Cricket

West Indies bowlers bowled their heart out and almost dominated the opening day of the first Test against India. In fact, if it was not for the valiant counter-attack worth 146 runs from Suresh Raina (84) and Harbhajan Singh (70), India would have ended the day on an extremely embarrassing note. Instead, the visitors managed to claim a wicket and keep Darren Sammy’s side 212 runs behind at close of play.

India did manage to win the toss but it was Ravi Rampaul who snared the openers early on to seize the early initiative. Murali Vijay (8) became his first victim while debutant Abhinav Mukund (11)was cleaned up soon after.  India’s top-order looked ill at ease as VVS Laxman (12) surrendered to Devendra Bishoo and Virat Kohli (4) edged one behind off Fidel Edwards. The break for lunch would not have left the Indians with much of an appetite with the score on 69 for 4.

Though Rahul Dravid did manage to add 40 runs to his Test statistics, it was ended abruptly by Bishoo with India now totering at 83 for 5. In walked skipper MS Dhoni and played all of a single delivery before he was sent back by Bishoo who now looked unforgiving.

It was now that Raina and Harbhajan got together and the duo looked edgy at first but soon settled in. Harbhajan raced to his half-century despite coming in after his partner and his eventual score of 70 came off just 74 deliveries.

Raina played the mature innings and helped himself to 82 runs off 115 deliveries but once Harbhajan departed, it was mayhem once again. India lost four of it’s remaining wickets for 16 runs as Edwards cleaned up the tail to finish with four wickets.

West Indies replied with a chase that would better be termed as painfully slow rather than watchful. Ishant Sharma  rose to the occasion with the ball and eventually got rid of a tentative Lendl Simmons (3). The other opener in Adrian Barath (26*) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (2*)  denied the Indian bowlers any further success and finished the day with the team score on 34, 212 still remaining before a lead can be mounted.

If Sanath Jayasuriya proved that age is just a number, the Indian team will take comfort from the thought that the International Cricket Council’s rankings are also just a number.

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While it’s a good talking point to see which team is at the top of the charts, and a badge of honour to be called the No. 1 team in the world, what this group is really after is being considered the best team in the world by their peers.

For a while now it was considered difficult to be consistent in ODIs. But the introduction of Twenty20 cricket has made the 50-over game feel like a long-drawn out affair and made people realise that 300 balls is actually a long time for an innings.

On the day before the final at the R Premadasa Stadium, three teams who will play each other in the Champions Trophy shortly were in completely different spaces in world cricket.

Sri Lanka have grown in stature, boast a varied bowling attack, and even the up and down nature of their batting has been papered over in home conditions.

India, after two days of hard practice and two days of back-to-back matches, were in fine tuning mode.

New Zealand, well, they were in coffee shops and swimming pools, shopping malls and restaurants, having failed abjectly to lift their game enough to challenge either of the other teams in this tri-series.

Of India’s players who took part in the matches on Friday and Saturday, only Yuvraj Singh joined the reserves at a net session.

Having fallen to Daniel Vettori’s spin in the first game and failing to come to terms with Lasith Malinga’s pace and swing in the second game, Yuvraj worked on his batting basics. Gary Kirsten, himself a left-handed batsman, fired in hard tennis balls with a tennis racquet, imparting spin and swerve on the ball, getting it to kick awkwardly at times.

As much as Yuvraj worked on blunting dangerous deliveries, he concentrated on leaving alone anything that didn’t threaten his stumps.

Virat Kohli, who batted and bowled in the nets, was the subject of much discussion as it became known that he had been named replacement for Gautam Gambhir despite having been advised eight weeks’ rest by fitness experts at the National Cricket Academy.

Since then Kohli has played for ONGC in the Corporate Trophy, and is demonstrably able to play, even if he is still bothered by a niggle.

It’s not something Mahendra Singh Dhoni will worry about at all, as India looked likely to make no changes to the team that has played the first two matches of the series. If anything they might consider bringing Praveen Kumar into the mix, but neither RP Singh nor Ashish Nehra have bowled themselves out of contention for the final.

Like Anil Kumble before him, Dhoni is one captain who does not care much for talk about rankings or the toss or the weather. Even he was forced to sound a warning: “Once you win the toss you have the game 60 % in your favour. If you score around 270 then you are 80 % sure of winning the game.”

The most crucial aspect of Monday’s final could take place half an hour before a ball is bowled.

Squad

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Rudra Pratap Singh, Amit Mishra, Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar.

Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Malinga Bandara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilina Kandamby, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Dammika Prasad, Thilan Samaraweera, Upul Tharanga, Thilan Thushara

The 2nd ODI in the Natwest Series between England and Australia takes place at Lords on Sunday. The Australians are 1-0 up in the 7 match series after a thrilling win in the opener.

Before we get into the preview, let’s begin with a quick recap of what happened in the 1st ODI at the Oval on Friday.

Callum Ferguson was man of the match, his 71 helped the Aussies to a total of 260 after they were asked to bat first. England were always in the chase but lost momentum as regular wickets fell. In the end, a spirited effort from the impressive Adil Rashid saw them get close, but not close enough. Australia won by 4 runs.

Lords, London

First of all, here’s a link to the weather forecast and bear in mind this is a day game.

England have won 3 of their last 4 ODI’s at Lords. In 2008, the Proteas were beaten by 7 wickets here whilst New Zealand beat the hosts by 51 runs. In 2007 England beat West Indies by 7 wickets and India by 79 runs.

When the sides met here in 2005, a century from Ponting helped Australia canter to a 7 wicket win.

The Toss

In 6 of the last 7 ODI’s the captain wining the toss has chosen to field but his team has only gone on to win the match 3 times.

The Teams

After a close game, both sides may well go in unchanged. Ponting will not return whilst the 4th ODI so Michael Clarke will continue as captain.

The Verdict

By the look of the stats, the toss may not have too much bearing on the result. I think it’s possible that Australia may have more to come as some of their players have played very little cricket but as England got so close to them at Lords, it hardly justifies taking such a short price.

The 3rd ODI takes place at Southampton on Wednesday 9th September and remember we will be previewing all the matches on CricketPulse.

It’s been a tour from hell for Australia so far. Their ICC World Twenty20 campaign (remember that?) lasted all of three days; they then contrived to lose the Ashes despite appearing to dominate all but a handful of (ultimately critical) sessions, and finally over the Bank Holiday, they were denied a bounce-back victory when rain wrote off the first Twenty20 at Old Trafford, before causing a complete washout in the return fixture two days later. Aside from a one-sided thrashing of Scotland in Edinburgh, it’s been slim pickings of late.

But now here’s a chance to claim some belated honours – seven ODIs in London, Southampton, Nottingham and Chester-le-Street, starting with a day/night fixture at The Oval on Friday. England themselves know what succour the 50-over format can provide to losing Ashes campaigns, having rounded off their whitewash tour in 2006-07 by swiping the CB Series – and Australia will not be starting the series from a position anything like as bleak as England’s back then.

The Aussies looked on with amusement as England’s final preparations descended into a football-related farce after Joe Denly was clogged by his team-mate Owais Shah, and their incentive to exact their Ashes revenge is epitomised by the frustration that has been steaming out of Brett Lee’s ears during his banishment from the Test line-up. Should Australia somehow lose this series 5-2 then they will slip behind England in the one-day rankings, but surely they/ve suffered enough indignities, individually and collectively, for one tour?

The last statement Daniel Vettori made after New Zealand snapped their winless streak on tour with a tense victory on Wednesday was that there was still a game to go to clinch the short series. Vettori knows how much confidence his side can take from anything they win on tour.

It was refreshing to see his face light up as he ran towards hat-trick hero Jacob Oram when New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by three runs. It has been a difficult tour for a side inexperienced in subcontinental conditions but the change in personnel for the Twenty20s seems to have infused life.

There is no ignoring the key role Vettori himself played, slowing his pace and teasing with his loop to take 2 for 11 in four overs in a Man-of-the-Match effort, but this was a victory fashioned by more than one or two individuals and that gave Vettori the most pleasure. The batting was shaky but the fielding exceptional, proving decisive in the outcome. A series win beckons, if New Zealand can keep their cool again.

For Sri Lanka, this was their third straight loss in this format, starting from the ICC World Twenty20 final. In all three defeats the batting has been a worry, especially the lack of contributions from the middle and lower-middle order. Kumar Sangakkara was left to rue another batting collapse after Tillakaratne Dilshan’s amazing attack on New Zealand’s bowlers set them on the way to victory. Dilshan aside, Sri Lanka had enough batting firepower but fell to a flurry of loose shots and were not able to forge partnerships. Sangakkara has put the pressure on his batsmen and demanded they evaluate themselves before the final game.

After a Test series in which they were run ragged by Sri Lanka, two Twenty20 internationals will probably be a welcome release for some of the New Zealand players. There is little riding on the outcome of two Twenty20 internationals except perhaps the chance to take an edge into the ensuing 50-over tri-series and New Zealand have been talking serious business in the build-up.

On paper, a promising bat-versus-ball extravaganza is promised in either innings; Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillakaratne Dilshan against Shane Bond – set for an international return – and Daniel Vettori, and, as the teams change over, Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor against Ajantha Mendis and Lasith Malinga. New Zealand will take some confidence from the fact that Muttiah Muralitharan won’t be playing due to injury. Bond’s return adds depth with the ball, so although Sri Lanka have been comfortably superior in recent weeks New Zealand may hope that changes in the coming days.

Failing to win the World Twenty20 in England this summer, having done so well to reach the final, frustrated Sri Lanka and being soundly beaten in the one-off against Pakistan at home was no balm. The last time these two met, during the World Twenty20, Sri Lanka came out with a 48-run win in a pressure situation at Trent Bridge. On that occasion New Zealand were bamboozled by a magical spell of 3 for 9 from Mendis and ousted from a tournament where their batting failed to fire. The way the batsmen have faced spin so far on tour, Vettori will hope history doesn’t repeat itself.

Captain Ricky Ponting’s face turned red when team England clinched the Ashes and Australia were left with no place to hide.

Post Ashes, they are still left with one opportunity to pick up their shattered performance and that will be the first Natwest Twenty20 match against the same archrivals England at Old Trafford on August 30, 2009.

However, the embarrassed and much criticized Australian skipper Ricky Ponting will miss the twenty20 matches, as he went on a short trip to his country. Ponting has also shared his thought of sharing the captaincy with his teammate Michael Clarke for the shorter version of the game.

Team England is certainly on the ninth cloud and will hope to prove the world that the Ashes have not come to them by luck and will so play to win the Twenty20 matches as well.

They will definitely take advantage of the deflated Australian side but considering the fact that this is the shorter form of the game it is difficult to predict the winner. The world knows Australia’s potential to make a strong come back.

So, yet another exciting match is on the cards and the Australians might come charging in this. Let us wait and watch.

For Australia, this match should be as comfortable as a walk around an oval (not The Oval, winning there is much, much harder). It’s their first game since the 2-1 Ashes defeat in London last Sunday and is a warm-up for when they resume their battles with England in a Twenty20 international at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Australia’s squad has changed significantly over the past four days, with Ricky Ponting heading home with the Test specialists, and Brad Haddin having surgery on his broken left ring finger. A batch of fresh faces has arrived to join Michael Clarke, the stand-in captain, as the group starts planning for the bigger tournaments ahead. Ponting will return towards the end of the seven-match one-day series against England to fine tune before the Champions Trophy in South Africa at the end of September.

This will be the first contest between the teams outside a World Cup and is a big occasion for Scotland. They missed out on qualifying for the 2011 global event so have few opportunities to face the game’s major teams. Last Saturday they lost to Ireland in Aberdeen, scoring only 109, so facing the world champions, who are currently ranked No.3, will be even more difficult.

Australia last turned out in a one-day affair against Pakistan in May, but a more relevant gauge is their form in the Twenty20 World Cup. They were knocked out in the first round, just like Scotland.

Pity poor England – Ashes winners one minute, grist to the mill the next. “Not ideal,” is how Paul Collingwood summarised the team’s requirement this week, as they prepared to cleanse their minds of all lingering traces of glory, and get back to the drawing-board in preparation for two Twenty20s and seven ODIs against the all-too-recently vanquished Australians. First-up, however, there is a stop-over in Belfast that might, in days gone by, have represented a convivial way to unwind in a green and pleasant land renowned for its appreciation of a party.

But not in this unstinting professional era. The Irish are the pace-setters of cricket‘s second tier – streets ahead of their traditional rivals, Scotland (who take on the Aussies in Edinburgh on Friday) and itching to put one over the English, for a variety of reasons that extend beyond mere sporting instincts. For starters, there is the likely presence in England’s line-up of Eoin Morgan – a member of the Irish side that captured the imagination at the 2007 World Cup, but now a targeted man after switching his allegiance to further his career. And then there’s the large Australian influence in the squad, all of whom are gunning for vengeance for their mother country, not least the former captain, Trent Johnston.

Sri Lanka lead New Zealand 1-0 as the sides head to the SSC, Colombo for the 2nd and final test match which gets under way on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka’s comprehensive 202 run in Galle has given them control of this short test series. Dilshan has been in superb touch at the top of the order as he amassed a combined total of 215 runs at Galle. Samaraweera and Mahela Jayawardene were other centurions in the 1st test. With the ball, Murali (7) and Thushara (6) have 13 wickets between them. For the Black Caps, captain Vettori with 5 wickets and 109 runs offer most resistance.

The weather threatened to disrupt the 1st test and at one stage the draw was trading deep in the red but the skies cleared to allow Sri Lanka to finish off the Black Caps with plenty of time remaining. The forecast for Colombo is available here and once again showers are forecast so it may be worth punters waiting for television pictures and a reliable weather report from the ground before play.

Sri Lanka have won 3 of the 4 test matches on home soil in the last couple of months and they are a pretty formidable unit. New Zealand were always going to be up against it and their task was made even harder with several key players falling foul of a stomach bug during the 1st test.

The Sinhalese Sorts Club (SSC) in Colombo is a Sri Lankan stronghold. Since losing to England in 2001, 11 of the last 15 test matches have resulted in a Sri Lanka win, Australia won in 2004 and there have been 3 draws. Murali loves it here and after taking 7 wickets in the 1st test, he will once again be dangerous.

The last test match on this ground was only 5 weeks ago. It was the final test match in Pakistan’s tour and ended in a draw with Sri Lanka 101 short of their victory target with 6 wickets remaining. Note, Sri Lanka had already clinched the series.

The last series between these sides came in 06/07 in New Zealand and ended all square 1-1. New Zealand’s last visit to Sri Lanka was back in 2003 and both matches were drawn.

Verdict:

If the weather behaves a Sri Lankan victory once again looks the most likely outcome though as stated earlier, it would be advisable to wait for the weather report from the ground.

Remember to join us for previews of the all the major cricket matches on CricketPulse.