Pakistani Fast Bowler Factory Still Functional

So I woke up this morning to find that a new Pakistani paceman is in town: Junaid Khan, who has taken five wickets against Sri Lanka (at Abu Dhabi; it's a long story, don't ask). Khan has an impressive action, decent pace, and from the little I managed to see, a very good short-pitched ball. Yet again, there is a fast bowler in Pakistani ranks who looks like he has undergone some pretty impressive finishing at fast-bowler-production facility. I have no idea of how it happens again and again, but it has. Make sure you catch some of the test match action that will now be available in this series; fast bowlers are always fun to watch.

Another one bites the dust

And Lasith Malinga will no longer be seen in tests. The formula is emerging: overbowl you best strike bowlers by making them play an impossibly crowded calendar, don't pay them enough for tests, then sit back and watch them retire from the longer version while they opt for better paychecks and more salubrious working conditions.

Farewell, Lasith. This summer won't be as much fun without you in whites, showing off your highlights.

Stitched up by Taylor

Brendan Taylor is playing an absolute gem of an innings against Sri Lanka today. I don't know how many people would have thought that today's encounter would have been anything but a blow-out, but Taylor has ensured that the Lankans will experience at least a few scares. 95 off 16 overs for an opening stand.

Opportunities for redemption

Yet another ODI tournament final featuring India (and thus, yet another chance to redeem a gloomy record in finals). Yet another India-Sri Lanka game. And most importantly, yet another chance for India's batsmen to redeem themselves, especially the young ones, and even more so when Sehwag has gone early. Of course, it's not just the young guns that need to come good, even an oldie like Yuvraj Singh needs a moment of redemption.

Early days, but so far, Kohli looks very good. He's definitely started to look more organized and compact in recent times.

A classic test in all the right ways

My intention, (a couple of posts ago), in highlighting the rate at which wickets fell in the third test between India and Sri Lanka, was to point to how even a contest the test was and concomitantly what a classic test it was turning into (and did). Think about this:

On the first day, Sri Lanka make 293-4 (almost 300 runs with almost half the side gone). The next day, a fighting ton made with the assistance of the tail takes them to 425. India reply in style, rattling up 180-2 in 35 overs. This means, they are almost half-way to the SL score, and have done it quickly, leaving them (and the Sri Lankans) a little time in the bank. The Sri Lankans fight back on the third by getting rid of all the recognized batsmen, but the Indian tail gets a small, but important lead (numerically and psychologically). India take two wickets by close of the third day to edge just a little bit ahead. On the fourth day, Sri Lanka collapse, but thanks to tail-enders (and some depressingly familiar, unimaginative captaincy by Dhoni) they put up a decent target. By day's end, they've decimated the Indian top-order, including the most dangerous man of all, Sehwag. On the fifth day, after the nightwatchman is dismissed, Tendulkar and Laxman weather the storm (and are again aided by defensive captaincy), and then after a little twist, when Tendulkar is dismissed, VVS and Raina take them through.

There you have it. This was a five-day battle, and it needed all that time to develop. There were shifts of momentum on every single day and the side batting second had to fight hard to keep wresting the initiative from the one batting first. When making the case for test cricket, this game should find pride of place in the evidence dossier.

Both sides had weakened bowling attacks; both worked manfully to overcome their limitations. (Sadly, both captains revealed their tactical shortcomings). And then finally, it needed some batting greatness to tilt the game India's way: Sehwag's first-innings brilliance, and then the Tendulkar-Raina-Laxman combine in the second. Tendulkar's dismissal occurred at a very awkward time; it is to Raina's credit that he turned it into a minor hiccup.

So Team India does it again: it disappoints, infuriates, and then comes through. There are too many inconsistencies things still wrong with it for any fan to relax. But their performance is strangely reassuring in another way: for when they screw up again, as they will, most assuredly, sometime in the near-future, one's teeth-gnashing should be attenuated by the knowledge that they are capable of getting up off the floor.

Very Very Special Indeed

There is plenty to be said about India's series-leveling win over at the P Sara Oval in Colombo, but for the time being, a quick quote from a post yesterday:

For my money, the key man tomorrow is Laxman. His natural style is to continue go for his strokes and as he showed back in Chennai 2001, while everyone else is panicking around him, he makes runs.

I tried and I tried, but I couldn't stay awake past 1:45 AM this morning. I then scrambled out of bed at 5:40 AM to find the game over and done with. It will have to be the highlights for me, but I'm still glad that I managed to stay awake till VVS started playing in familiar fashion: a refusal to block, a willingness to send the bad ball to the boundary, and the ability to conjure up a sublime stroke or two when needed.

And then there were 3(3)

And just like that, 33 were down. Vijay is gone. Ishant aka The New Dizzy is out there, and the stage is set for a great fifth day. Those three Indian wickets have swung the Sri Lankan's way and they will back themselves to win this, especially if the Indian batsmen play Randiv as tentatively as they have done in the final session. At least one of the Indian bats needs to play an attacking innings, otherwise, the spinning pair plus the inevitable cluster of fielders will do the trick.

For my money, the key man tomorrow is Laxman. His natural style is to continue go for his strokes and as he showed back in Chennai 2001, while everyone else is panicking around him, he makes runs.

A fine balance

Numerical symmetry demands that eight wickets fall per day in a test match in order to get a result (actual test matches have their own way of securing those forty dismissals of course). As an Indian fan, one hopes that the third India-SL test doesn't need all of them for a result, just, say, a few less. For as far as averages go, we are on track. 32 wickets are down.

As Sri Lanka staggered to 8-125 in their second innings, Sehwag's thoughts might have turned to his opening duties, and whatever Mendis' capabilities with the cherry, Viru wouldn't have thought that the young spinner would have been the one holding up the Indian charge on the fourth day. That ninth-wicket stand is looking better and better now as Sehwag went for a duck, and Dravid, continuing his miserable run of form, has played on. Randiv has done all the damage, and in the annals of inspired captaincy moves, his early introduction by Sangakkara must count as a particularly distinguished entry. It robbed Sehwag of the chance to go hard at eager quicks and instead put him into a fatally tentative frame of mind. Dravid's dismissal spoke, too, of a similar mental frame.

As far as classic test tussles go, this one has cooked up nicely; the game couldn't be better set-up for a tense final day. What a pleasant change from the second test - and what a pleasant contrast now, from the potential no-contest developing in Birmingham. How the pendulum has swung.

Oh, and a chance for glory for both Vijay and Raina: early days in test cricket, and they have the opportunity to show whether they are capable of holding their nerves in tight situations.

Some parity at last

It says a great deal about modern cricket, and about Virender Sehwag, that a first-innings score of 425 in a test is no guarantee of safety. As is now increasingly common in test cricket, an average of 300 runs a day has been maintained in a test, and thanks to 12 wickets having fallen, we can contemplate (with some optimism) the possibility of a result in the third India-Sri Lanka test at the P Sara Oval. Any chance of an Indian win, depends almost entirely, of course, on Sehwag. Only he can ensure (with the right support, of course) a score big enough (and made quickly enough) to put any pressure on the Sri Lankans in the second innings.

If India merely achieve parity in the first innings, they will almost certainly be chasing an awkward target on the fifth day (yes, I do not have faith that the Indian bowlers can put sufficient pressure on the Sri Lankan batting line-up without a big lead to back them up).

The expected and the unexpected

Come the first test of a series featuring India, and one can expect a reasonably incompetent performance, possibly culminating in a heavy defeat. The Galle test, therefore, is not much of an aberration, but rather, just another data point that further clarifies and establishes the claim that Team India is very consistent with its inconsistency. Things will be better in the second test, I'm sure (or maybe I'm not - is such certainty justified with such an inconsistent outfit?)

What is an aberration, however, is that a test bowler is retiring with 800 wickets to his name. To be honest, I haven't still quite wrapped my head around that number. 300 wickets used to be a lot and then it got to 400. From that point on, the wicket-taking record became an increasingly fantastic number. 500? 600? 700? These numbers simply boggled the mind. Murali has gone one further, and staked out a point that is going to be very hard to get to for any bowler that follows him. Besides the usual worries about injuries, form, getting "found-out", will bowlers of the future even play enough test cricket?

Galle'ing cricket

Meanwhile, far, far away in the fair isle of Serendip, the number-one-ranked, yet strangely (for some fans) inconsistent test cricket team i.e., India, is up to its sternum in the smelly stuff. The wash-out of the second day is the only reason I say "sternum" as opposed to a more northward-located part of the anatomy. India are still 63 runs behind, with only VVS, Dhoni and the limpest tail of all time to come. When Sri Lanka were 344-6 in the first innings (or when Sehwag was batting), I would have considered putting a fiver on the chances of this test being a tad more competitive. But that was a long time and a 115-run partnership for the ninth wicket ago.

All the usual signs of an Indian return to cricket are visible: the injuries to bowlers, the shakiness in the batting line-up, the inability to close out an innings which looks like it's on its last legs (and oh, lets not forget, the usual blazing ton from Sehwag, possibly again in a losing cause. Sigh). And since they are "usual" I am able to retain a certain sangfroid, and start looking forward to the second test. Score settling in Sri Lanka will have to wait for a bit.

The Sri Lankan BP XI likes our new bowling attack

Phew. That scoreboard from India's tour match against the Sri Lankan Board President's XI does not make for pretty reading. When all the caveat-raising has been done and dispensed with, there are the numbers: 432/4 off 88.5 overs. With Zaheer and Sreesanth injured the shape of India's pace bowling attack for the tests isn't too clear, but even the spinners have combined to further obscure the picture, for Mishra and Ojha have spent down 50 overs for 253 runs and five wickets.

As far as slow starts go, this is a classic. For the Indians, that is.

Cricket in Florida, oh my!

A new post on the significance of the NZ-Sri Lanka T20 series in Florida is up at Different Strokes. I'm excessively optimistic at times and perhaps there are traces of that on display in this piece.

Sreesanth turns the screw

Well, this is the second time in a few years that I've gotten up in the morning to find out that Sreesanth has bowled India to a match-winning position. The Kanpur pitch suddenly doesn't look like a road, does it? 13 wickets on the third day, after 2 on the first and 9 on the second. And wonder of wonders, we actually have an enforced follow-on on our hands.

Those early wickets by Sreesanth in the morning made the rest of the day into a classic struggle against a big scoreboard in which the batsmen eventually came out distinctly second-best. Sri Lanka's second innings, and the Jayawardene runout, showed that the pressure has built up to very uncomfortable, and indeed unbearable, levels.

Cliches about prodigal sons aside, this return by Sreesanth is very impressive. He hadn't earned his selection but he sure has earned a spot in the eleven by this performance.

India v. Sri Lanka, Second Test kicks off

Right. So, Ishant Sharma and Mishra are the victims of the call for bowler's heads to roll. Ojha and Sreesanth are the lucky entrants. I won't pretend to be too knowledgeable about Ojha's recent form but as far as Sreesanth goes, he's lucky to be in there. Not that I mind excessively; Sharma has been as blunt as a roadside barber's razor for a while. But Mishra's dropping is painful. He bowled on a dead pitch and his captain didn't know how to set fields for him. Not a very good way to groom a young leggie. But hopefully the Gavaskar-Shastri combine in the comms box will be pleased with this particular pound of flesh.

Sri Lanka have dumped a quick (Prasad) and brought in Mendis. Three spinners is a lot, even in India, and in a strange way, its an acknowledgment of the first test mistake and a selection forced by injury

India win the toss and bat. Here we go, with a single off the first ball.

A familiar sight

A winter's late afternoon. Indian bowlers, wheeling away, over after over. Touring batsmen, grinding away. The field, spread out. Lazy throws back to the wicketkeeper. I think I'll go back to bed.

India versus Sri Lanka (late 2nd day)

From the comments section of the last post (written in anticipation of the 2nd day's play):

The Indian score as it stands now, could easily turn into a 430 all out

And Sri Lanka have done well so far at 236-3 as play heads into the last half-hour.

This is always a tricky little session of play and the key for the bowling side is to prevent it being a routine playing out of time. The fact that the spinners are on should prevent that from happening, though honestly the fields for neither bowler look particularly aggressive (come to think of it, Harbhajan going round the wicket doesn't strike me as an attacking move). But credit where it's due: Sarmaweera and Jayawardene could have had something to do with the way things are playing out right now.

Time for the morning coffee.

The Wall: Solid, yet not immobile

Rahul Dravid's 177* yesterday will surely rank as one of his best, from an external and internal perspective both. Its not often that a side can finish the day at 385-6 after being 32-4 at one stage. Three batsmen made it possible but Dravid's innings was the most significant. Even more important was the fact that the fightback was not centered around mere wicket preservation; runs were scored too. Dravid and Dhoni scored centuries at a strike rate of 70, which means four runs an over (4.2 if you want to be precise). (I missed most of the day's play but am able to catch up now with the stored replay and highlights; thanks be to the wonders of streaming broadband video). I'd wondered whether Dravid was finished in all forms of cricket; on the evidence of this innings, he most emphatically is not.

When you can have days like this, test cricket will do well. Interestingly, while the morning crowd was not gigantic in numbers, it was loud enough to frame the action appropriately. Watching cricketers in white playing with classical test cricket fields was a reassuring sight, and a good reminder of why I prefer this form of cricket the most: it just looks and feels better, dammit!

Serendip to the rescue

Sri Lanka's tour of India is off to a very soggy start. Two days play washed out and it's not clear there will be any play on the third. Thus, the Lankan lads are looking at going into the first test, which starts on the 16th, without any match practice. Two factors combine to make this not into a terribly big deal: tour matches don't seem to have the importance they used to (not in the kind of international calendar we have these days) and the Sri Lankan team is visiting from, well, Sri Lanka, and not England (conditions won't be so terribly unfamiliar to them). They will back their spinners to cause discomfort to the Indians (despite Mendis' decipherment, I'd be very surprised if he is not played with due respect), and they have the bats to exploit the conditions.

Yet, despite this fit with local circumstances, which has also existed in tours previously, Sri Lanka have not won a test in India. This is a rather strange business. The problem, of course, is that they are playing India in the same conditions, which fact suddenly dispels some of the strangeness of this particular achievement. But it does add a little spice to the proceedings, already enlivened by Sangakkara's channeling of the 'final frontier' in his pre-tour interviews.

For their part, the home side is up to it's usual tricks of over-inflated squads with curious selections (Sreesanth, really?) and dubious scheduling decisions (I'd much prefer if tests were only allocated to the big five of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai). Now that Dhoni has lost some of his aura (despite this year's loss of aura in one-day internationals, it will, willy-nilly, infect perceptions of him in test cricket as well), his moves might be watched just a little more closely.

I, for one, am intrigued. My personal battle with the timezones lies ahead.

A nice little pressure cooker coming up

Woah. This match between Sri Lanka and England has been surprising in more ways than one. I woke up (yup, I slept in, isn't an academic schedule great?) to find out that Sri Lanka had lost their top-order for very little. Then, we were treated to a very impressive fightback led by Kandamby and Matthews (both of whom, I must say, are rapidly growing in stature, and have become increasingly impressive for their maturity). And just to top things off, Andrew Strauss decides to recall Matthews in a situation where quite honestly, I think he swung to one end of the Aristotelean spectrum of generosity (Onions was clearly not deliberately obstructing Matthews). Had Matthews stuck around, I dare say Strauss would have found the dressing room a pretty uncomfortable place.

Sri Lanka will not put up a huge total (they've been helped by some not very good English bowling) but I think England will not find the chase easy. This could be the game we've been waiting for.