Wednesday, February 27, 2013

India win the first test!

Australia in India and we have won the first test at chennai and take a 1-0 lead!

After coming from a home series loss against England in the test series, India has started off with a win against Auatralia in the first test match held at Chennai.

The day-1 saw Aussies batting and dominating the whole day, with Clarke scoring a century while Warner and Henriques scored half centuries. Australians felt it difficult to face the spin. India had three spinners this time against the Aussies, Ashwin, Bhajji and Jaddu while Ojha has to sit out since Harbhajan was included in the playing 11 as a third spinner. Ashwin managed to pull up 6 australian wickets in the day-1 after Australia won the toss and decided to bat. Dhoni's decision to go with Jadeja worked out well and jaddu even managed to take a wicket on the opening day. Australia managed to score above 300 on the day-1 with their captain remaining unbeaten on 100 plus score.

The day two saw Australians adding the runs and they went on to score 380, Clarke topping the score card with 130. When the Indian openers were out to bat, they started off well Until Pattinson striked, India were 12/2 in no time. Both the openers Sehwag and Vijay were back to Pavilion and it was again in the hands of Pujara and sachin to make the ship steady. They did the same before Pujara was out and Pattinson broke that partnership and Pujara was out for 44 and India were 105/3. Virat Kohli then Joined sachin and they played until the stumps without losing any wickets. Both sachin and Virat had scored half centuries by the end of the day.

The day three, Sachin and Virat found hard to score runs and Sachin lost his wicket to Lyon, a beauty of a delivery from the off spinner and sachin had to go for a well made 81 and he had missed out a century, Virat was rock solid with his defense and Dhoni had to join Virat. They both played well and Dhoni was explosive with this batting this time and he did not took much time to settle and started hitting boundaries now and then and he had been targeting the off spinner Lyon. Virat too brought up a well made test century and the second against the Aussies and he was soon dismissed for a well made 107. Dhoni remained cool headed as he does usually and was stroking the ball well, and the same day saw dhoni scoring a double century as well. That double century was quick and he had hit 5 sixes and most of them came from lyon's bowling. India remained 515/8 with MSD and Bhuvneshwar kumar at the crease and this pair had already crossed a 100 run partnership.

The day four, saw Dhoni and B.Kumar continue their batting and Dhoni again hit a six of Lyon . Dhoni was in sublime touch before he was caught behind in Pattinson's bowling for a well made and match saving 224 and in quick time B.kumar was out too and India managed to score 572 with a healthy lead over 150.  Aussies when came into bat was struggling to face the spin and Ashwin again gave the breakthrough, getting his 8th wicket of the match. Australians kept losing wickets in regular intervals and looked like they were heading towards the innings defeat and at one stage they were 5/121 and Henriques was holding the australian innings till the stumps and aussies had lost nine wickets on day-4 and they had taken a lead of 40+ runs.

The day five did not take much time and jaddu took the final wicket of Lyon, aussies were all out for 241 and India needed a 50 run target to take a 1-0 lead. Once again India had to lose the openers early and it was Sachin and Pujara who saw India reaching the target safely and India won the match in chennai.

MSD was declared Man of the match for his brilliant 224

*Ashwin's 12 wicket haul

*The first two balls sachin faced in his first innings went for 4 and the first two balls he faced in his second innings went for a six!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Australia in India! the Squad

India’s squad was announced some days back and as expected Gambhir was dropped and he had a reason behind that. His poor show for a long time, may that be the test series against England and the ODI series against pakistan. He has not been like before and he has not got much of the runs, Dhawan his State mate got a surprise call up for the Team. Dhawan was quite Impressive in the first class cricket and Murali Vijay’s season in the first class cricket was good, he scored a century recently against the Mumbai in Irani cup as well and that should have Impressed our selectors to go with a right handed opener.

Not Including Raina in the test squad was a surprise. He had been looking good. My pick would have been Raina instead of Dhwan or Murali Vijay. Though India needed a left handed opener in order to replace Gambhir. Raina had a good show over all in the Irani cup, came up with a century and a half century and was in a good touch. Raina needs a chance in the test squad. Wasim Jaffar who has been one of India’s consistent run getter in the first class cricket was dropped once again and I still wonder on what basis they had retained Sehwag? The selectors always had an option to pick the Mumbai Opener Jaffar and they could have given him a chance now at least.

Harbhajan makes a come back once again. He was in and out of the team and hope he takes this chance as his second come back. He might have been selected as the third spinner along with Ashwin and Ojha and the Turning pitches in India can help him pick wickets against Australia and Bhajji has an impressive record against Australia in India. Bhuvneshwar Kumar really needed a test call and as expected he got one, he has been very impressive swinging the ball and I just see him as Praveen Kumar. Both the bowlers who have not got much pace but their ability to swing the ball could cause trouble to the batsman earlier in the innings. Kumar was an very Impressive pick in the squad and hope he does well in the debut test series.

Ravindra Jadeja, a bowling all rounder. Being so impressive against Pakistan series and England series and his good form with both the bat and ball has gained him a spot in the test squad, and his two triple hundreds would have also been a reason for the selectors to pick him as well and Dinda also gets a place in the squad along with Ishant Sharma.

The squad : MS Dhoni (capt.), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli,
Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra
Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, R Ashwin,
Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda.