Category Archives: teams

Why is India Losing?

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Ducking Beamers wonders why this (6 consecutive overseas losses) is happening to India. So here goes:

  1. Of the 6 defeats, India could have legitimately won two (the second Test against England and the first against Australia) and perhaps drawn the third ( the first Test against England). So, instead of 0-6, we could have had a 2-3 record which would not have been so bad.
  2. Playing abroad is always tough. Australia has been the graveyard for most teams, and although they were beaten badly by England, they are on the resurgence with a series win in Sri Lanka and coming back to square the series in South Africa. And England were, of course, going to be tough opponents after their success in Australia.
  3. Since India had played (and won) many Tests at home, including against Australia (4 tests out of 6), our expectations were raised higher than usual. Added to this was winning the ODI World Cup, which has nothing to do with the Test team.
  4. India really performed well against Australia only in 2003. The 2008 series could have been worse, but the umpiring and Australia’s behavior in the Sydney Test motivated India to come back strongly. And as people have pointed out, Australia’s bowling did not have Warne or McGrath.

I am not sure if this sounds like excuse making and a whitewash should have been expected. To the contrary, I think what it shows is that a whitewash is not an accurate indication of what this team could have achieved and what the gap between India and her opponents are. But at the same time, it is also remarkable that after a good competitive start, the team has gone into full-blooded surrender mode instead of trying to make a strong comeback (such as the West Indies). The best example of this is Sehwag’s swish that landed him a pair in the 3rd Test against England, but you can find quite a few other examples.

An aside: I see that Mike Hussey still remembers Ishant’s spell to Ponting from all those years back.

It was probably the birth of Ishant Sharma, who bowled unbelievably well in that Test match. I remember a spell to Ricky Ponting, which was just phenomenal bowling.

What is amazing is that apart from the West Indies tour, Ishant has nothing to show for himself after all this time and he is still in the team. A 40+ average in every country other than India, West Indies and Bangladesh does not sound very good for a fast bowler.

After the Whitewash has Dried

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It is a strange thing. The 4-0 defeat has everyone upset and saying that India should learn lessons from the defeat. But what exactly? I am curious.

If it is more tour matches before a big series, shouldn’t India have had better performances as the series progressed? In fact, India had better chances of winning a match in the first and second Tests.

If it is the captaincy, who is there to replace Dhoni? There is no plausible contender. And Sehwag and Gambhir (who could have been) have performed very badly in the series. Maybe he could have got a couple of decisions right and improved his skill against the second new ball, but everybody has a bad series. And this was Dhoni’s first. (OK, a terrible series, but still his first)

If it is the coach, are you going to fire Duncan Fletcher who has just joined the team without giving him the chance to rebuild? And isn’t it his real fault the timing of his joining the team?

If it is the senior players, well, Dravid was the Indian man of the series. And I would like to meet the selection team which has the guts to ax Sachin Tendulkar. As for Laxman, he was fourth in the series batting totals (behind Dravid, Tendulkar and Dhoni).

If it is the openers, any replacement on the horizon for Sehwag and Gambhir? Seriously, is there any player who can be so destructive to the opposition as Sehwag in full flow? But here is a neat idea: As a selector, you can use Mukund as a scapegoat and end his career.

If it was the rest of the batsmen, okay, you have a good point about Raina. But he did play well in the West Indies. And he did make a 78. And if you can forgive Sehwag’s king pair, why not Raina’s pair which at least lasted for 40+ balls and wasted some time? And Yuvraj, seriously? Are you going to blame an injured batsman?

If it was the spin bowling, Harbhajan may not be in the best form during the series. But so was Swann, supposedly the best spinner in the world! And Harbhajan did not get to play at the Oval. And Harbhajan’s lack of batting was more to blame for the defeat, but he is not there as a batsman. And Mishra, are you going to let this experience go to waste?

If it was the “pace” bowling, Praveen Kumar did okay, right? Right? Also, Zaheer is a lucky duck as everyone keeps saying, “What if Zaheer was fit?” And Ishant – are you going to let his promise end at such an early age? Sreesanth? Everybody knows he is a maverick. You don’t select Sreesanth to bowl consistently. You just hope that he is having a lucky day. And RP Singh was never meant to be in the team in the first place.

When you lose 1-0 or even 2-0, there are things you could do differently to have a better result. But when you lose four matches very badly, then there are no incremental improvements. You cannot just throw 3-4 people out of the team and expect better results.

As for radical changes, even that is not possible with this team. India plays Australia this winter and if you try to make some stupid point by throwing out members of the team that played in the last couple of Tests, you could have the potential to end up with another 4-0 result.

I would say that the only possible solution is to keep the team intact, and work to mentally and physically prepare them for the next challenge, and wish them all the best.

India Batting Depth

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While writing my post on India chases, I wondered how much depth India does have in its batting ranks. India is known for its strong batting lineup. So I thought I would take a graphical look at the most recent matches starting from the first World Cup match against Bangladesh and continuing to the latest match against West Indies. The big caveat being that many team members are missing from the squad after the World Cup.

What this shows is that the top order has mostly done its work. If you look at the World Cup batting aggregates, Tendulkar (482), Gambhir  (393) and Sehwag (380) lead. The better averages belong to Yuvraj and Raina, but primarily because of the not-outs. We don’t have many data points beyond the 6th wicket partnership, but among those, very few have been significant. In fact 2 matches (the one against the Pakistan and the 3rd ODI against WI) have all but one of the 20+ partnerships beyond the 6th wicket.

During this period, there have been a few collapses of the lower order too. India made 33 for the last 6 wickets against England, 29 runs for 8 wickets against South Africa, and 36 for 5 against West Indies in the World Cup, not to mention the disappointing performances by the lower order in the last two matches against the West Indies. India needs to do a lot more work to have a deep batting lineup that extends beyond the middle order.

On another note, you can find examples where the middle order has rescued India from a top order failure. But it is important to realize that the middle order (No. 5 and No. 6) are supposed to be people who can bat. And they are there to contribute to the team. If a team never fails to make a score when its top 3 fail, then that is a strange team indeed. It doesn’t mean that a team bats deep.

The Sad Plight of New Zealand Cricket

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New Zealand slumped to another miserable Test defeat against the Sri Lankans. I don’t know if you can call a 2-0 defeat in a 2-Test series a whitewash, but that is exactly what happened. At no point in either match did the Kiwis have any hope of winning the match. It was just a matter of when they would give up the fight.

Winning in Sri Lanka is never easy, but this has been a long slump in the fortunes of the New Zealand team. Ignoring Bangladesh, they are probably tied with West Indies at the bottom of the Test nations ladder. Unlike the West Indies, who have shown some resurgence in their non-striking team, New Zealand seem to be going from bad to worse.

This was bound to happen at some point. The problem with New Zealand is that they are a small nation (in area and population), but for a long time, overperformed because of their status as a developed nation with better infrastructure. This even though the playing season in New Zealand is truncated because of weather conditions during the winter.

Now, as the Indian subcontinent (India mostly, but also Sri Lanka and Pakistan) become more developed, the edge enjoyed by New Zealand has been wiped out by the sheer number of cricket players available in the former countries. Numbers are not enough, but statistically speaking, you will find better talent if there are more players.

That is the reason why the United States and China enjoy dominance at the Olympics, and why India, Australia and South Africa dominate cricket. It is a combination of population and GDP. What we will see is the continued fall of countries like New Zealand and West Indies. England seems to be an anamoly, but that is perhaps because the major English sport today is soccer, not cricket.

Make Ireland a Test Team

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Zimbabwe became a Test team after winning a match against England in the 1992 World Cup.

Bangladesh became a Test team after winning a match against Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup.

Ireland beat Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup, beat Bangladesh in the 2009 T20 World Cup and have been generally giving all their opponents major heartaches when they play against them. Latest piece of evidence: their near victory against England a couple of days ago.

So why is Ireland still an Associate Nation?

Has this to do with the fact that Ireland is in Europe and not part of the Sub-Continent Cricket Mafia? Will Nepal and Bhutan get Test status before Ireland?

Needless to say, this is ridiculous. If Bangladesh can go years without winning or even drawing Test matches, why cannot the ICC grant Ireland Test status and prevent its players from leaving to England and other nations?

Spread the word!

Why It is Difficult to Respect Sri Lankan Players

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99.94 has some praise for Thilan Samaraweera who has notched his second century of the series. Samaraweera’s average stands at 52.25, a figure that would find him a place among the great batsmen of all time. That is, if he had actually done something against a strong team.

Here are his “away” averages against a few teams:

22.66 in Australia
10.50 in India
4.25 in England
Never played in South Africa

His overall averages against Australia are 31.22 and against South Africa (2 home Tests) are 24.66. Compare that with 66.66 against Bangladesh, 84.66 against Zimbabwe, and 83.33 against New Zealand, against whom he has played 31% of all his Test matches. Also a home average of 59.29 versus 44.80 playing away.

This is just an example of the inflated averages of the Sri Lankan players. Take Jayawardene who made his debut in 1997. In 12 years, he has played a total of 4 Tests in Australia and 5 in South Africa. Sangakkara (started in 2000) has played only 6 Tests (both home and away) in almost a decade. Compare that with Tendulkar who has played almost 49 Tests against Australia and South Africa in two decades.

Sri Lanka have shown improved results when compared to the ’90s, but much of it has been at the expense of weak teams like Bangladesh & Zimbabwe, and others who have been declining, like West Indies and New Zealand. They have yet to perform credibly against Australia, South Africa and India.

They may well get there, but so far Sri Lanka has done nothing to justify the high rankings of their team or the high averages of their players.

Homework for the Sri Lankans

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Win or lose the current Test against Pakistan, Sri Lankans have a lot to think about for future series.

  1. What will be their spin attack when Murali comes back? Will it be Herath or Mendis? The Lankans left out the out-of-form Mendis, but Herath has gone missing in this Test with 0/76 and 2/113 so far. Herath’s overall Test record is a miserable 48 wickets in 17 Tests at 37.04 and if you leave out his performances in the first two Tests of this series, it would be much worse. Mendis, of course, has been horrible with his 6 wickets against Pakistan coming at an average of 65.83. From the mystery spinner to the missing spinner, it is quite a drop for him.

  2. Sri Lanka did not cross 300 in any of their innings in this series. The batsmen were shielded by the bowlers who saved them each time Pakistan threatened to win a Test. As usual, Sangakkara and Jayawardene have been among the top run-makers. Sri Lanka cannot continue to keep relying on just two batsmen to produce the goods against the stronger Test teams.

  3. It was a nice gesture to give Vaas a final match, but it will probably cost them the Test and an opportunity to make a strong statement by a 3-0 series victory. The Sri Lanka selectors have to be tougher than that. What if the series had been at 1-1? I know this is not going to happen, but at some point in the past, they should have had a talk with Vaas and told him he was no longer going to play a part in international Test cricket.

  4. Sri Lanka should not fool themselves with the final outcome of this series. They were outplayed several times during the Tests and they just about managed to escape when Pakistan let go of its advantage. Against a stronger team like Australia or South Africa, that would be fatal. Worse, they were outplayed at home. I know they have always struggled against Pakistan at home, but they have to worry if it is going to be an ongoing trend.

  5. It is not clear whether the better performances by some Sri Lankan players is an indication of their so-far hidden talent or is a flash in the pan. We already talked about Herath. Now consider Kulaskera with 16 wickets in 3 Tests in this series. Before it, he had only taken 5 wickets in 6 Tests. Thushara 12 wickets in this series after spending 4 years in the wilderness. Paranavitana has done nothing in his career except for those two knocks in the Galle Test. If they can replicate some of their good performances in this series in the future, Sri Lanka will do well. But otherwise, Sri Lanka will continue to have passengers that will break them against the tougher Test nations.

John Dyson Cost the West Indies A Series Win

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cricket-ground2

It took the final match to understand how big a MISTAKE John Dyson made by misunderstanding the Duckworth-Lewis calculations in the first match of the ODI series between England and West Indies. If the West Indies had won or tied the first game, they would have easily won the series.

Even though England technically won the series, they did not win any match that was not rain-curtailed. The West Indians acquited themselves commendably in all the matches, even the last one, where they were in the chase for a considerable period of time.

As the tour ends, the West Indies have much to cheer. They won the Test series – a victory against a major Test-playing nation after a long time. They won the one-off T20 match. They would have won the ODI series if it hadn’t been for a self-inflicted wound. They fought as equals against the English team, who were unable to dominate them, except during for a few batting marathons during the Test.

For England, this was a tour to forget. They had been playing catch-up against the West Indians in all forms of the game. Against one of the more innocuous attacks in world cricket, they embarrassed themselves by getting bowled out for 51 (in the first Test) and 117 (in the 3rd ODI). Flintoff’s hattrick was one of the few good moments they had.

Despite England’s troubles, Andy Strauss’s captaincy is not in danger. Above all, There is No Alternative. Pietersen, Collingwood and Flintoff have been tried and failed. And Strauss has been in good form, hitting 3 centuries in the Tests, winning one ODI with his batting and almost winning another with a century.

West Indies have a return tour against England before the Ashes. In typical times, that would have given some comfort to the England team, gaining some confidence before the formidable Aussies arrive. Now, it is another round of pain for them.

[Photo licensed from mugley]

When will the Kiwis Stop Making Excuses for Their Top Order?

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New Zealand were saved from a terribly embarrassing score by being rescued from the depths of 6 for 60 to a respectable, if hardly intimidating, total of 279. Daniel Vettori and Ryder played well, scoring centuries each, though the latter with little help from the clueless O’Brien who almost sold his partner down the river by getting stumped out. Apparently O’Brien was looking for a single, though why he felt the need to leave his crease blows my mind.

The Kiwi’s habit of having Vettori be the superstar batsman in addition to leading the team and bowling the most overs is, to be very kind, crazy as bats. It reminds me of India in the early 1990′s, boasting the supposedly best batting lineup in the world, but having to be rescued each time by Kapil Dev and the tail to worry the scorers. New Zealand seems to be in the same state now, with Vettori and McCullum the best batsmen in the team.

The problem with these kind of rescue innings is that it diverts attention from the ineffectiveness of the players who are supposed to perform. If New Zealand wins this match, which is a real possibility, the batting collapse will be brushed under the carpet and the team never improves. And one day, the lower order does not rescue the team, there is an ignominious collapse (England’s 51), all hell breaks loose and there are no ready replacements.

In the Kiwi’s favor, maybe we should say that perhaps the wicket was sticky and India did put them in. Still it is an old story that keeps repeating, and New Zealand has to recognize that to improve as a team. Now, if they could only get Shane Bond back…

The Future of Afghanistan: Cricket

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Kabul during the Afghan War

Via CorSullivan, we have the incredible tale of the Afghan cricket team which may qualify for the 2011 World Cup:

When the British marched into Afghanistan in 1838, they brought polo mallets, fox hounds and cigars. They brought imperial hubris, bone china and cases of port. But the players of the Great Game also brought a great game: cricket.

One hundred and seventy-one years later, cricket has returned here, an outpost of the world’s most civilised sport in one of the world’s most brutal places. Today, the Afghan national cricket team opens its 2009 campaign to secure a place at the Cricket World Cup in 2011, having already won two qualifying tournaments last year. That this stricken, blood-soaked country should be able to field a cricket team at all, let alone one as successful as this, is an astonishing achievement: it is a story of endurance and passion, and of the strange power of sport to transcend politics and war. [...]

If Afghanistan is a nation full of despair, its cricket team is a rare beacon of hope. The players will tell you that they feel their country has been let down on so many levels by the international community. On that green stretch of grass in Argentina today, at least, it’s Afghanistan’s chance to nudge the balance sheet. Pride is the word that the countless fans and well-wishers have used, again and again, in postings on the team’s Facebook page. Says one supporter, Ahmad: “Loins of Afghanistan, proud of you all… I have a wish, that is to show the world that we can beat you.” Or, in the words of the captain, Nowroz Mangal, “Cricket is not just a sport. It is much, much more.”

[Read the entire post]

Adnan Khan, writing on Macleans, says:

A decade ago, if anyone even mentioned Afghan cricket, they would have been the laughingstock of the cricketing community. “Afghans play buzkashi,” cricket snobs around the world might have said derisively, referring to Afghanistan’s national sport in which men on horseback battle to carry a goat carcass over an opposing team’s goal line. “Cricket is too refined a game for them.” What most people didn’t realize at the time was that Afghan refugees living in the impoverished camps of Peshawar on the Pakistani frontier were developing a love for Pakistan’s own national pastime.

Across the border in Afghanistan, the Taliban regime had banned cricket along with any other sport, including buzkashi. Only in Pakistan could Afghan cricketers express their desire to learn the game, as well as showcase their talent for it. Now, since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Afghan cricketers have risen to the rank of golden boys in the cricketing world, turning heads from Malaysia to Tanzania. Their most recent triumph at the 2009 Division 3 World Cup qualifying tournament in Buenos Aires has propelled them up the world rankings to a level nearly on par with Canada’s own national team.

In the last few years, the Iraq War has grabbed all our attention. But once in a while, articles like these bring back us to what is happening in this landlocked country that has been plagued by violence in the past three decades.  The Afghans are a proud nation, but they remain divided. The influence of a national sport like cricket can help unite them in the way that the 3Cs – Cinema (Bollywood), Cricket and Congress (the Indian National Congress) helped unite the fledgling India after independence.

Qualifying for the World Cup and having their team have an extended run by beating a few giants can improve the country more than the entire NATO force. The armed forces should flood the country with TV’s that can access free satellite coverage of the cricket World Cup. Our best wishes are with these brave players from a land that is struggling to find its identity.