some concerns
3. Gambhir; may start feeling the heat if he does not contribute at SCG.
With talks of Harris making a comeback at SCG; it’s a big blow even before India travel to Sydney! There was so much hype about Shaun Tait before the 2008 Perth test; but he got hammered to all parts of the WACA; is this the same India though?
Despite the setback; the average Indian fan continues to hope. Because (s)he is crazy like that!

The Sachin Tendulkar of the Indian Bowling

It is no secret that the Indian bowling has never looked to threaten any batting line-up in the world at any point of time in their vivid history. Having said this, the Indian bowling ranks have consistently had one bowler who has distinctly stood out and performed brilliantly putting aside the fact that he can by no means depend on the rest of the bowling unit.

The latest on this long list of consistent and outstanding performers on this list is, I am sure you guessed it right; Zaheer Khan!

One is reminded of a rash 25 year old that ran in to bowl to a strong Australian batting line-up in a World Cup final. Zaheer Khan is now a very different bowler and person; he has indeed matured and come a very long way. The Zaheer of today has an excellent control, restraint and has the wonderful knack getting what he wants from the delivery he bowls.

The wide spectrum of frustrated Indian fans who have complained about the pathetic state of the Indian bowling contingent will be surprised to learn the fact that Zaheer Khan currently has the second leading wicket taker behind Shahid Afridi. This, amidst the pressure of having the most incompetent and non-cooperative bowling partners he has to share the ball with. One has to say, Zaheer has shouldered responsibility quite brilliantly.

This World Cup has seen Zaheer come to the rescue over and over again. The first over of most of his second spells with the old ball have been nothing short of phenomenal and have been largely responsible for turning the games in India’s favour.

There are loads of spectacular bowlers out there; Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait, Lasith Malinga, Kemar Roach, James Anderson, Stuart Broad to name a few; but they all have an undue advantage over Zaheer Khan, they have other competent bowlers to share the burden of responsibility; but what has Zaheer Khan got? – Munaf Patel, Aashish Nehra, Santhakumaran Sreesanth! The only other player who Zaheer can rely on to an extent (as long as the ball is new and shiny) is Praveen Kumar who unfortunately is not playing in this World Cup.

This Zaheer Khan is a person who shoulders responsibility knowing fully well only he can deliver and fish his team out of troubled waters, which made him utter these words; maybe they just slipped, or it came out of pure frustration of lack of support after the match against West Indies: “As a bowling unit, I am doing well”.

This post comes with me fully knowing there maybe a chance some people may be reading this after Zaheer Khan takes a pasting against Australia; but I trust the Sachin Tendulkar of the Indian bowling to not do that!

India vs England

I am all pumped up and excited about this and hope it really lives up to all the expectations and build-up. A cake-walk for India would most definitely not disappoint me, a thrilling win for India would make me very happy; a thrilling win for England would disappoint me and a cake-walk for England would definitely sap out the renewed interest I have found,
What I aim to be doing just about 12  hrs before the start of this cracker of a contest is; a man-to-man comparison. This is of course, assuming India and England play unchanged sides from their respective first games. I also don't see a reason as to why they would want to change the squad (except maybe, Sree)
Ok.. Here goes...

Openers:
Sehwag vs Strauss - Strauss is a good One Day player, Sehwag is a devastating one day player. 'nuff said!

Tendulkar vs Pieterson - Pieterson is a great One Day Player, Tendulkar is God.

Gambhir vs Trott - This is a tough one.. Excellent players... In prime form, very good temperaments.. great application and excellent level of determination.

Kohli vs Bell - Kohli is in a purple patch, Bell is good, but going by current form, Kohli has an edge.

Yuvraj Singh vs Collingwood - Again, a tie.. Both the all-rounders are doing alright with the ball, but with the bat, both are in the middle of a very lean patch; but on his day, Yuvraj Singh can be a bigger threat than Sehwag, a slight edge to Yuvraj Singh.

Dhoni vs Prior - Dhoni wins; a better batsman, but when it comes to keeping wickets; Prior, probably slightly better

Yusuf Pathan vs Bopara - Yusuf Pathan wins hands down.. He has overcome his short ball woes and he can plunder the opponent and run over them in a small matter of two overs.

Harbhajan Singh vs Swann - Harbhajan Singh is probably the better choice here, he is slowly regaining his form and also the better bowler in home conditions and also a bit handy with the bat.

Zaheer Khan vs Broad - Zaheer Khan is definitely the better bowler; Broad is a handy batsman and can hit a few blows down the order.

Sreesanth vs Bresnan - Well, Bresnan is a good bowler and handy batsman too; not counting out Sreesanth though, when he turns up, he really does turn up

Munaf Patel vs Anderson - Munaf has all the luck in the world, but Anderson is the pick in this head-to-head.

Overall, on paper, India look like they can push over England easily. Lots of odds stacked against the Englishmen. But! You never know, an early wicket, a stupid run out, a needless wild swing outside the off stump is all it takes for a strong batting side to collapse!

Here is hoping!