Friday, December 4th, 2009
Will Sri Lanka go for a possible win in this match? At the end of the third day of the Mumbai test they are 322 behind with two full days remaining. Of course saving this game will be the first priority and I know for a session or two they will first look to ensure that. But whether they will be just satisfied with that will tell us how far they are ready to go to get to the top of the international rankings.
In the recent years both India and Sri Lanka have won a lot of matches, they have even won abroad and in statistical terms there isn’t much to separate them. India gets more visibility probably because they have won more at places like Perth, Leeds, Johannesburg and Jamaica, and may be another reason is India’s fierce rivalry with Australia in the last decade.
(Source: Cricinfo Statsguru) In the last 10 years Sri Lanka have won 44 of their 96, India won 39 of 105. In the last 5 years it’s 23 of 45 and 21 of 53 respectively. India’s record is better ‘away from home’ - India has won 11 of their 29 matches abroad whereas Sri Lanka have won 7 of their 23. But consider that some of these matches were played against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and we realize that the overall record is not massively different, at least statistically. In terms of the quality of the opposition India has a better records in last 5 years where they have won at least one match in each away series except the one in Pakistan in 2006.
Where these teams are also similar is the apparent lack of the intent to go for it when there is a choice. I think in the third test in New Zealand Dhoni was criticized for not declaring early enough to account for rain to force a result. The situation was a little different then though as India was already leading and so even with the draw India won the series. Here Sri Lanka faces an entirely different situation - they have never won a test match in India. So if they lose or draw this it will be no different anyway. But if they are able to win it it will be a big thing. Of course there will be criticism but the rewards of success are much bigger for them if they win.
The three scenarios appear to be like this, in the sequence of likelihood:
India win: This is where either India gets them for under 333 or just over it and achieve it. India has enough time to do this.
Draw: For this to happen Sri Lanka needs to either bat out the whole time, or score enough runs by the time they are all out that India can’t get those in the remaining overs. So they need either bat very long for whatever no of runs or bat really fast and get more than 500.
Sri Lanka win: For this Lanka needs to bat at least 4 sessions and that too with a high run rate. That would mean they might get 400+ by that time and have a chance to bowl at India on the fifth day pitch. But it’s a delicate balance as if they declare too defensively they will neither leave India enough overs to get those runs nor for them to get India out. If they need to have about 60 overs for a chance they need to make around 510 runs in 120 overs. Not entirely impossible but very difficult - and then you add a chance that India can still get those runs in 60 overs. As we have seen most of the times both India and Sri Lanka seem content to declare only when they know they won’t lose.
But Sri Lanka have in front of them an opportunity to show that they can take these risks in their pursuit of being the no 1 team. If they go for it, apart from other things what it will also mean is that this match will get very interesting to watch!
Posted in cricket, Australia, India, Ganguly, Dravid, West Indies, Dhoni, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kumble | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Although Sachin has completed 20 years in international cricket, I hope and believe he still has a few more left and this is not quite the time to write summaries of his career. There are many records that he has established or broken already. But it makes me wonder how people can say “he has broken all batting records”, as clearly there are many obvious ones that he is yet to break or achieve. So instead of going over his stats so far I am trying to highlight the things we fans want him to do.
There is a reason for that. Tendulkar had a lean patch starting somewhere in 2004 that lasted till the World Cup of 2007. He did score a few hundreds during this time but never looked like the Tendulkar we knew. People, even players who are supposed to know about lean patches, started writing Tendulkar off. But then he came back to form in the tour of Ireland and England of 2007. Since then mostly he has been in great touch and has been even doing things he hasn’t done much before - like staying unbeaten in a big chase of fourth innings to win India a match, like he did in December 2008 against England at Chennai. So what fun it would be if he starts breaking those other records that are not in his list yet!
The record that comes to mind immediately is a test triple hundred! But before we go there, Tendulkar definitely has had many attacking innings before - I am listing three that come to my mind and I chose these three because they represent three different match situations:
Against South Africa at Bloemfontein, 2000 - India were 68/4 when Tendulkar and debutant Sehwag came together for a 220 run partnership in just 47 overs. Tendulkar scored 155 off just 184 balls. Many teams have exploited such situations to win games, but India wasn’t quite there yet there then. There was hardly any other substantial score from anybody else in both the innings and our bowling’s inability to restrict South Africa prevented India from winning or saving the game. Here is the YouTube link.
Against Australia at Chennai, 1998 - India had conceded a lead in the first innings which was already wiped out when Tendulkar came to bat in second innings. But the match was still open and Warne’s reputation was still intact. Some 60 overs later Warne had been taken for 122 runs and India set a “historical” target of 348 runs to Australia (in the tied test of 1987 Australia had set India the same target at Chennai) and India won the match.
Against England at Leeds, 2002 - Tendulkar came to bat at a healthy 185/2 but what was more important was it 74 overs were alredy bowled in which Bangar and Dravid had seen through the most dangerous period of the match. Then Tendulkar and Ganguly put together a 249 run stand in just 60 overs with both going on total attack in the later part of that partnership. India scored 628 and won the game as well. Here is the YouTube link.
So there are many matches where Tendulkar has played attacking but a huge double/triple hundred while playing like that has been missing. I know there are exceptions, but most of Tendulkar’s great centuries are scores around 150. As far as I remember none of his double centuries were very interesting to watch. He hasn’t scored even a big attacking double century yet.
A triple hundred itself doesn’t seem to be a measure of greatness, but many great batsmen of the current generation have them - Sehwag, (DPMD) Jayawardene, Jayasuriya, Gayle, Younis Khan. Then there are Kallis, Ponting, Dravid, Mohammand Yusuf, Graeme Smith, Laxman who have none.
I guess in general terms Tendulkar hasn’t had a huge attacking innings and it will be fantastic to see him do that!
Posted in cricket, Australia, India, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Lara, Dhoni, England, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Sehwag, Ponting, Ireland, Laxman | No Comments »
Friday, October 30th, 2009
It’s not always that you are almost at the end of October and don’t know what cricket India is playing this season. The Future Tours Programme of ICC had listed a tour by Sri Lanka and an away tour to Bangladesh. But nothing was announced until recently when schedule for Sri Lanka’s India tour came up. So after these one-day matches against Australia it will be the Lanka series starting in November - 3 tests, 2 Twenty-20s and 5 ODIs. Probably the Bangladesh series schedule will come up later. Still not sure what’s after that.
On the other hand the previous season never seemed over. There was that New Zealand tour earlier this year (India won both the test and ODI series but lost the Twenty-20 games), then there was IPL in South Africa, followed by ICC World Twenty-20 (India didn’t make it to the main games). Probably that should be considered end of the 2008-09 season then! There was a little break after that for a couple of months. Then the 2009-10 season started with a triangular one-day series in Sri Lanka. India won that. Then there was ICC Champions Trophy where India were knocked out, immediately followed by Champions League in India - which was a Twenty-20 tournament featuring top 2 teams from such competitions from many cricket playing countries. IPL teams didn’t make it to the semi-finals in that too. There was been so much cricket that it’s hard to remember even recent tournaments.
Now India is playing Australia in a 7 game series at home. It’s 1-1 in two matches currently.
There are many interesting things to follow in the upcoming season:
Recently India went past the stage where now they have won more matches than they have lost, overall. India’s record in the last few years has been generally much better, even considering that they played minnows in many matches. India’s record since Saurav Ganguly took over and till now- 152 won, 114 lost out of 281, since Dhoni took over and till now- 37 won, 20 lost out of 63. If this trend continues it will mean India will continue to win a lot of matches which is good for people planning to follow them.
Tendulkar will go closer to the 50 century mark both in tests and ODIs
It will be interesting to see how many matches India goes before it loses a test under Dhoni’s captaincy. So far it’s 7 tests with 5 wins and no losses. Since it’s a home series against Lanka, followed by a series against Bangladesh the chances of adding to this record are pretty good. Having said that, there aren’t many of “team A has never beaten team B at home” situations in test cricket anymore (especially since India beat South Africa in South Africa) and Sri Lanka not winning in India is one such record. Obviously they will have their eyes on it.
Sehwag hasn’t had a big test hundred for 10 tests and almost for a year and a half now. He has had scores of 90, 92, 83 during this time but no hundred. Of his 15 hundreds, his last 11 were big 150+ scores. Not that it matters when he is in form, but playing Sri Lanka at home might be just what he needs.
If Ajit Agarkar does get to play in ODIs, he will get closer to 300 wickets mark, which seems very remarkable for somebody who always seemed on the fringe recently. He needs 12 more for 300. He hasn’t played ODIs for over two years now but has been playing IPL. After his initial success around 1998 he has had success only in spurts and strangely has always been in selection through the captainship periods of Azhar, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid. India has a rich bench strength now but the injury and fitness issues are too many to rule Agarkar out.
And these are the just the ones that I remember. There must be more.
Posted in cricket, Australia, India, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Dhoni, Sri Lanka, South Africa, BCCI, Bangladesh, Sehwag, IPL | No Comments »