India return to winning ways

It was good to see India coming back strongly after the losses to NZ in the two T20 matches. Well, Indian team has traditionally always been equipped with a lot of talented batsmen, and when they do come good, the chances of success increase tremendously. The famed batting line-up did not do too well in the T20 matches and consequently we lost both of those. However, T20s are not the real test of strength (at least I believe so) and this ODI series provides a wonderful opportunity to India to stake a claim for the best ODI side in the world.
India started off pretty well, with Sehwag in wonderful nick, and when he bats in that fashion, you can only sit and applaud. Sehwag to me looks like the most attacking batsman in the world (marginally ahead of Pietersen) primarily because he is so clear in his mind. He does not let any iota of doubt enter his mind when he decides to hit the ball. Sachin Tendulkar with years of experience and tonnage of runs and records provides an ideal partner to Sehwag. The duo started well, and the loss of Sachin’s wicket did not mean much to India at that stage. India was off to a wonderful start, and then came Mr. Captain Cool- Dhoni. Dhoni deserves a lot of appreciation for the way he has established himself as an international cricketer. He was supposed to be a wicketkeeper-batsman. But his rise to become the captain of Indian team is the stuff fairy tales are made of. He went in, knowing fully that the team needed to consolidate at that point and he took the responsibility (However that does not make him the best Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly holds that crown, as per me). Dhoni batted with calm and did not let anything bother him; he was quite content just being there. Actually with Sehwag, you can afford that luxury. The loss of Sehwag and Yuvraj brought another talented batsman Raina. Raina has been in and out of team but the guy established himself during IPL. I still remember the four sixes he hit in the semi-final against Kings Punjab XI, the ball just kept on sailing. He has all the big shots in his armoury and that was what India needed. Yusuf Pathan is another IPL find and he is a very useful batsman coming down the order. He entered the situation that he would have loved to be in, and some lusty blows from him took India to a healthy total.
In nutshell, India batted just the way they should have done in the last two T20 matches. However, it’s better late than never. Dhoni also did the right thing by shuffling the batsman according to the situation, and remained the top scorer. Lastly, the three stars of this batting effort- Sehwag, Raina and Dhoni have something in common. More on that later.
NZ began their chase on a disastrous note as they lost their star batsman to Parveen Kumar. McCullum is a wonderful batsman for T20 matches mainly because he does not have to bat for long periods of time. However, I believe he does not have the technique and the range of shots to repeat his heroics in ODIs and that too consistently. He has started to win matches for NZ but he won’t be the match winner that Sehwag is for India or say Habibul Bashar is for Bangaldesh (Does Bangladesh win any match actually ??? …trying to be funny). Praveen Kumar bowled a wonderful line and so did Zaheer. Being the more experienced and senior bowler, it is expected of Zaheer actually but Praveen Kumar is a very useful ODI bowler as well. He bowls wicket to wicket, exploits the new ball and is faster than he appears. With the wicket of Ryder in 8th over, Praveen made sure that NZ were going to struggle always. Guptill and Taylor tried to bring some life back in the match but with the asking run rate climbing up every over, NZ were all set to loose. And it did happen. The rain delays didn’t help their case either. But the mammoth total India had posted was always going to pose problems for the Kiwis. In such scenarios, their best chance is to open with McCullum and expect that he gets them off to a flier. Didn’t happen today but may be, some other day. Bhajji Singh bowled beautifully and the wicket of Broom (stumped on a doosra) was a treat to watch. Nothing better than foxing a batsman with doosra (Remember Bhajji doing the same to Ponting in Sharjah and getting banned later for one ODI, also did the same to Kallis when India successfully defended 232 in S. Africa 2001-02). The star bowlers for India were Zaheer (he is easily the best fast left-arm pacer right now, and let’s hope he remains the same), Praveen and Bhajji. India won comfortably in the end, and opened their account in NZ. It was disappointing to see India lose those T20 matches and I was starting to wonder what if India does not start this series with a win. The media would have started post-mortems into virtually everything related to the team and its composition. Thankfully, it didn’t happen, and we had some reasons to celebrate.
My flatmate also bought some sweets (he just got his first salary) and we celebrated.
This win did confirm a few things. The first among these is the fact that for India to win, they need their batsmen to fire (like blaming the poor Irfan Pathan [one time fast bowler] for the last T20 loss while defending a meagre 150). It also confirmed the fact that players from small towns have started to make a mark in Indian cricket. Dhoni (Ranchi), Sehwag (Najafgarh), Raina (Ghaziabad), Praveen (Meerut) and Bhajji (Jalandhar), all these provide ample testimony to what I have said.
Lastly, it also proved that whether I stay at Ambala, Chandigarh, Mohali or Cork, I will continue to follow cricket with the same passion as I used to do when I was in school.
That’s all for now. Will write about the second ODI provided India wins.