Cricket

An unassailable lead in hand, the rampaging Indian team will now push for a series whitewash when it takes on a grossly mismatched New Zealand in the inconsequential fourth one-dayer of the five-match rubber on Tuesday.

Stand-in skipper Gautam Gambhir has led from the front with back-to-back centuries to inflict one of the worst series defeats on the visitors in the two countries’ bilateral history which dates back to 1975-76.

The second string team’s exemplary performance in the absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh has also given a boost to the side’s World Cup aspirations.

The young players such as Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay and Saurabh Tiwary have made an impact and would have impressed regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni just a couple of months ahead of the World Cup being hosted in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Chairman of the natiolnal selection panel, Krish Srikkanth, said the youngsters have done well for themselves and their performance has shown that team’s World Cup preparations are going according to the plan.

“Youngsters in the team have proved that the bench strength is good. It is important that we keep winning all our matches up to end of the World Cup,” Srikkanth said ahead of the match.

“Overall, I am confident that the players will perform to their potential and keep the momentum. I am glad that the preparation for the World Cup is on the right track,” he said.

As for Tueday’s match, the Indian players are an upbeat lot and would be looking to keep the momentum going for a whitewash.

Despite being a second-string side, the Indians have proved themselves better on all counts against a short-of-confidence New Zealand, which came here after being hammered 0-4 by minnows Bangladesh.

The Indian line-up has not exactly missed the dashing Virender Sehwag or the reliable Sachin Tendulkar as the likes Virat Kohli have stepped in effortlessely against a rather ineffective Kiwi attack.

Kohli, who has been good nick in the domestic circuit, has been solid so far along with Murali Vijay.

The Indian bowling has been spearheaded well by senior pacer Zaheer Khan along with the spinners. Young off-spinner R Ashwin has, in fact, managed to make quite an impact but he has to be more economical in the middle overs.

The Kiwis, on the other hand, have been struggling and skipper Daniel vettori has to do a lot of head-scratching to find a way out of the slump that has gripped the team after a fighting performance in the Test series.

Vettori and his men would be desperate to regain confidence which has been dented severely by three defeats on the trot.

The key to it is a solid batting performance and the visitors will look towards Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum to give them the rare crackling start. Ross Taylor and Scott Styris can consolidate from there on.

Kiwi new ball bowlers Kyle Mills and Andy McKay and one-change pacer James Franklin have the ability to disturb any combination along with Vettori but the quartet has so far struggled on pitches which have always been a batsman’s delight.

India: Gautam Gambhir (Captain), Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and R Vinay Kumar.

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (Captain), Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Jamie How, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Gareth Hopkins (wk), Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Andy McKay, James Franklin and Grant Elliott.

Hours of play: 2.30 pm to 6.00 pm, 6.40 pm to close of play.

Sri Lanka have wrapped up the series in impressive fashion and Pakistan are left with nothing but pride to play for when the sides meet in the 4th ODI in Colombo on Friday.

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Pakistan have yet to win a match on this tour and despite a smiling Younis Khan explanantion after each match, the alarm bells in Pakistan cricket ought to be ringing.

Latest defeat came in Dambulla on Monday when Pakistan posted a competitive 288/8 only to be blown away by Sri Lankan openers Thuranga and Jayawardene, who put on 202 for the first wicket. Sri Lanka cruised home for a 6 wicket win and series clinching 3-0 lead.

You have to wonder just where to draw the line with Pakistan, most of the criticism thus far has been levelled at the batsmen but of the bowlers, only youngster Mohammad Aamer managed an economy rate of less than 5 runs per over in match number 3. Sri Lanka showed a ruthless streak that bodes well for the forthcoming Champions Trophy in South Africa.

On to Colombo for the 4th (and 5th) ODI’s

The R. Premadasa Stadium is the venue for the remainder of the tour including the 4th and 5th ODI’s followed by a T20.  The ground has not been a happy one for Sri Lanka in recent times, India visited here in 2008 and earlier in 2009 and Sri Lanka lost 5 of the matches, winning just 2 and there was one no result. It is usually a pretty high scoring ground

As for the stats, here is a good one for you. On each occasion the captain winning the toss in the 7 matches which produced a result between Sri Lanka and India elected to bat. On each occasion that proved to be the correct decision, the side batting first won the match!

India made amends for their Twenty20 World Cup debacle, winning the ODI series against West Indies 2-1 after torrential rains washed out the fourth and final ODI at the Beausejour Stadium on Sunday.

The tourists won the four-match series 2-1 following victories in the series opener in Jamaica and the third match on Friday. Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was adjudged the Man of the Series.

The match started an hour late following heavy rains just after India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to field, forcing the umpires to reduce it to a 49-over-a-side affair.

West Indies were 27 for one when rain interrupted play for the second time after they had lost the crucial wicket of skipper Chris Gayle for a duck.

Runako Morton (12 not out) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (12 not out) were at the crease when play was called off.

With this victory, India registered only their second bilateral series triumph in the Caribbean. Last time they won a series in West Indies was in 2002 under Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy.

India had earlier won the first match of the series by 20 runs, while West Indies came back strongly in the second, hammering the Dhoni-led side by eight wickets.

However riding on Dhoni’s brilliance, India took the unassailable 2-1 lead, winning the third ODI by six wickets with a ball to spare.

Electing to field, Ishant Sharma gave India the dream start, picking up the vital wicket of Gayle in the second ball of the innings, caught behind by Dhoni with the hosts failing to open their account.

From there on, the West Indian batsmen found runs hard to come by against the accurate bowling of Ishant and Ashish Nehra. The hosts’ struggle can be gauged from the fact they failed to struck a single boundary in the 7.3 overs they faced.

India would be aiming to notch up only their second ODI series triumph in the Caribbean when they take on the West Indies in the fourth and final one-dayer in St Lucia on Sunday.

The thrilling six-wicket triumph in the rain-truncated third one-dayer has given India a 2-1 lead in the series and a win on Sunday would give the team a second series triumph in the Caribbean and partly make amends for the early exit from the Twenty20 World Cup in England.

The last time India won an ODI series in West Indies was 2002 when Sourav Ganguly led them to a 2-1 triumph in a five-match series, two games of which were abandoned due to rain.

But the hosts extracted revenge in 2006 when they hammered the Rahul Dravid-led Indians 1-4.

In the ongoing series, the visitors, under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, have not been too convincing.

The hosts almost chased down the over 300 runs target that the Indians had set in the first match.

The next game was total humiliation for Dhoni’s men when pace surprise Ravi Rampaul exploited the Indian susceptibility against the short ball and wrecked havoc with a career-best four-wicket haul.

The visitors were humbled by eight wickets before scraping through in the final over to win the third match on Friday.

Had it not been for Dhoni’s last-over heroics, the team might just have ended on the losing side in a match where target was revised twice after five rain interruptions in all.

“Overall, I am quite happy with the performance,” said Dhoni.

“When it comes down to the wire it can go either way, the most important thing is that you have game breakers and match-winners in at that situation,” added coach Gary Kirsten.

The West Indies have been no less inconsistent and have been expectedly relying too heavily on skipper Chris Gayle in batting.

But the likes of Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan have also made their presence felt with crucial contributions.

The bowlers, though, came in for mild criticism from Gayle on Friday as the skipper felt they weren’t aggressive enough in the lost match.

The likes of Rampaul and Jerome Taylor, who peppered the Indians with short balls in Kingston, failed to get much out of the wicket.

The hosts would be desperate for a win to prevent India from taking the full honours.

For the Indians, a win on Sunday would help them bury the demons of their Twenty20 World Cup debacle and silence some of the criticism that followed the disastrous campaign in England.

A series triumph would also be a personal high for Dhoni after being under fire for his poor leadership during the Twenty20 World Cup, where his defending champion team failed to even make the semifinals.

The wicketkeeper-batsman has been in good touch with the bat, winning the match of the match award yesterday, and would want to cap it off by lifting the trophy.

The Caribbean has never been much of a happy hunting ground for the Indians where they have won just seven of the 23 matches played.

And it remains to be seen if Dhoni’s men add another one to that small tally of wins against a side, that has begun to recover from the more-than-a-decade-long slump that had followed world domination.

The teams (from):

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Yusuf Pathan, Murali Vijay, Subramaniam Badrinath, Rudra Pratap Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Ravindra Jadeja.

West Indies: Chris Gayle (capt), Denesh Ramdin, Lionel Baker, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard Jr, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Runako Morton, Ravi Rampaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor.

The ODI series between West Indies and India draws to a conclusion on Sunday when the 4th and final ODI is played at the wonderful Beausejour Cricket Stadium, St. Lucia. India lead the series 2-1 after a narrow win here on Friday.

A quick re-cap on what’s happened in the series so far:

1st ODI, Sabina Park: India, 339/6 50 overs, West Indies 319 48.1 overs, India won by 20 runs

2nd ODI, Sabina Park: India 188 all out, 48.2 overs, West Indies 192/2 34.1 overs, West Indies won by 8 wickets

3rd ODI, St Lucia: Adverse weather resulted in the 3rd ODI eventually being reduced to 22 overs a side at this venue on Friday. Dhoni won the toss yet again and invited the West Indies to bat.

West Indies posted 186/7 during an innings which included 2 stoppages for rain and then a further stoppage during the Indian innings resulted in India needing 159 to win in 22 overs. Sarwan had top scored for West Indies with 62 off 59 balls whilst Nehra took 3 for 21 in his 5 overs. In reply, India looked to be cruising to victory with Karthik (47) and Gambhir (44) laying a solid foundation. The West Indies bowlers never let India run away with it though and in the end it came down to the last over with India requiring 11 for victory. MS Dhoni smashed a six off Jerome Taylor’s 2nd ball and the Indians were all but home, if not dry. India eventually ran out winners by 6 wickets under the D/L method.

It was tough on the West Indies who had again lost a crucial toss yet the close finish illustrates how little there is between these sides in this series.

After this, the Indian side will no doubt enjoy a 2 month break from cricket before a short triangular tournament prior to the Champions Trophy. We look forward to welcoming them to South Africa in September.

As for West Indies, they will host Bangladesh for 3 test matches, 2 ODI’s and a T20 through July to the early part of August.

Twin half centuries from David Hussey (79) and elder brother Michael (75 not out) fashioned Australia’s six-wicket victory against New Zealand in the fourth ODI as the hosts recorded their second successive win to level the five-match cricket series 2-2 on Tuesday.

Chasing 245, Australia lost Michael Clarke (14) and Ricky Ponting (15) inside 15 overs but the Hussey brothers and Brad Haddin (43) made useful contributions with the bat as the hosts cruised to 247 for four in 48.2 overs.

Earlier, Ross Taylor’s 71-ball 76 and Martin Guptill’s 70-ball 45 helped New Zealand post a modest 244 for eight in their 50 overs after captain Daniel Vettori had won the toss and decided to bat first.

Both the teams now move to Brisbane for the series decider on Friday.

After Clarke and Ponting, who was rushed into the side for the crucial match, departed without making much of an impact, the onus was on Haddin and David to keep Australia in the chase and they did their job with elan.

Haddin added 43 runs with David before running himself out. The setback, however, could not derail Australia’s chase as the Hussey brothers joined hands to guide the hosts towards victory.

In the next 20 overs, the Hussey brothers raised 115 runs that effectively took the match away from New Zealand.

Iain O’Brien denied David his maiden century when the Kiwi pacer castled him in the 45th over but from Australia’s perspective, his 96-ball 79, with six fours came just when the team needed it.

Michael stayed till the end to see the side through and he finished it off in style, hitting a Kyle Mills full-toss for a six. His unbeaten 71-ball 75 included four fours and a couple of sixes.

Earlier after opting to bat first, New Zealand got off to a sedate start. Openers Brendon McCullum (33) and Guptill denied Australia early success but at the same time boundaries were difficult to come by.

Guptill took time before breaking the shackles as he hit Nathan Bracken for a six and hit four boundaries before falling to Mitchell Johnson in the 18th over, having added 69 runs for the opening stand.

It was uncharacteristic batting from McCullum, who could not hit a single four or six before falling to Clarke in the 23rd over.

In between, James Hopes removed Peter Fulton (5) to reduce New Zealand to 86 for three before Taylor and Grant Elliot (26) arrested the slide.

They added 55 runs in the next 11 overs to revive the run rate but Johnson struck again, removing Elliot, to halt their progress.

Craig Cumming (0) and Neil Broom (11) failed to impress either but Taylor found an able partner in Mills (23) and the duo played intelligent cricket to make good use of the batting powerplay.

Mills stunned Johnson by pulling him over square leg for a massive six, while Taylor too struck a couple of over boundaries to swell the tally.

Both teams donated their match fees for the victims of the Victorian bush fire.

India on Thursday created history by recording their ninth One-day win on the trot when they thrashed Sri Lanka by 67-runs in the inconsequential fourth match, riding on Gautam Gambhir’s career-best 150-run knock. The Indian victory also spoiled Muttiah Muralitharan’s party as the Sri Lankan spin wizard became the highest wicket-taker in One-day cricket.

Apart from Gambhir’s scintillating knock captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored 94 to propel India to an imposing 332 for five, after winning the fourth successive toss. The visitors then skittled out the hosts for 265 in 48 overs to take a 4-0 lead in the five match series.

Kumar Sangakkara played a defiant innings of 56 from one end but perished while attempting to put the accelerator button on, in the wake of mounting required run-rate. Indian spinners, led by Pragyan Ojha, bowled in tandem and played an important role in keeping the Sri Lankan scoring rate quite low.

Paceman Irfan Pathan, playing his first match in the series, emerged as the most successful bowler with three wickets while Virender Sehwag and Praveen Kumar took two wickets apiece. The last match of the series will be played on Sunday at the Sinhalese Sports Club and the brief tour will come to an end on February 10 with a Twenty20 match.