SA keep India on the mat

It was a busy day for me personally and frankly speaking, day 2 of the Nagpur Test didn’t have much different happening from day 1, with SA once again winning the honors in all three sessions.

The proceedings belonged, no doubt, to Amla who’s studious double hundred took his team on the other side of 550, almost bringing curtains down on India’s chances of winning. Indian bowlers kept toiling away and looked more like waiting for Smith’s declaration to stretch their legs. It was the same story as day one, except that Kallis couldn’t get going and once again missed a double hundred on offer. Amla (253) feasted on a tired Indian attack to carry his bat through.

The most interesting aspect of today’s events was the way DeVilliers started playing from the word go. He was coming down the track to spinners almost every other ball. The intent didn’t seem attacking, rather it looked like a ploy to scuff up the pitch that would aid Harris when he comes to bowl. The ball was already turning and if DeVilliers did his job, Indians could be in for a torrid time when the South African left-armer comes to bowl. That’s a mouth-watering battle on offer on day 3.

My laptop’s battery is already shouting, which means I can’t go any further today. See you tomorrow!

Proteas milk India

Was the wicket a shirt-front, did the South Africans bat well or was it that the Indians bowled badly? Whatever be the reason, nothing can be taken away from the Kallis-Amla combine and none but Zaheer Khan can hold his head high among the Indian bowlers.

Winning the toss and batting was no doubt vital but that’s not where the game ends; in fact, that’s where it begins. If a team doesn’t get what it wanted, that’s more reason to double up the effort since the opposition is already at advantage, courtesy the toss and injuries to Laxman and Rohit Sharma, which brought Badrinath into the eleven along with Wridhiman Saha who made a lucky debut.

Things didn’t begin badly for India, rather it was all hunky-dory with South Africa reeling at 6/2. Prince was at the receiving end of a snorter from Zaheer that took the shoulder of his bat and ballooned up in the air for Dhoni. The Zaheer-Smith rivalry continued from where it left in South Africa but it was the Indian left-armer who once again got the better of South African skipper.

Kallis and Amla bat well together but nobody had a clue that the wellness would stitch together a 285-run unbroken partnership and guide the African safari to safer territory. They made Dhoni’s moves look ordinary but the credit, or the lack of it, for that goes to the Indian spinners who hardly troubled historically spin-scary Proteas. On the contrary, Kallis and Amla looked more at ease against spin than pace.

Harbhajan has now been struggling for long and it was nothing different today at Nagpur. The tide may turn in his favor tomorrow but that doesn’t mean his lifeless performance on day 1 should be overlooked. He and Zaheer share the responsibility of taking most of the 20 wickets in a Test. If even one of them doesn’t fire, efforts of the other are wasted. That’s what we saw today. Ideally, early wickets from seamers should help spinners settle in and tighten the grip but Harbhajan and Mishra couldn’t do that. To make the matters worse, Harbhajan was the costliest of Indian bowlers giving away 3.85 runs per over.

Let us admit that Indians looked flat or were flattened by an imposing partnership between Kallis (159 not out) and Amla (115 not out) that took their team to 291/2 at stumps. Things already look ominous for India and if the pacers fail to make use of the newish ball tomorrow morning, there is no hope in sight with uninspiring spinners.

No gain, only pain

There was nothing more to it than met the eye! That’s one way of describing the just-concluded Test series between India and Bangladesh whose infancy in Test cricket refuses to get over.

It’s fair to assess that Bangladesh is lucky to be playing Tests on two grounds: (1) Kenya’s affair with “match fixing” after the high of making it to the semifinals of 2003 World Cup and (2) ICC’s Future Tours Program (FTP) that mandates Test teams to play each other periodically. More so, if it wasn’t for the latter, most teams would have had their reservations against visiting or inviting Bangladesh for rubbers that are dead before commencing.

Kenya was one of the front-runners to get Test status until Maurice Odumbe put country’s cricket in a soup and Bangladesh benefitted from Kenya’s loss.

It was all rosy for Bangladesh but their cricket and cricketers still seem to be living that rosy moment and have failed to improve at expected pace and level. The administrators and players may have broken some sweat but have not yet got rid of their square image to fit in the round hole. Individual performances like ones produced by Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Shahadat Hossain, Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal against India recently fail to change team’s fortune because they never click together as a unit.

Neither do they pose a challenge for any other Test nation, nor do their opponents gain noteworthy, if any, ranking points by winning. So playing Bangladesh in Tests has become more or less a painful formality to honor the FTP.

India had nothing to gain but everything to lose while playing the minnows. Even the slightest of opportunity given by India was considered a weakness. If Bangladesh scored or had a partnership, Indian bowlers were criticized and if Bangladesh took wickets, Indian batters faced the music in media.

The story remains the same for Bangladesh like after every series. Nobody would complain if Bangladesh cricket grows and poses a challenge. Cricket is not played by great many countries and if one of the Test teams keeps producing such mediocre cricket, it won’t inspire the Europeans and the Americans to take up the game.

IPL ballyhoo!

The IPL is back and its commissioner LK Modi is creating more stir than Suresh Kalmadi who mended the curve of Indian hockey for it to dribble again.

The moolah calls all the shots and the IPL auction testified that yesterday, as the commissioner read out auction rules and the accompanying dizzy figures – $750,000 being the ‘maximum’ a franchise could dish out. The cover-up for that ‘maximum’ though was the ‘secret bidding’ clause introduced as a last-minute amendment to end the tie-breaker over a bid. In case of a deadlock, the bidders had to secretly bid the sum over and above $750,000 that they could offer for the buyout. The highest secret bid would bag the player.

Quite expectedly, that is what hogged the limelight. Keiron Pollard – who stroked an 18-ball cameo of 54 runs in the inaugural Champions League – and Shane Bond, the ICL rebel, were the two who caused a tie. While MI made the highest ‘undisclosed bid’ for Pollard, Shahrukh Khan’s KKR took home Bond, possibly to replace Shoaib Akhtar.

Enough has been written and said about other famous buyouts. So instead of wasting words dwelling about those, it would be interesting to point out absolute steals, surprise not-solds and baffling purchases.

Steal

Eoin Morgan: Surprised to see not many bidding for this swashbuckling English southpaw with a batting average of 50.5 and strike rate of 168.3 in T20s. He was snapped up by RCB for $220,000. It could well turn out to be the deal of the season, barring the famous English security concerns.

Thissara Perera: One would have thought that the Sri Lankan all-rounder did enough in the recently concluded India tour to generate interest but it wasn’t exactly the case. CSK got him for his base price of $50,000 as nobody else vied for him.

Justin Kemp: Overlooked by Cricket South Africa after he signed for the rebel Indian Cricket League, Kemp is a real T20 dasher lower down the order. He filled CSK’s last berth for his base price of $100,000 after they recalled him into the auction for the second round.

Unsold

Shakib Al Hasan: He is ranked among the top in ICC’s list of leading all-rounders, the breed T20s desire. However, he couldn’t catch any eye and was left in the cold unsold.

Lendl Simmons: The petit West Indian is a live wire in the field and more than useful with both bat and ball but his three-way utility couldn’t find any takers.

Upul Tharanga: He too has been in prime form at top of the order, so much so that he replaced Jayasuriya as an opener for Sri Lanka, but not sold.

Risky Buy

Kemar Roach: He may bowl at 145 kmph incessantly but the fact that he is still an untested rookie and an expatriate, makes him too risky a purchase at too high a price of $720,000 shelled out by DC. The decision doesn’t make any sense with Fidel Edwards already in their ranks.

Damian Martyn and Adam Voges: RR seemed to be having telepathy with Shane Warne as they bought these two relatively unnecessary Australian players: the former a classy but not in vogue Aussie with an ICL tag and the latter with a not-so-impressive T20 record. Of course, they came for their base price of $100,000 and $50,000 respectively, saving RR a purse of unused $600,000.

All said, done, watched and heard, my personal feeling is that IPL-3 will go into the kitty of a team that has the best Indian resources in their rank.

Where are we headed?

The year 2010 – which is being looked upon as the biggest year for world sport- has begun on two different notes for Indian sport. While on one hand Indian cricket reached the pinnacle of Test cricket, the national game of the country – believe me, it’s hockey – has hit rock-bottom with no space left to go further down.

Hockey World Cup, IPL-3, T20 World Cup, FIFA World Cup and the Commonwealth Games (CWG) are all lined up in 2010.  Instead of an arm-in-arm situation for various disciplines in these sporting events, we have Indian cricket on cloud nine, hockey almost begging, football not in picture and the CWG running against time.

In reality, it all begins for India today, January 13, 2009. Whilst our national cricket team looks to send another glittering cup to its headquarters, our Sports Minister, MS Gill, will meet Hockey India and its players to work out an amicable solution to end the impasse between the players and administrators.

So before you decide which event you look forward to, know this:  Our hockey players rightfully demand around Rs. 1.4 crore as their ‘collective’ pending dues/fee, which is just about the average annual endorsement earning of a cricketer and the signing amount of many Bollywood stars. I am with hockey today. What about you?