Eden Gardens Test : Day 2

India have scored the highest score in last 11 games for themselves. And also crossed 300 first time after 10 innings. Something that reflects the torrid times the team had in England quite unexpectedly.  The 2nd day at Eden Gardens saw quite a lot of milestones:

1. Dhoni scored a hundred after 32 innings and 21 months on the same ground. Last one being against SA in that hard fought victory.

2. Laxman scored # 17, 5th in Edens and first in 15 months. He also became highest scorer in any ground in India.

And with a mammonth 631 on board, the bowlers did a good job in sending back 2 West Indian openers to hut for only 34 runs. And then bad light came to WI's help. Else few more wickets would have tumbled.

The biggest thorn in Indian flesh is going to be Shiv Chanderpaul and if he is accounted for soon, then India would have a very strong chance to win sooner than the case when Chanderpaul gets going with his irritating (though effective for West Indies) batting style.

There are few questions going to be asked after this Test is over for Yuvraj Singh -- how many more chances he is going to get to prove he belongs at the Test level. He is  the most talked about player right now in terms of players who are insecure or whose position in thet eam is not secure. There are too many incumbents around to take his place and Yuvraj isnt helping his own case with low scores like he has had in 3 innings so far. He might not be coming out to bat again in 2nd innings, but I feel he should be given a free run of 4-5 tests and then a judgement call be made if he belongs to the test level or not. He has rarely got more than 5-6 Tests at stretch to prove himself. Most of the chances have came after Sourav retired in 2008.

And since then Kohli, Raina and Pujara have been tried for # 6, none being successful to make that place his own for different reasons (form or injury whatsoever). Yuvraj should make it to the touring party to Australia where his left arm spin would be handy to break partnerships. India is not going to play 2 spinners in Australia and most probably its going to be a toss up between Harbhajan(experience), Ojha and Ashvin to occupy that slot of lone spinner. Sehwag has a dodgy shoulder and he doesnt bowl that much now as he used to say a couple of years back. So Yuvraj would be one handy person to turn to roll his arm over to break a partnership. Having said that, the primary responsibility of Yuvraj would still be to score runs and score big. And if fails over course of next 2-3 Tests then may be it would be apt to ignore for the future.

I also feel once the holy trinity of Tests is gone, Yuvraj would be one of the replacements, but again depending on how good he comes through this set of opportunities.

And as of Sachin's most awaited 100th 100, the only folks continue to be worried are the mediamen and those impatient fans. The man himself, as Rahul Dravid mentioned, isnt bothered about the impending milestone. The 100 would come when it has to. The media is continuing to create some needless pressure on the man who today completed 22 years in international cricket.

And Rahul Dravid continues to be in golden run of form when he has almost 1000 test runs and 5 hundreds, most by any batsman in 2011. He is all set to finish up with 1000+ runs and 13000 runs by the year end (2 more tests India plays before year end). He is just 21 runs away from the 13000 run mark -- 2nd Indian and 2nd in the world to do so when he reaches there.

More on Peter Roebuck

This is not right time to talk anything on slain Peter Roebuck, but I feel the issue behind his suicide was his own creation. Why does in the world he needs to be so desperate to have pleasure with a Facebook friend of his. When he returned back to the hotel after the dinner with the Australian team on Saturday night, he found SA police (who doesnt choke unlike its cricket team) detectives to question him on an alleged assault.  And the fear of detention (as pointed out by Jim Maxwell, fellow commentator) led him to jump out of the window to end his own life. 

The biggest question is was this desire needed for him to be fulfilled which led him in the trap of police and ultimately costed him his own life? Was it so important? Was it so worth that a life was lost for it? Was the cause so moral to have sought so much importance to end his own life? A life lost for such a futile issue which at best is attributed to inner instincts.  If you can control your instincts, then you can avoid pitfalls like what Peter Roebuck had. Its been an enormous loss. Loss of life, loss of a prodigy in cricket journalism, loss of a complicated soul who was so well respected among the followers of the game and those who play it and those who govern it. 

Was it essential for him to go and invite that Facebook friend for make up?  And that too in a foreign country when he doesnt (in the past context) have a phone number good enough to contact a lawyer or contacts whom he helped and coached in times of despair. 

From what has emerged out in the media, it seems his jump out of the window was out of despair and a strong desire to escape police detention. Perhaps if he had controlled himself, he would have been alive and a life would not have lost for a stupid reason what is being highlighted in the print and electronic media.

Stupid step by Peter Roebuck

In the end it turns out to be that Peter Roebuck committed a suicide in a fit of anger and rage on being quizzed by detectives on a sexual assault charge. What a vague loss of life? And for what ? A suspended sentence handed over good 10 years back? What he if he was not angry and in rage? What if he thought over the situation and let it pass before his emotions got better of him? He would be alive today, may be little bit depressed. But then that state would have passed right with the time and he had been still writing columns bashing BCCI and praising everything Australian even though crap.

This to me looks like a sheer waste of life. Peter, you made a stupid mistake in jumping over the hotel only to end up your life.

Fallen Australian heroes

9/21 for a team that not so long ago was world beater and perhaps the greatest Test team of the modern era. The scoreline of 47 might have saved them from holding the pitiful record of lowest Test score, but it has certainly raised a lot of uncomfortable questions over the ability and composure of Australian team. They have now been bowled over under 100 for 3 times in last 15 months or so in different countries. 98 in MCG, 47 in NewLands and 88 in Headingley.

When ball moves, Australiam batsman shievers. Perhaps Shahid Afridi should have quipped on a moving leg of Aussie batsman on facing Shoaib Akhtar.

There have been demands for axing of 3 players who havent been performing at all. Mitch Johnson, Phil Hughes and the once great Ricky Ponting. 

Johnson has really struggled over past few Tests and hasnt got the wickets a spearhead is expected to. 33 wickets at 43 in 12 tests over 18 months dont do the justice to a bowler who has to step in the shoes of likes of Bret Lee and even Glenn McGrath.

Shane Watson is overworked, he is the best Australian bowler over last 18 months with 3 5-fors but he also opens the batting and that makes him prone to batting failures. 

Their batting isnt the same as it was even in 2008, let alone 2007.  The likes of Ponting are in terminal decline, what it seemed a slump, is now a prolonged decline. Perhaps selectors would need to take a call on his future sooner than later. 

The media back home in Australia is impatient and is gunning for the heads of the fallen heroes of NewLands.

And it would be great that this slump continues till the end of their summer at least India is then able to win its first series in Australia, which they were denied in 2004 and 2008.

RIP Peter Roebuck

RIP  Peter Roebuck.

Staunch Australian commentator, had strong views on the cricketing matters, not very India centric, shocking news about his sudden departure.

Will ICC look into Capetown pitch?

Australia are just past the lowest Test score ever of 26 and are in tatters at 9 down for 30 odd. This has been a spectacular test match in terms of runs scored and wickets fallen. 21 wickets on day 2 for 190 odd runs. Its still a possibility that the lead of 220 odd is a matchwinning one and Australia might still go and win this test. 

But the bigger and relevant question here is will ICC look into the pitch and call for investigation of  Capetown pitch and ban it? They have already banned Kotla, had a look in Galle and Green Park when this 2 nations were involved in a result. 

And its again SA and Aus, so are they going to take some action over this?

Rockstar Ravinder Jadeja

The fake RockStar

The real rockstar -- Sir Shri Ravinder Jadeja Maharaj, the future # 6 batsman in Indian Test team, a worthy replacement of "worst panicker of Indian cricket" -- SC Ganguly.

India vs West Indies : First Test at an interesting stage

India are 124 runs away from a win in Delhi Test.  This has been an attritional Test match, albeit an old school classic. One team ending up dominating a day's play followed up by comeback by the other next day. Something I hope wont be the case on day 4 and in almost session and half India shall be home with a comfortable win in the end. 

The pitch has been slow, low and having variable bounce. Not that it has impacted a lot of stroke playing or resulted in dismissals of a lot of batsmen. If one is ready to grind on this wicket and have patience, the runs scoring would be lot easier. Chanderpaul showed it in both innings, Dravid has shown in both innings aided by Tendulkar in 2nd innings. Sehwag too had said that the collapse in the first innings had to do with the soft dismissals rather than the demon in the pitch.  

India were typical of them in the first innings when they batted, collapsed. Worrisome part is they havent got to 300 more often than they would have liked to in past 8 Tests (starting WI tour, disastrous England tour). 209 is not a  score that reflects the batting might of the line up India has, but it does say of the sorry state of mind India had on day 2.  They self destructed, which they so very often have done in the 2nd part of this year in longest format of the game. It seemed that India were still stuck in the ODI mode. The likes of Tendulkar, Laxman and Yuvraj fell to soft dismissals. Sehwag and Gambhir fell to freak ones.  And Dravid in first innings was setup off a short ball by Rampaul which invoked wild celebrations by WI captain Sammy.

Can you believe 3 wickets in first innings fell to Sammy and he further had a hand in 2 more wickets.  Barring openers and Dravid, none reached 25 and India conceeded 95 run lead. The highlight of the first innings was the approach from Sehwag that showed that he is almost back to full fitness.  Dravid continued his good form and barring that nothing much to write about. Chanderpaul continued to torment Indian bowlers for 10th year in row now which began in 2002. 3 hundreds then followed by 2 this year in back to back tests.  His stance has grown weirder than ever before and he has been dour and ugly to watch. But he continues to make runs, valuable to the team which boasts of youngsters and has inexperienced batsmen.  

Ojha got 6-for and Ashvin got 3. 

2nd innings, West Indies had a chance to extend the lead to 350 plus and shut the door on Indians but they collapsed in the end and except Chanders and Sammy, none of the batters contributed. Ashvin got a dream debut with a 9 wicket haul, 2nd best to Hirwani, current selector.  Ojha got 7 wickets in the match, Ashvin got 9, Yadav got 2 and Ishant Sharma got 2. 

Ishant Sharma impressed with his rythm and pace. He almost got 3 wkts on 3rd morning but for crooked ignorance of Dharmsena to a plumb lbw and a drop catch (tough) from Ashvin, he could just show for 1.  Umesh Yadav showed pace, but leaked runs at critical juncture on 3rd morning just before lunch to ease off pressure on the Windies. Still early days for him in Tests and he would (should) learn in the future.  Both spinners earning wickets mean more bench time for Harbhajan Singh. He going wicketless in Ranji game didnt help his case either.  Except for injuries and dramatic collapse on day 4, the team for 2nd Test shouldnt change.

India's 2 most experienced batsmen are on crease and they would want to ensure on day 4 that they do the job for India rather than leave it to the next 3.  They survived the day 3 with some resolute batting and gritty determination. 

IPL Ashvin has evolved a great deal and I have to eat my own humble pie when I said previously I wasnt a big fan of Ashvin.  He would need to continue to be in the wickets for the remaining 2 Tests to be able to remain in contention for Australian tour later this year. 

Gambhir and Sehwag need to bat longer than just 12 and 9 overs in this game and convert 50-100 to a 100-150 as they did in the past.   Laxman and Dhoni would need to get some runs under their belt too. 

All and all a good Test match with a classic finish in sight.

Ranji form of incumbent Indians

Tracking Test contenders:

Suresh Raina :

Hit a double ton against Punjab. Good show of form, but would depend on how Yuvraj and Kohli fare in the Tests. A comeback seems far off for now. 

Harbhajan Singh

No favors done playing in the Ranji game on a lifeless track. Went wicketless and only delaying the possible comeback for the Tests.

Rohit Sharma

A century against Railways shows good recovery from injury. Could comeback in the ODI team.

Manoj Tiwary

A hundred in the game vs Gujarat would mean he can retain his place in the ODI series should some seniors chose to rest before Australia tour.

100th Ton

Let the 100th ton come in the first inning Tendulkar plays against West Indies in Kotla. A worried media would sigh a big relief.