Saturday, August 7, 2010
India No. 1 but need renewed aggression
Injuries to key players, especially to Zaheer Khan and S Sreesanth, did affect the bowling lineup and the dead pitches in Sri Lanka didn't help either, but the lack of a genuine pace attack in the absence of Zaheer is a major cause for conern. The ensuing tri-series will show how much India misses Zaheer in all formats of the game and unless the others can put their hand up and deliver, India will have a lot more to worry about while they put together their plans for the 2011 World Cup.
India's traditional strength in spin though seems to be in a better shape and one must congratulate Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra for their attacking bowling. They did all the hard work on the fourth morning as they scalped five wickets amongst themselves, but again India's pacers failed to clean up the tail. Agreed Thilan Samaraweera is a regular batsman, but shouldn't the Indian bowlers have been bowling the yorkers at this stage to numbers 9, 10 and 11.
But we won't go hammer and tongs at the bowlers this time around. They did an important job of rallying around each other in the first innings and ensuring that India went past the Lankan total, however slender the lead. Rallies like that from a lower order can boost the morale of a team like no other act in a game. And it is this momentum that kept India going in the Test.
Team India is still taking baby steps to ensure that their run at the top of the pack remains for a longer period and the only way of doing that is to play the game with a sense of maturity and grit.
The high point in the game and in the series was India's batting even though they came a cropper in the first Test at Galle. Virender Sehwag was in superflous form right through, while Suresh Raina announced his Test credentials as only champions can.
Sachin Tendulkar too showed that a 37-year-old body still had the hunger of a 16-year-old and VVS Laxman, put on that Very Very Special display just when his team needed it the most. But it was sad to see Rahul Dravid's wall crumble in Lanka. He will have to reinvent his game and find his previous self before the all-important series against Australia.
All in all, India managed to pull off a fine win and MS Dhoni and his Men in Blue deserve to be congratulated after being a 0-1 down in the series and after having lost the toss in three straight games.
Laxman leads India to series-levelling win
India, chasing 257 to win, started the final day on 53-3 and lost the wicket of night-watchman Ishant Sharma just three overs into the first session when he was caught by Kumar Sangakkara at mid-wicket off a Suraj Randiv delivery for four.
Tendulkar and Laxman shared 109 runs for the second wicket to tilt the game in India's favor. Tendulkar was out after lunch for a watchful 54 off 122 balls, including three boundaries. Laxman faced 122 balls and hit three boundaries for his 16th test century.
Off-spinner Randiv, playing only his second Test, claimed his first five-wicket haul to finish with 5-82.
Tendulkar was dropped on 18 by Tillakaratne Dilshan off Randiv at short-leg in a decisive let off that probably cost Sri Lanka the match.
Randiv, who came into the Sri Lanka side for retired Muttiah Muralitharan, took every Indian wicket to fall in the second innings. He had Virender Sehwag caught at slip by Mahela Jayawardene without scoring on Friday before bowing Rahul Dravid for seven runs. Murali Vijay was caught at short-leg by Jayawardene for 27, also on Friday.
India was dismissed for 436 runs in its first innings in reply to Sri Lanka's 425. The home side was all out for 267 in its second innings after Thilan Samaraweera and tailender Ajantha Mendis shared a record 118 runs for the ninth wicket to guide Sri Lanka to a respectable score.
Sri Lanka won the first Test by 10 wickets in Galle.
FICA chief for uniform referral system
The referral system is being used in a Test series in Britain for the first time during the current four-match campaign between England and Pakistan. FICA Chief Executive Tim May said he backed recent comments from leading cricketers, Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, Australia's Ricky Ponting, India's Virender Sehwag and recently-retired umpire Rudi Koertzen for the review system to be implemented in all Tests.
Under the review system each side is allowed two unsuccessful challenges to on-field decisions per innings, although they have a maximum of 15 seconds in which to make the request. The third umpire, assisted by various technological aids, then rules on whether to overturn an on-field verdict.
"In May this year, the ICC's Cricket Committee, of which I am a member, made a recommendation to the ICC's Chief Executives' Committee that the UDRS should be used in all Tests in all series," May said in a statement.
"This is a recommendation that was strongly supported by players that FICA represents.
"Unfortunately, the ICC Chief Executives' Committee did not adopt this recommendation."
Former Australian Test spinner May said the committee instead preferred to give various national Boards' discretion to use the technology from series to series, because of concerns over the funding of the technology and opposition from some Boards to the system.
"The players are aware that the system isn't 100 per cent perfect, but believe that its introduction has resulted in an improved number of correct decisions and the eradication of the 'obvious' incorrect decision," he said.
May say the review system was introduced to Test cricket primarily as a means of addressing the 'blatantly incorrect' decision.
"FICA believes that it has been very successful at achieving that objective," he said.
"Test cricket must be played on a consistent basis from country to country and from series to series.
"It is unfair and confusing to players, spectators, broadcasters, sponsors and the fans watching at home on television, if one series is played under the URDS system and the next system without it.
"It must also be incredibly difficult for umpires to officiate from series to series without any continuity of the UDRS."
May said his organisation understands that some countries may have some funding issues with implementing the system, but it does not understand why the ICC has given the visiting team the discretion to reject the technology that the home Board will provide.
"The ICC needs to adopt a firm policy -- it's either applicable in all Tests or none," he said. "Giving discretion to Boards to decide whether to use this system is an invitation for inconsistency and confusion and that's where we are at the moment."
FICA represents player associations in Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.
Asif wants Pakistan to learn from Morgan
Pakistan suffered a 354-run thrashing in last week's first of four Tests at Trent Bridge, in a match where no top four batsman on either side made a fifty in any of the four innings. But former Ireland left-hander Morgan, batting at No 6, defied the swing-friendly conditions that saw England fast bowler James Anderson take a career-best 11 for 71, with a maiden Test century of 130 in the first innings.
Morgan's stand of 219, an England fifth-wicket record against Pakistan, with Paul Collingwood, who made 82, was the decisive partnership of the match.
Pakistan fast bowler Asif, who took five for 77 in England's first innings 354, told reporters at Edgbaston here on Wednesday: "He (Morgan) played excellently on the first day.
"He came in under pressure at 118 for four and he just left it (the ball) for one hour. Collingwood took his time too and our batsmen needed to take their time and see off the good bowlers."
Just hours after that match - which ended with Pakistan dismissed for 80, their lowest total against England - the tourists ended Mohammad Yousuf's international exile following an indefinite ban imposed after he led the team on their winless tour of Australia earlier this year.
They also dropped leg-spinner Danish Kaneria from their squad following poor match figures of one for 171.
Asif said Twenty20 was a format that came easily to Pakistan, in contrast to Test cricket.
"This is what we play in the street so this is one of our natural strengths. We were playing this when we were young -- 10, eight-over matches.
"But we need to learn how to handle the pressure over five days. We can win Tests if we win each session -- Twenty20 is just one session."
Asif said victory at Edgbaston would help raise morale amongst fans in a country which has a passion for cricket few others can match.
"We disappointed in the last match and we need a fightback for them."
Butt tells Pakistan to clean up their act
It was the second time in as many innings Pakistan had been bowled out for their lowest-ever total against England after being skittled out for 80 five days earlier as the hosts won the first Test at Trent Bridge by a crushing 354 runs on Sunday to go 1-0 up in this four-match series.
England compounded their opponents' misery by taking advantage of another woeful Pakistan fielding display to be 112 for two, a lead of 40, when bad light forced an early close. Jonathan Trott, dropped once was 31 not out and Kevin Pietersen, dropped twice, 36 not out.
As happened at Trent Bridge, where James Anderson took a Test match-best 11 wickets for 71 runs, including six for 17 in the second innings, Pakistan collapsed in the face of accurate swing bowling. Butt, defending his decision to bat first in overcast conditions that Pakistan quicks Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif would have relished, told reporters: "The idea was to put some runs on the board and let the other side get them.
"But, unfortunately, things didn't go the way we thought. But having created about five chances and not taken them, the match could have been pretty even. "As for the grey, swing-friendly, skies above Edgbaston, Butt said: "It's been like this since we've come here, we haven't had one day with sunshine.
"But he said the top-order batsmen had to take responsibility. "We've been doing this all our lives and we have to clean up our own mess. "Azhar Ali battled hard for a 32-ball nought while opener Imran Farhat faced 24 balls as he too became one of five ducks in the innings.
"I think we've got to give credit to the English bowlers," said Butt. "Those first 20-odd overs, they literally didn't give us anything to hit. "After Trent Bridge, Pakistan ended the international exile of former captain Mohammad Yousuf -- who boasts an impressive Test average of more than 53 and exactly 70 against England. But he only arrived in England late on Thursday and Butt said it would have been unfair to pick him for this match.
"He's not somebody whose selection is questioned but he arrived at five, 5.30pm yesterday (1600-1630GMT Thursday) and he hadn't had a (outdoor) net session for the last 15 days because of the monsoons in Pakistan. "So, after consulting him, the team management decided to let him get in the groove. To put a guy straight in would have been unfair."
As for Pakistan's fallible fielding, summed up when debutant wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider dropped Pietersen on 20, having been brought in after the experienced Kamran Akmal's wretched match behind the stumps in Nottingham, Butt said: "It's something hard to contend with. "Meanwhile Broad, who a fortnight ago took a first-class best of eight for 52 at Edgbaston for Nottinghamshire against Warwickshire, was delighted by the discipline shown by England's seam attack.
"We didn't want to fall into a trap here of chasing wickets and suddenly going at four or five an over for the first hour," Broad said. "We're bowling fantastically well, and we've had slightly cloudy conditions which have suited us."Broad, the son of former England opener Chris, now an ICC match referee, added: "We've not given them a sniff. For batsmen to get 24, 32-ball noughts it proves as a bowler you're giving them nothing."
2nd Test: KP, Trott bolster England
Both batsmen scored half centuries and took England's lead past 100, putting the hosts in a commanding position.
Earlier, possibly the most fortunate innings of Kevin Pietersen's career continued on day two, when he was dropped for the third time and caught off a dead ball.
England began the day on 112-2, after the start was delayed by 40 minutes due to rain.
Having been dropped twice and missed by wicketkeeper and slip on another occasion on Friday, Pietersen was spilled again in the third over of the day, when an inside edge off the bowling of Mohammad Aamer was dropped by Umar Amin, who seemed to be preoccupied with appealing for an lbw decision.
In the next over, the 38th, Pietersen survived a review after Pakistan disputed a decision not to give him out lbw to Mohammad Asif, before the next delivery produced an even more bizarre incident.
As Asif was about to release the ball, Pietersen moved away from the crease, apparently because he was distracted by movement behind the bowler's arm.
Yet instead of shouldering arms, Pietersen hit the ball, lofting a catch to Salman Butt at mid-off and he was only reprieved because umpire Marais Erasmus called a dead ball, to Pakistan's visible annoyance.
After just 38 balls the rain returned and an early lunch interval was called.