Friday, 27 November 2015

Ashwin and Mishra forces Proteas to a crushing defeat, helping India To Clinch the Series still a match left in the Series

Spinning Track Ends SA's Overseas Record 




South Africa travelled over 15 trips to almost every  Test playing nations in past Nine years without losing a series all away from home.This Long streak has now come to an End.The Whole Series has been Dominated by the Spinners who have made the Batsmen to dance according to tune created from their Spinning Deliveries which is unlikely in current cricketing world which has dominated by the Batsmen and have a minimum room for the Bowlers.

The Subcontinent Pitches has changed drastically that Batting seems to be a nightmare in this spinning track even though both sides has Top Class Batsmen Specialised in Test Cricket.Current India-South Africa Test Series.Both Host and on tour Proteas witnessed some nervous moments in this ongoing Test Series Clinched by India Today few hours ago with a match to go in the series.

Current Test Match Spinners from Both sides Rattles the Options Wickets in regular intervals like a melody tune formed by perfect notes .Just 3 Days of Cricket was enough to rattle 40 Wickets predominantly shared by spinners of both sides. I have made an effort to pull the curtain for the test with some exciting scenes from this spinning drama.

South Africa Resumed the Day after they lost early wickets in their Second Innings by the end of yesterday play with hopes on Test Specialist Hashim Amla and Inform Faf du Plessis.They resisted Indian Spinners for a short while, which was one among the Dual Moment in this whole series which witnessed some Conversation between Bat and Ball.

R Ashwin waltzed away to his fourth 10-wicket match haul, but Amit Mishra - like he did in Mohali - broke the long partnership by getting Hashim Amla and then took Faf du Plessis out in the last exchanges before tea. The resumption of the chase was stillborn when Ashwin took out Dean Elgar and AB de Villiers in the first 10 overs of the day. Amla and du Plessis, assisted by some good fortune, fought long and hard, but unlike the South Africa spinners, India didn't provide them with bad balls on a pitch where timing half-volleys was also a challenge.

Surprisingly Ravindra Jadeja went wicketless in 25 overs, but it wasn't as if he didn't look getting one. At the height of the Amla-du Plessis partnership, Jadeja still kept beating the bat with his sharp turn. The turn otherwise was slow, which finally gave the batsmen some trust of their defence and the pitch. Balls began to die in front of the slips. It was evident in how both of them edged twice each without the ball carrying to the cordon. And when Amla nicked Mishra when driving hard, not with soft hands or by playing late.

Amla and du Plessis now began to play off the surface. If the ball would be tossed up, they would press forward to try to reach the pitch of it. When it was bowled flatter, they stayed back and worked with their hands, playing the line of the ball, not following the ones that turned sharply. Yet there were the frequent plays and misses. India knew they needed to stay patient and accurate, which they did. Not for one moment could the batsmen have thought there was an easy run around the corner. Only 72 runs came in that partnership, 25 runs in the first 25 overs of the middle session, and they went 25.1 overs without a boundary.

Eventually, that special delivery arrived from Mishra. Amla had spent 72 balls scoring just seven runs and was on 39 when Mishra bowled one that reared up at his defensive shot. During the partnership the two had taken South Africa to their longest innings of the series, threatened to make the second new ball due for the first time in the series, but neither could cross 40, the highest individual score of this Test.

The curse of 40 continued after du Plessis punched Mishra through cover for the first boundary in more than 25 overs, but when he went to repeat the same - having read a wrong 'un - the long hop stayed low to hit his stumps. Like Amla, he, too, scored 39. Ashwin ran through the rest without much trouble, but it was his strikes in the morning - as it has been throughout the series - that set the tone for India's domination.

Ashwin's wickets had less to do with the pitch than Mishra's. This might not have been Johannesburg, but Elgar began by slog-sweeping him for a six in the early exchanges. Ashwin, though, remained naggingly accurate, and later in that over he bowled an off break that didn't turn, took the inside edge of the defensive bat on to the pad and popped up for an easy catch. It might have been given out lbw by the on-field umpire, but Elgar was out anyway, for the fourth time to Ashwin in the series.

Now was the time for the crucial partnership, between de Villiers and Amla, the two men who have looked South Africa's best bets in the series. De Villiers tried his best to put Ashwin off his length by jumping out of the crease as often as he could, but he kept failing to do so. In the end, perhaps what was happening off the pitch became so dominant that he didn't watch the ball closely enough out of the hand, and fell lbw to a carrom ball. He was gone for nine. Amla and du Plessis only delayed the last rites after that.

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

All is Not Well in Indian Dressing Room

The personal coaches of India's limited overs skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Test captain Virat Kohli have spoken to TV channels, giving indications that all is not well in the dressing room.

Some Indian channels are putting up screaming headlines like 'Knives out after humiliating defeat in Bangladesh', reports bdnews24.com.

Dhoni's coach Chanchal Bhattacharjee told a TV channel that the Indian skipper was "tense". "The dressing room atmosphere is worrying him, he is not able to concentrate on the game."

Within hours of Bhattacharjee's comments, Kohli's coach Raj Kumar Sharma was seen on another channel describing the One-Day International (ODI) series loss to Bangladesh as "the most humiliating thing for Indian cricket".

"I have no hesitation it was the Black Sunday of Indian cricket," Sharma said.

Sharma did not blame Dhoni's captaincy for the defeat as some cricket writers in India have suggested - his choice of players and his on-field decisions. But some cricket analysts in India see in the 'war of coaches' a bigger problem - that Dhoni and Kohli are not pulling on well.

Many players have also asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to cancel the impending tour of Zimbabwe on grounds that they were very tired.

TV channels running the story had not identified the players or the reaction of the BCCI so far but former captain Krishnamachari Srikanth said the team had been playing continuously since October last year.

But some channels raised the question: Don't they feel tired when they play the IPL?

The ODI loss to Bangladesh has opened the proverbial can of worms in Indian cricket.

In the post-match conference on Sunday, Dhoni himself hinted at all not being well.

"If it is felt that I am the problem and team will do well if I am removed as captain, I am willing to step down," said Dhoni.

He promised to come out all guns blazing in the third ODI on Wednesday because "we have nothing to lose".

It is unlikely the Indian captain or the team can put behind uncomfortable questions haunting them when they take on an upbeat Bangladesh in the final ODI in Mirpur on Wednesday.

Monday, 22 June 2015

Don't put 'anybody' as coach just because position is vacant: MS Dhoni

Everybody seems to have an opinion about the current Indian team not having a head coach and who the next coach should or should not be. However, when MS Dhoni, India's ODI and T20I captain, was asked if their stunning ODI series loss to Bangladesh was because the coach's position is lying vacant, the 33-year-old shot back saying it would not make sense to appoint just about anyone because the position is up for grabs. Dhoni also insisted that there are enough people in the current support staff to take care of the side in the absence of a coach. 
Dhoni and the Indian side are copping severe criticism after they were beaten by hosts Bangladesh in back-to-back ODIs, but the captain dismissed claims that their defeats were due to the lack of a proper head coach. The coach's position has been a hot topic of discussion post Duncan Fletcher's exit after the ICC Cricket World Cup earlier this year. 
"If you are indirectly hinting that we need a coach and all that, we have enough people in the support staff to take care of us. And even if the position of the coach is vacant for some time, it is okay. Don't put just anybody there just because the post is vacant. Then, it will have a bad impact in the long run. It takes time to make these decisions, and our team generally doesn't have that time because we keep playing non-stop," he said.
"At least indirectly you are saying you are missing Duncan Fletcher. I felt, he was one guy who was never really appreciated by the media. He did all the hard work. He was with the team for a long time. He went on really tough tours, but I don't think we should blame the support staff. Ultimately, it is the individuals that go out, adapt and do what is required. I don't think it is the support staff."

Dhoni refused to blame the players for the defeats, either, saying this was the best squad at present. "This is the best lot of players we have. What we have to think about is, if we are playing in the subcontinent whether we want to go in with the extra spinner, whether we really want fast bowlers who bowl quick but are not good with line and length. At times we have seen they can really go for runs.
"If you see Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar), he is not exceptionally quick but even when the batsmen are scoring fast he gets away with it. The only problem is, if he doesn't take wickets, the other bowlers are not smart enough to get away with the kind of bowling they do. Overall, you have to see what is the best balance and accordingly, you move forward," he added.
Dhoni also spoke at length about his move up the order. The wicket-keeper batsman usually takes up the number 6 slot in the batting order, but moved up to the fourth position yesterday. Dhoni said he would like to bat up the order in the future as it allows him to get set and bat freely. "The last four-five years, I have batted at 6, and there is always some kind of pressure other so I have not been able to bat freely. I would like to bat slightly up in the order, so I can play a bit more freely. Yes I have adapted to what the team needed of me since 2006, but for the longer run it is important for us to see who is a good batter at No. 6, at 7 or even maybe 5. That is why I dropped (Suresh) Raina (down the order). He has been successful at that slot (No. 5)," he added.
Dhoni has also raised some eyebrows by persistently sticking all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja despite the latter's all-too-apparent lack of form both with bat and ball. The Indian captain, however, backed his teammate saying it is tough to justify his selection as he almost always never gets the chance to bat for long. "We use every bowler according to his potential. I don't like to bowl him in the first 10, but after that he has bowled for us consistently, in the second Powerplay and even in the slog. I have used him late in the innings, and he has bowled three decent overs in the Powerplay. I feel it is very difficult for someone like him to justify his selection because more often than not they don't get to bat. In the last one year, even I have not got a decent chance to bat. The only decent chance you get is when you are four-five down in 20 overs," he said.
"To always come in an international game and expect an individual to score a fifty is not really possible, so it is a difficult one. Also, our top order has done really well so we haven't tested the bottom order. You can say these two matches our lower order was tested so it is difficult for him to justify his batting. From a bowling point of view, in between he was up and down, but later on, during the World Cup he bowled well and after that here he is bowling well," he summed up.

Saturday, 20 June 2015

Dhoni, Mustafizur fined for on-field collision


The pressure is telling on Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The fearless fighter that Greg Chappell had trained to be India's 'Rambo' is beginning to feel the heat. Ten years of international cricket the last seven as India's captain is enough to break the strongest back. It is a miracle of sorts that Dhoni has carried on for so long, and with so much success, without succumbing to the pressures that come gift-wrapped with the Indian captaincy.
Dhoni succeeded because of his exceptional mental strength and an ice cool temperament that refused to boil over even in the most heated scenario. Nor did Dhoni ever go overboard with his success. Even two World Cup triumphs (2007 World T20 and 2011) failed to disturb Dhoni's equilibrium. He was simply happy to deliver as a player and captain. Success, for Dhoni, was like water on a duck's back. He would not get too despondent about failure. As India's Test failures abroad piled up, the pressure on Dhoni mounted. His philosophic explanations ('it is a process') after every loss began to wear thin.
A second successive Test series loss in England last year marked the beginning of Dhoni's downfall, culminating in his retirement from Test cricket after the third match Down Under. While it is perfectly understandable that Dhoni wants to preserve himself for another World Cup by giving up Test cricket, his lack of form in the shorter formats of the game has rendered his position quite vulnerable.
The lion-hearted Dhoni, who had promoted himself in the order ahead of an in-form Yuvraj Singh in the 2011 World Cup final and made history, has struggled for a while now. A quick look at his recent ODI record shows that his last match-winning knock came against Zimbabwe in the World Cup earlier this year. Having walked in at 92/4 with India chasing 288, Dhoni (85*) shared an unfinished stand of 196 with Suresh Raina, whose unbeaten 110 fetched him the man-of-the-match award.

Another unbeaten knock 45 off 56 balls had been enough to shepherd India to victory against the West Indies in the World Cup. The rest is a long and sorry tale of a man widely regarded as the best finisher in limited-overs cricket. Let alone finishing games, Dhoni isn't even getting the runs. He was a pale shadow of his dominant self in IPL-8, where Chennai Super Kings were twice outclassed by the Mumbai Indians in the knockout phase. A mere 372 runs from 17 innings, with an highest score of 53, is hardly the stuff that legends are made of.
Dhoni's uncharacteristic behaviour on the field against Bangladesh on Thursday was a clear reflection of a man who has lost the mental battle with himself. Poor Mustafizur Rahman bore the full impact of Dhoni's frustrations as the game slowly slipped out of India's hands. The shoving away of Mustafizur represented Dhoni's fight with inner demons which have been tormenting him since CSK got mired in the IPL betting and match-fixing scandal in 2013. With N Srinivasan out of the BCCI, Dhoni has lost the safety net that not only gave him immunity from selection issues but also the license to run the team the way he pleased.
By refusing to back the Indian team's stand in the ugly Anderson-Jadeja spat in Nottingham last year, Srinivasan had sent out a strong signal to Dhoni that he could no longer take things for granted. Ravi Shastri's appointment as the team director after the Test series loss in England further clipped Dhoni's wings. Retirement from Test cricket was Dhoni's way of cutting his losses. Neither Dhoni, nor his team, had bargained for losing to Bangladesh on Thursday. The alarm bells are ringing loud and clear. Another loss could spell doom for Dhoni, whose form and credibility are both at an all-time low.

Thursday, 18 June 2015

Preview India vs Bangladesh, 1st ODI, Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka (D/N), India tour of Bangladesh, 2015


Watch Live Streaming:
 http://matchcentre.starsports.com/cricket/india-vs-bangladesh-249/bangladesh-vs-india-178478/live-video

Twelve months ago, the Indian contingent travelling to Bangladesh for the ODI series had as many as seven notable absentees prompting an unimpressed Mushfiqur Rahim to exclaim, 'If they lose, India will lose, not India A'. The naming of a full strength Indian side for the three ODIs this time around even with a hectic schedule of cricket to follow bears testament to the giant strides Bangladesh have made since then in the 50-over format.

Bangladesh are far more adventurous in the 50-over format than they are in their whites. They enter the ODIs on the back of their most successful World Cup campaign where they made it to their first quarter-final (lost to India). More recently, they clean-swept Pakistan 3-0 to clinch the ODI series. A series win against India would not only reinforce their new-found standing in world cricket but also improve their chances qualifying for the Champions Trophy.

The series marks India's return to 50-over cricket for the first time since their defeat to Australia in the World Cup semi-finals in Sydney. In Australia, the fast bowling stood out for its incisiveness. How the bowlers fare in the unforgiving surfaces of the sub-continent could set a precedent for the season to come. MS Dhoni and his bunch of ODI specialists have returned, will the rain do too? That remains the pertinent question.

Date: 18th June 2015

Venue: Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur

Start Time: 14:30 IST

Weather: Humid with a high of 33 degree Celsius and a 40% chance of rain.

Team News:

Bangladesh:

Over the last 6-8 months, Bangladesh have settled on a playing eleven. However, Mahmudullah's absence and Mushfiqur Rahim's finger injury is likely to throw up a couple of new faces. Litton Das, who made his debut in the one-off Test, could play as the keeper-batsman and slot in at No.3.Mominul Haque's consistent performances in Tests make a case for his inclusion too and the team management will weigh their options before finalizing the batting order. On the other hand, the think-tank will be buouyed by Rubel Hussain's return to fitness. In him, Mashrafe Mortaza and Taskin Ahmed - Bangladesh have a bowling attack that is capable of causing problems for India.

Probable XI: Tamim IqbalSoumya Sarkar, Mominul Haque/Litton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al HasanSabbir RahmanNasir Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza, Arafat SunnyRubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed.

India:

India have travelled with a strong squad and are likely to field their strongest eleven. Mohammed Shami (ruled out with a knee injury) will be replaced by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has a particularly fruitful IPL season behind him. The team management will keep a close eye on the performances of the lower-middle order, most notably Ravindra Jadeja, whose credentials as an all-rounder have taken a beating following below average performances with the bat.

Probable XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit SharmaUmesh Yadav

Stats and Trivia:

- India's highest score against Bangladesh in ODIs - 370 - was scored in Mirpur during the 2011 World Cup.

- India lead the 29-match head-to-head 25-3, with 1 game providing no result.

Quotes:

'It's not about me but as to what the team demands from me and what the situation is when I go into bat. So it will still be the same. It also depends on where I am batting'

MS Dhoni on his approach to batting in ODIs

'I have told the boys to look at the statistics that we are not far behind any of the top teams.'

Mashrafe Mortaza said he wants to carry positive memories into the ODI series.
Teams:
Bangladesh (From): Tamim Iqbal, Rony Talukdar, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim(w), Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza(c), Arafat Sunny, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mominul Haque, Litton Das, Mustafizur Rahman
India (From): Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni(c/w), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Stuart Binny, Dhawal Kulkarni, Axar Patel, Ambati Rayudu

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