India Cricket Team

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Sehwag's fifty puts India on top

Virender Sehwag played some scintillating shots en route his half-century as India  reached 99 for two at tea, in reply to Australia's first innings 333, on second day of the first Test in Melbourne , on Tuesday.


The dashing opener smashed a quickfire 67 before he was bowled off James Pattinson while trying to execute a cover drive without reaching to the line of the ball at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.



Scorecard
Sehwag Quick Fifty lead India's innings
The Indian vice-captain would rue the fact that he could not get a big score despite being dropped twice, on 54 and 58.
On the first occasion, it was David Warner at long on, who failed to latch onto a big hit off Nathan Lyon's bowling and then it was Brad Haddin who needlessly dived to his right when the first slip would have easily collected the catch.
At the tea break Rahul Dravid was unbeaten on 25 while Sachin Tendulkar was on two in pursuit of his 100th international century.
Sehwag batted for 127 minutes and faced 83 balls, hitting seven fours in the process.
Pattinson, the young tearaway quick, was earlier rattled by Sehwag's antics and the two were involved in a verbal duel after the Indian opener pushed the fast bowler for a single. Umpire Marais Erasmus had to step in and calm the two players.
Left-handed opener Gautam Gambhir(3) was the other batsman out as he edged a Ben Hilfenhaus delivery that kicked up and moved away, to Brad Haddin behind the stumps.
Sehwag, typically, played and missed quite often in the initial phase of his knock but also carted some bold strokes which played on to the nerves of the Australians.
Sehwag's booming shots were not seen straightaway but he hit Patterson for a four through the covers in the fifth over to start the counter attack.
The right-hander then carved first-change Peter Siddle over slips which almost went to six at the third man region. He then followed it up with two consecutive fours off the fast bowler -- one smashed through the covers and the second one deliberately steered through the slip cordon.
Sehwag took a fancy of off-spinner Nathan Lyon, introduced early in the innings, and twice flayed him down the ground for boundaries. The first such shot brought up his half-century off 59 balls with five fours.
The Delhi opener, who completed 8,000 runs in Test cricket during his innings, then dragged a drive off Lyon which almost carried to David Warner at long-on. In the very next over, he edged Pattinson but wicketkeeper Haddin couldn't hold on to the chance on to his right.
Just before the tea break, Pattinson again roared up in appeal for a catch to forward short leg but it was clear the ball had gone off the thigh of Sehwag.
Dravid went about his business quietly at the other end. He began with a classy thrust off his pads to midwicket fence off Pattinson but the second one came after a while when he edged one off Peter Siddle between the slips.
Tendulkar walked in to a standing ovation from the goodish MCG crowd but nearly disappointed them when he played the part-time medium-pace of Mike Hussey uppishly and almost into the hands of short mid-wicket fielder.
The Australian pace bowlers bowled in very good area in the half an hour before tea and beat Dravid on a number of occasions.

India's last cricket frontier


India are beginning a grinding four-Test cricket series against Australia in Melbourne. Sports writer Suresh Menon here covers the prospects for the Indian team, which has never won a Test series in Australia.
Zaheer With his New Look
Not since 1977-78, when a full Indian team was expected to thrash an Australian outfit weakened by the Kerry Packer defections, has there been so much hope in the Indian camp as there is now.
Back then India lost the first two Tests narrowly and won the next two with thumping margins before losing the decider.
"We should have won 5-0," said ace spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, who claimed 28 wickets, 12 in the Melbourne Test with figures of six for 52 in each innings.
It was a rag-tag Australian outfit, led by Bobby Simpson, who had been recalled a decade after retiring from the game.
History clearly is not in India's favour.
Inspired or deflated?
India might have the superior batting, but this series hinges on which team is more capable of taking 20 wickets to win a Test.
Zaheer Khan apart - and no-one knows what his level of fitness is or whether he will even last the series - this is the most inexperienced bowling attack India has fielded in at least six decades.
If that spurs the likes of Ravichander Ashwin or Umesh Yadav, talented bowlers but in alien conditions, it will be a series to savour.

Australia's bowling attack is also certainly weakened, with new star Pat Cummins unfit.Adding to India's confidence is Australia's recent loss to New Zealand in the Hobart Test, which revealed their own lack of experience and extended the career of Ricky Ponting.

The question is: will the loss in Hobart make Australia a more dangerous side or will it drag the team further down the corridor of uncertainty they have been inhabiting in recent weeks and months?
Sport is strange that way.
A loss can either inspire or deflate a team. Champion teams tend to be motivated by defeat, but Australia haven't been champions for some time now, and it will be interesting to see how they react.
A week before this Boxing Day Test, Ponting turned 37. Both Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are a couple of years older, but the Indians continue to be the pillars of the batting.
The last time India travelled, they were knocked over by England in every match; India struggled once Zaheer Khan pulled out with injury in the first Test, and discovered that nothing succeeds like failure.
Lambs abroad
Thanks to the recent victories against England and the West Indies at home (the former admittedly in a one-day series), the smile is back on the face of the Indian tiger.
But tigers at home, lambs abroad - the story of Indian cricket for many years, has come back to haunt them.
Nevertheless, the leading players know this is their last chance to be part of a series win in Australia.
For the past decade and a half this has been one of the leading India teams of all time.Even when the team was anointed No 1 in the world, there was a nagging incompleteness: India had never won a series in Australia.
There was the series win in Pakistan, victories in England and the West Indies, and the World Cup.
A few things have to fall into place, though, to cross the Australia frontier.
India haven't fully got over their first-Test blues on tour; they tend to lose the inaugural encounter and then find it impossible to get back into the series.
They should have won the last two series in Australia, but managed only a draw under Sourav Ganguly and despite winning a Test under Anil Kumble, lost the series.
Much will also depend on how the rival skippers, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Michael Clarke, handle their resources.
Clarke has the story of Bobby Simpson to inspire him; Dhoni has the chance to correct a historical anomaly when the better team lost some three and a half decades ago.

 
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