indian batsmen

This tag is associated with 3 posts

India Versus South Africa: Thoughts before the first ball is bowled


Virender Sehwag batting at Adelaide Oval

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If this is the Final Frontier for India, is the run-up to the series the Final Countdown?

If Tendulkar scores his 50th ton in the first Test, will he be a centurion or a half-centurion at the Centurion?

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More thoughts on the Mohali cracker!


India's Pragyan Ojha (R), Vangipurappu Laxman (rear, obscured) and Laxman's runner Suresh Raina (L) celebrate India's victory over Australia on the fifth day of their first test cricket match in Mohali October 5, 2010. REUTERS/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds (INDIA - Tags: SPORT CRICKET)

To put it succinctly: India won a match they should have lost. Australia lost a game they should have won.

Neither team deserved to lose and it was a great advertisement for Test cricket. That’s what Test cricket is all about. It’s not over until it’s truly over!

The difference was that man VVS Laxman, who reserves his best for the kangaroos.

The Aussies kept digging into their marsupial pockets for ways to counter the Hyderabadi’s merry march to victory but there were just no tricks up their sleeves.

Ricky Ponting, unlike his predecessor, Steve Waugh, seems to ,more often than not, let the game drift and that was to be the case once more when the Aussies, by rights, should have gone in for the kayo.

No discredit to the fighting qualities exhibited by Laxman, Sharma and Ojha but Ponting needs a new thinking cap and soon!

In the end, it was yet another famous victory for the No. 1 Test team and Dhoni must thank his stars that he can call upon players of the calibre of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman to do yeoman service without throwing any starry tantrums.

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Disastrous run at World T20!


Harbhajan Singh - Ind Vs Eng,Mumbai, March 29,...

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With India’s 2 matches of the Super 8 match over and with them effectively India’s hopes of qualifying for the semis,  it is time to make a couple of points about India’s no-show at this tourney.

1> The standard of cricket exhibited at the IPL and the World T20 are reams apart. In the latter, we have the best teams representing their country, whereas the IPL teams are constrained to having just 4 foreign internationals representing them and at the same time they need to ensure that deserving youngsters (read youngsters with potential) are given a chance to ware their talents. So suddenly we have our IPL heroes peppered with short-pitched balls and when you are a team batting second and chasing a  large total, you have to try and hit every ball and the proclivity to succumb to the short-pitched variety is both exposed and exploited. Besides, since when have Indian batsmen known to be masters of the short ball?

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