Showing posts with label ricky singh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ricky singh. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

New Stars in Making?

Diwali: Over. England: Gone. F1: Done: Metallica: Finished
What’s next??? For a cricket fan its West Indies next.
Bring on the white’s is what I would say. Before discussing what’s next, I would like to discuss what India got from the just concluded ODI Series against England.
After a disastrous England tour specially a forgettable test series in England, this ODI series was very important for India, it was a chance to try out young talent and check bench strength and it was also a chance to win back their lost morale and confidence and also win the fan’s confidence who have doubted the team. In India fans forget the wins and achievements of the team but never forget the loss and poor performances. Which I feel is very disheartening as I feel we should support the more even more if they are down and out. So coming back to the England ODI series, performance of the team have been nothing short of brilliant. India have outplayed England in all the departments of the game be it fielding, batting and bowling most heartening being the fielding as we are considered to be a little poor in that department.
After the poor England tour the selectors were brave enough to rest and drop a few of the seniors which proved that even the selectors are looking at the future and looking for better options. The most important outcome for me from this series was 2 young bowlers who have the ability to bowl at 145 KMPH consistently, they have been the 2 bright spots of this series and look like the future stars, What they have got to this Indian team is Pace which was never there, the two are Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav. At last all the prayers for a real quick bowler from Indian’s have been answered, inform of Yadav and Aaron. Fast bowlers in India are endangered species. Either there are not any quick bowlers in India, the reasons for not having enough fast bowlers in Indian domestic cricket would require another post which I will discuss some other time and 2nd reason being the amount of cricket they play at international level make them military medium pace, Munaf Patel being the prime example of it, he burst onto the international circuit as a tear away fast bowler but he is only a medium pacer now. We have seen many a games been turned around with just genuine pace, West Indies did it in the 70s and 80s and did it consistently, even Pakistani team have been doing it since a long time, they have been the breeding house for real quick bowlers since a long time.  I wish Aaron and Yadav continue to bowl fast and not sacrifice pace. Another aspect about both of them which is very heartening is that they both are supremely fit and athletic, so it does not look like they would sacrifice their pace for line and length and would continue to remain fit for International circuit. It’s not that pace is very important but you do need a little bit of pace to ruffle the batsmen and specially the tailenders, they find it most difficult to face genuine pace.
In 4th ODI at Mumbai it was so heartening to see when Aaron who was brought back in final over’s to rattle the tail and dismiss England tail for low score, haven’t ever seen a Indian fast bowler do this to oppositions, it’s always been India at the receiving India of such lethal bowling, one delivery that I still remember bowled by Aaron is the one when he  clean bowled Alistair Cook in 5th ODI at Kolkata, the delivery isn’t anything special its pitched outside the off stump coming into the left hander with the angle, he was clearly beaten with pace, this is what genuine pace get to the table, even in 1st ODI at Hyderabad Yadav was made to bowl in the death over’s to dismiss the tail and he did it very well by dismissing the tail quickly. This is the benefit of pace, which Indian cricket have never had. Sometimes there’s nothing of the pitch and the conditions isn’t favoring the swing at that time genuine pace comes in and helps the bowling team. This is where these 2 will benefit and serve India for the time to come.
It will be considered too early to talk about them, but I feel the next series that they play would be the acid test for them, as they will be judged according to their follow up performance until then everyone would believe and they would fear that they would sacrifice their pace for line and length. I just wish Indian cricket nurtures this natural talent and looks after them, as I feel fast bowlers require special care and attention, which Indian cricket should provide them. But honestly Indian cricket isn’t used to taking care of fast bowlers as they have not had any real quick bowlers, it’s very important for Indian officials to find right people and correct balance to take care about them, fast bowlers require right people to help and advice. Just wish these 2 serve Indian cricket for a long time to come and bring a lot of smiles on fans of Indian cricket.
Other players who have also contributed to this fantastic performance are: R Ashwin, Virat Kohli, R.Jadeja and A.Rahane.
Just wish that these players continue the good work done by their seniors over the years.
Indian Cricket looks safe in the hands of these Youngsters.
Ricky Singh for DieHard Cricket Fans

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Some Reasons for Defeat in England

Some reasons that I have shortlisted for India’s defeat
1) Selection: The selection of the playing XI has been a bit tricky, India have not picked horses for courses…Selecting Raina ahead of Yuvi in 1st test was baffling and more so baffling by picking raina for 3rs test, after a poor 2nd test Raina should have been replaced. Virat Kohli could have been given chance and he would also have added more value by his medium pace bowling which would have come handy in English conditions and we have been missing a handy 4th medium pace(slow) bowler.Picking Mishra for 3rd test was more surprising, the wicket was very green; on the 1st day of the test it was difficult to find a difference between the wicket and the outfield. India should have gone with all 4 pace attack. Picking Mishra confused me no end because England had 4 left handed batsmen in top 7, hitting with the spin made their life easy.
2) Initiatives: India have failed to grab the initiatives, they made chances but was not able to convert it into something big. India were able to land light punches on England but was not able to give the killer blow on England which was very important. Chances were made like in 2nd test India had England on the mat but still they made a strong come back through broad and swann, which in the end resulted in India’s loss. Even the batsmen have failed to make an impact someone like Gautam Gambhir made a very good 38 in 3rd test but failed to make a big one, some like Abhinav Mukund failed to convert a good start to match winning innings. This is where England have made a big impact, there have been 2 double centuries and 3 100s so far in 3 test matches.
3) Patience: Indian batsmen have not been patient enough to fight it out in the middle. Players like Abhinav Mukund and Raina have given away their wicket too early. They should learn something from players like Kevin Pietersen, Rahul Dravid, and Ali Cook. KP was struggling for form before India series and even during the 1st test where he scored an unbeaten 200, he was struggling for the first 100 runs but he didn’t throw it away, in fact made a fight back against the India. Even Ali Cook had a very poor series till the 3rd test but he made a grand comeback with a double in 3rd test. The impact of the comeback innings shows your real character, it isn’t easy to come back fighting all odds. Someone like Raina is always seen committing same mistake, he should certainly take Cook as an example of how to make the comeback when going gets tough.
4) Runs: I just feel India have not been able to rotate the strike that often easily; they have kind of stuck at one end. Rotating strike regularly disturbs the line and length of the bowlers which India have failed to do it and neither have they taken the attack on English bowlers. Whenever Indian has taken attack on the English bowlers their line and length have been wayward. In 3rd test when MS took an attack on them in both the innings they were found wanting and they were clueless. Indian batsmen have been stuck at same end for long time which leads to pressure, which in turn leads to a wicket. Blaming on the bowlers would be very wrong as batsmen have failed to put up a score on the board. If India would have been able to make a big score in 1st innings, there would have been spring in the stride of bowlers, you would have seen more catching and attacking positions, the bowlers and the captain would have enjoyed the luxury of runs, more pressure would have been created on England batsmen, and more importantly the wicket/pitch would have detoriated which would have benefited the Indian bowlers and spinners specially, India have bowled on fresh wickets which have made batting a bit easy for their batsmen. India has failed to score a 300 in this series so far.
5) Margin of defeats: The margins of defeats in 1st two tests and the way India have lost in this series that is having a huge effect, and coming back from such defeats is never easy. The morale in the dressing must be very low after such huge defeats especially when you are the number 1 team in tests. There was only one man who could have raised the morale of the team, but that man himself has not been able to score a big one. Sachin Tendulkar is the only man who could have raised the morale of the team very easily by scoring a big one, if Sachin was able to score a big 100 then that would have given some thing for the team to cheer about, not only it would have made India make a big total but also made all other players feel happy and good about something. We have had almost nothing to cheer about in this series, other than a few handful performances, we have been poor in this series.
6) Lower Middle order batsmen of England have made a huge impact in this series, someone like Broad, Bresnan, Swann and Prior have added more runs that the top order of India. England have also made comebacks from poor positions, when a team makes a comeback from loosing or poor position it actually raises the morale of the team no end. England would have loved the way Swann and Broad made a comeback in 1st Innings of 2nd test; it would have given them a lot of confidence. Whereas Indian lower middle order like Bhajji, MS have not been able to make a big contribution.
The morale of the team has gone from bad to worse and there has been dropping shoulders too early in the match.
Reasons like No Practice Games, not going to WI, injury to Zaheer Khan and other players actually don’t hold any truth because If you take the reason of Not enough warm up games but then after playing 2 tests and 2 warm up games what has India done in 3rd test, playing 2 test matches and 2 warm up games actually didn’t improve our performance. Reason like not going to WI, we need to consider that WI team was a 2nd string team, and players who went there like MS, Raina have also failed to make an impact in this series. Injury is part and parcel of the game, what happened to Zak was unfortunate it could have happened to anyone at any time you can’t blame excess or lack of cricket to it and since we were the number one team in tests how could we just hope on one bowler to take all the wickets. Even someone like England have faced injuries in this series Tremlett was injured and was replaced by Bresnan who has performed brilliantly with both bat and ball, even their best bat Trott got injured but then Bell has taken his place with utmost responsibility. So players who replace the injured players should be good enough to fill that void in the team to benefit the team.
To end I would say this series have been disappointing but still as a cricket lover winning and losing is part and parcel of the game, sometimes we lose and most often we win. We should stand by the team rather than being critical of the performance. We have been number one for around 20 months which has been a good journey and let’s hope we would reach there once again very soon.
We should accept that England has played well in this series and they deserve to be number 1 but let’s see how long they be number 1.
Ricky Singh for DieHard Cricket Fans

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Once Most Feared Tour…

West Indian tour was the most feared tour at one point of time both for the Indian Cricketers and the Indian spectators at home both having different reasons of course. Indian batsmen feared the West Indian tall and quick bowlers who would bowl bouncers at will and make them hop like a hot potato in hand, the wickets also didn’t give any relief to the Indian batsmen, the wickets had bounce and pace which Indian batsmen used to hate and was not comfortable, only a few Indian batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar were little comfortable in the Island country in 1997 tour and Indian spectators feared this tour for the time difference, A 1 month long West Indian tour means 1 month of sleepless nights. Till the tour of 1997 the Indian batsmen were never comfortable to tour the Island country. Till late 1990s India were found this tour to be one of the most difficult tours.
Over the next 1 month India are back to the Island country where they do not have a very good record. India have played 42 test matches over 9 full series in WI starting from 1952-53 and last being in 2006, they have lost 18 test matches and won just 4 tests and out of 9 series India have won 2 series (1970-71 and 2006) and lost 7 series and out of the 4 test match wins 2 have come in the last decade (2001 and 2006) and 1 each came in series of 1970 and 1975 series. But things have changed now and only a few previous fears are still alive to come back and haunt India. Over the period of time since the 1970s where West Indies was the most feared team and was arguably the best ever team, the standard of their cricket has gone down considerably. The current team is nowhere close to the team of 1970s-80s and early 1990s. There are various reasons for the downfall of the West Indian team over the years. Few of the reasons being:
1) The standard of cricket set up by the formers greats are so high that it is difficult to match up with talent wise.
2) The retirement of all the former greats happened at the same time.
3) The pitches have lost their venom, the bounce and pace they had once is nowhere to be seen and on the contrary they have changed into the spin friendly pitches which helps teams like India and is not helpful for the home team as they don’t have any world class spinners to take wickets and don’t have world class batsmen against quality spin to score runs.
4) The backup talent after the retirements is not good.
5) One more important reason I think is the relationship between the Cricket Board and the players. The frequent fights between the board and players leads to too much of chopping and changing in the team which leads to unbalance team.
6) Not having proper talent management programmes. They should find talent and then do everything to nurture the talent this would benefit them in years to come.
Once their entire team was full of match winners, but now they even struggle to have one who can lift them. Now the West Indies is like a home away from home for the Indian team. The once scene of Charlie Griffith breaking the skull of Nari Contractor with his venomous bouncer in 1961-62 series is nowhere to be seen now, that scenes is been replaced by the slow and low pitches where the ball does not bounce over the knee height. West Indies was considered to a grave yard for debutant batsmen but when Virat Kohli would take guard in test matches making his debut it won’t be the same for him he has been brought up on pitches like this and bowling he would be facing won’t be that fearsome.
The West Indian cricket has one way to go that is UP, they are facing the number 1 team in test cricket, they have nothing to lose. On the contrary they should look at the Indian team for inspiration; they could look at the Indian batsmen and hunger for runs of players like VVS. Rahul Dravid and Virendar Sehwag over the years, a few tips and experience of such players would hold them in good future. West Indian quick bowlers should look up to Zaheer Khan for his experience and try to pick his brains on fast bowling and bowling on dead, slow and low pitches. They bowlers can also look up to Harbhajan Singh for his advice. They can even learn from the younger players of Team India, players like Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, and Gautam Gambhir. I feel West Indies team should use this Indian tour as a learning experience for them. The Indian team have some legends in their side and have loads of experience which should help the West Indies team and their youngsters. It’s the way they take this series either they can take the beating from the Champion team hands down or stand up and learn from the experience of the champion team. This Indian team has transformed from an average team to a champion team, so their entire experience would benefit the West Indian team of years to come. I think more than the cricketing skills they should try to learn and try to pick up the things which work between the ears or try to learn the mind games and how they can have a strong mind and determination. The best team of West Indies were very good with their cricketing skills but was very strong mentally which the current team lacks.
Although the West Indies tour is not so feared any more for the Indian Cricketers but it continues to be feared tour for the spectators in India, as there would be many a sleepless nights for the next 1month. Let us all hope we once again get to see the West Indies team of the 70s and 80s but as an Indian would not want that to happen against the Indian Team.
Ricky Singh for DieHard Cricket Fans

Friday, May 6, 2011

Glance at Latest in the Cricketing World

It’s been 34 days since India were crowned the world champions. But I somehow don’t remember M.S.Dhoni lifting the trophy and on the contrary I can easily recollect Kapil Dev lifting the trophy in 1983 on that historic Lords ground. One reason for this I feel is too much off cricket. Even the cricketers along with the fans would agree that there was not enough time to enjoy the World Cup Triumph. The gap between the World Cup Final and 1st match of IPL was 5 days, which I feel was a little too less for the Victory to sink in completely.
IPL IV had a fairytale start, first few matches were very exciting and almost all the initial games went down to the wire. But as the time has gone by, the popularity and the TRP of IPL IV has fallen down considerably. May it would increase when IPL reaches the business end of the tournament. It’s very surprising people who voiced their opinion and were against about the length of the World Cup and believed number of meaningless matches are very high, but they have not said anything about the lengthy IPL. The main reason for the lack of interest in IPL is because it’s been a lengthy tournament and also the confusing format of IPL IV. It’s already been 47 matches and still we have another 23 matches in league stage and then 4 matches in qualifying stage that makes another 27 matches to go. One thing which has benefited IPL IV unlike previous editions in this IPL no one team has dominated the matches; it’s been the most open IPL out of the 3 previous editions. One of the reactions of a lengthy and little boring IPL is, many people have started to surf the internet to know when and where is India playing next. But I guess for Cricket Lovers there is never over dose of it.
One news which has taken the Cricket World by surprise. Duncan Fletcher’s appointment as Team India Coach. Much has already been about his appointment. So I don’t feel it requires any more discussion and we all should back the decision which is been taken now and hope for the best. You can vote in your opinion though through the poll in the sidebar.
Next in is England’s 3 way vote of confidence. ECB has appointed 3 different captains for 3 different versions of the game. Where the two time Ashes winning captain Andrew Strauss continues to captain the English Test team. Alastair Cook who’s not considered to be a One Day player by the selectors is given the job of captaining the One Day side and the 24 year old Stuart Broad will lead the England Lions in Twenty-20 matches. Two things which has taken me by surprise here is 1st being why was A. Cook dropped from One Day team in the first place and 2nd being since he is not part of one day team what has he done to be made captain of the side. Baffling to say the least. Twenty-20 Captain Broad is a good choice, this man has been hit for 6 Sixes in an over so he knows it can’t get worse that this on the field if things don’t go in his favour. He has come a long way since then and is certainly a player to look out for in future.
The problem between WICB and West Indian players continues, it’s a never ending war. I wish they can show such never dying spirit on the field. Pakistan has beaten WI 3-2 in 5 match One Day series. It was a completely lopsided series.
Australian tour of South Africa later in the year is been shortened because of the Champions League in India. There is plan to fit in 2 tests, 2 Twenty-20 matches and 3 ODI’s. So the cash rich league is taking its toll on the number of tests played across the world.
The biggest news of all and heart breaking news for me personally is retirement of Shane Warne from IPL after the end of IVth season. This news has certainly come as a shock to many cricket lovers as Warne was playing pretty well and was fit enough to play for some more time to come. But it’s his personal decision as the decision of retiring completely depends on the player as he is the best judge of his body and fitness levels. I hope Warne continues to be part of the RR in some way or the other as he has been guiding light for many of the Indian Local Players. Warne was the person who brought the art of leg spin back to the world cricket and he made it a fashion among many aspiring cricketers. If you recount his performance in his debut test against India at Sydney he was slaughtered by Ravi Shastri, where Warne’s figure read 1/150 off 45 overs, where Ravi made 206, but eventually Ravi was dismissed by Warne caught by Dean Jones. So if you think of his debut test and today if you consider what all he has achieved he certainly has come a long long way. A true champion and who has the ability to make a hero out of nothing. Long Live the Legend.
Ricky Singh for DieHard Cricket Fans

  

Saturday, April 16, 2011

IPL 4: Unearthing Unknown Indian Heroes

One week into the IPL edition IV and it has been nothing less than exciting. Some of the matches & performances have been amazing to say the least. The IPL IV got to a fairy tale start, an amazing 1st match between CSK and KKR; the match which went down to the wire and provided the perfect start to the season.
Many thought that IPL won’t get viewership after the long WC, but on the contrary the WC win has increased the interest in the game and the viewership has been high, in fact it is believed that the opening ceremony and the opening match had better TRP’s compared to the previous 3 editions. All urges well for IPL, almost all high profile cricketers playing barring a few Australians and West Indians, some exciting matches and to match with it some amazing individual performances.
Honestly speaking, in the previous 3 editions of IPL, barring Yusuf Pathan, we didn’t witness any match winning performanaces from the Indian domestic players. But this time the story seems to be changing, in 1st week itself we have seen some amazing performances by less known players.
Paul Valthaty has been the 1st to catch eye of every one this IPL by scoring the 1st century of this IPL edition. Not much was known about him before the 126 not out against CSK has made him almost an house hold name. The most important thing about that innings for me was that he didn’t give it away after making a 100 he made sure that his team won the match and he stayed there till he guided his team to the 1st win of IPL IV. And now building upon his previous innings has just now given an all round performance against the Deccan Chargers to show that he is more than a one match wonder. The 2nd performance which took every by surprise was the innings by Bharat Chipli of DC against RCB, it was a very confident innings, he played superbly throughout the innings, again he didn’t give it away in middle he was there till the end of the innings which lead the DC to a good score and which helped them register their first win. Then there has been other match winning performances by players like Mohnish Mishra of PWI against KTK, his 31 not out was a knockout punch for KTK.
The performance of a player which most heartening to see is that of Ambati Rayudu. He has been nothing less than brilliant so far in this tournament. He has always been a very talented batsmen but just lost his way by getting associated with the rebel league ICL, but he is back since IPL 3 and has been back with a bang. The best thing for Rayudu has been that he has been given the guiding light by none other than the legend Sachin Tendulkar. Rayudu’s performance so far is creating a gap between himself and the other talented Mumbai batsmen Rohit Sharma.
Other than this, amazing performances so far there has been – briliant knocks by the old war horse Jacques Kallis with 3consectuive 50s, Sachin Tendulkar who is yet not dismissed in this tournament so far with 1 Century and 1 half century, Gautam Gambhir has been a valuable addition for KKR this year. We all hope this IPL gives us a brilliant match winning player who can serve the country for long time to come.
Ricky Singh for DieHard Cricket Fans