It is said, Cricket is a great Leveler. A young exuberant side led by MS Dhoni with almost no twenty twenty practice had shocked the World by winning the World Cup in South Africa. It was a team effort but the team did have its share of heroes. Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir with the Bat. Harbhajan and RP Singh with the ball. The World champions arrived at Melbourne to take up the Aussie challenge. The might of the Aussies had been humbled twice. But they were no the ones to take this lying down, even in the absence of Ponting and Hayden, it was a cake walk for the Kangaroos.
From an Indian point of view, it was a feeling of melancholy. Through out the Aussie summer this was one clash that was being anticipated. But, the Indian batsmen could not even last the stipulated quota of twenty overs, forget making a decent score. It was appalling to see Sachin Tendulkar sitting at the Dug out watching the wickets fall down like the bowling pins. Now we need to understand the importance of experience.
Look at the Aussie side, World Champions, the best team in tests and their recent win over India in Twenty Twenty makes them a force to reckon with. Australia have had great youngsters doing well in the Domestic circuit, but sadly there is no place for them in the international side. Guys like Hayden and Hussey had to wait till their thirties to make their respective debuts. Australia focuses on performance and form rather than age as a criteria to fetch the players their coveted baggy green.
It was the same old story yesterday. A batting collapse, we all have got used to. Sehwag with a poor choice of run. Gambhir and Utthappa trying to go over the in field even when they had barely gauged the bounce of the pitch. Karthick and Sharma falling to irresponsible shots. Dhoni trying to clear the field but only holing out to the fielder at Square Leg. And Indians could have been bowled out for the lowest total in twenty twenty ever, if it was not for a face saving knock from Irfan Pathan. The only Indian batsman who exercised some caution while batting.
Twenty Twenty is a game of fours and sixes, but remember the boundaries are still at the same distance and hence all the rules of Cricket apply. Whatever the format of cricket be, you just cant score from the first ball. You need to get yourself set first. Indian batsmen it seems were awed by the great occasion and this is where the experience of Sachin could have helped. And you cant really prove that guys like Karthick, Sharma or Utthapa are better players then Sachin.
The scene that caught my eye yesterday was the one in which, there was a spinner bowling to a number eleven batsmen with all the fielders crowding around the bat. Trust me, it may have been a hat trick ball but you will not ever see this happening again. This was hurting the pride of the Indians, as the Aussies have most certainly avenged their two earlier defeats.
The selection for the team had itself been a flawed one. With batsmen like Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman sent home, the Indians were looking for trouble. The Indians have a mammoth task in front of them if they are to win the series against Australia. The debate between experience and youth will continue. But if Sachin would have taken to the field, the result could well have been different.
Sachin’s love affair with the Sydney Cricket Ground continued as he made his 38th test hundred and his 8th against Australia. He has a whopping average of 326 at SCG. As a young eighteen year old, he had struck his first ton here. His double hundred last time around was arguably his best knock ever. One in which we saw Sachin leaving almost everything outside the off stump and scoring heavily on the On side. Yesterday’s innings was a long awaited one. A billion plus Indians would have heaved a sigh of relief as Sachin caressed the ball through the off side to reach this record landmark.
In this innings, we saw a more mature Tendulkar, ready to put the bad ball away but treating the good ones with utmost respect. He played his trademark drives through extra cover and powerful square cuts through the square region. Perhaps a first in tests, we saw him scooping over the gully and the slips. He scored most of his boundaries in the third man region taking advantage of the fact that it was left vacant. He was particularly aggressive against Hogg hitting him for a straight six over Long on early in the morning. Hogg had earlier dismissed Sachin in India and had asked for his autograph on the ball. The little master had conveniently written on the ball, “It wont happen again Hoggie”
Apart from the resilience and the determination,that the master blaster showed in this innings, another heartening thing was the way he treated the tail Enders. Showing full faith in their batting abilities, he was ready to take a single even on the first ball off the over. This did wonders to their confidence as the last three wickets added 186 to the Indian total and helped India to get an invaluable first innings lead of 69. Harbhajan Singh in particular delivered lusty blows to score 63 falling just 3 short of his highest test score. Ganguly had earlier played an aggressive knock of 67 before falling to Hogg yet again. Dhoni and Yuvraj meanwhile have barely troubled the scorers in this series. The bounce of the pitch did Dhoni while Yuvraj was caught plumb in front of the stumps playing across the line. Lee finished with figures 5 for 119 and was undoubtedly the best Aussie bowler.
Australian Prime minister Kevin Rudd made his way into the commentary box and was happy to see Indians fighting back. He went on to congratulate Sachin on his brilliant knock. Australian PM, a great sports lover. But how often would we have an Indian PM commenting on Cricket on TV? Not likely in the near future.
The day definitely belonged to Sachin Tendulkar. A flawless ton, his 5th in Australia and 22nd away from home. An innings for all his fans to cherish. An innings that showed that the master blaster is still hungry and craving for more. And an innings which would bring to rest all the criticism that he faced. Tendulkar himself said, “It was a sigh of relief when I drove the ball through the covers on 98”. He remained unbeaten on 154* as India posted a mammoth first innings total of 532. These lines would symbolize what we all expect of Sachin in the future as retirement for now is a long way away.
Quoting from
‘Stopping by the Woods on a snowy evening’ by Robert Frost.
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
Greg Chappell has been in news for the last few days.
So the “good” old dog is barking again.
Chappell surely has a nuisance value. To be honest, it’s quite tempting to blame him for everything that has been going wrong around the world. The idiot is saying that he was racially abused and has accused BCCI of cover-up. According to him, he got and “old” and “flawed” team for the World Cup 2007 and similar crap.
Let me tell you that I am a staunch supporter of Indian Cricket and won’t accept any illogical and personal abuses towards our team. Chappell’s two-year stint with Team India was more about mudslinging and muckraking than managing the side. Greg Chappell’s time as the coach of the Indian cricket team will always be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
The following have been his “contributions” to the team:
Due to excessive experimentation, he almost spoiled the careers of Sehwag, Kaif & Pathan.- The master who got a job for him at a handsome salary of Rs 90 lacs and incentives was shown door out of the team and was told that “he is physically and mentally unfit to lead and values finances more than anything“.
- He showed the doors to Zaheer, Balaji & Nehra on the grounds that they were unfit and were selfish and never played as team men.
- He converted Pathan (once compared with Wasim Akram) from a pace-producing swing blowler to a mediocre medium fast bowler with a bowling speed of 120/122 kmph on the pretext of making an all rounder.
As a result, the team which had woven itself up into a cohesive unit over the period was broken into pieces.
He is an unscrupulous, dishonest person; a scoundrel to say the least because he never accepted his follies while his tenure as Indian Coach. He was in India to hog some limelight and nothing else. It was evident from the way he managed the team. His doctrine of “perform or perish” ensured that team is torn apart. He made headlines for silly reasons such as showing the middle finger in Kolkata, commenting on Parliamentarians that “the parliamentarians were paid to hurl accusations at the coach because the team was losing”, etc.
Now that the Indian team is doing well again, it seems he just cannot digest this fact and advances made by India recently in the cricketing arena. What a timing to hog the limelight yet again. India were on the verge of clinching the series against arch-rivals Pakistan, when his stupid statements started to appear in the media. Glorifying the magnanimous Greg Chappell, the Australian newspaper Herald Sun says
“Despite the disillusionment and the many frustrations, he is still trying to help a nation in which cricket is treated like a religion”
A big favour indeed. Oh! What will India do without you Mr Greg Chappell?
If the victim Mr. Greg Chappell is so disheartened by this nation of “old, selfish and racists”, why is it that he has come back to this country? Why has he landed himself a job with Rajasthan Cricket Academy? The person who gave him this job is Lalit Modi, the Vice-President of BCCI. Why is he employed with somebody party to a cover-up?
Chappell says he didn’t get the team he wanted for the 2007 World Cup. Is Chappell saying he would have won the Cup with Suresh Raina, Venugopal Rao and other such 19-year-olds replacing Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and the other “seniors”?
As for the comment that the team for the 2007 World Cup was “old” and “flawed” and got the result it deserved, it begs the question: did Team India get the coach it deserved?
Greg Chappell is a shirker and he needs to realize that he was an abject failure as a coach and he conducted himself miserably. And one is so prone to hearing lies from this person, that it is hard to believe that he is speaking the truth this time around.