• Recently Written

  • Flintoff: I won’t overdo it
  • Ferdinand ruled out for six weeks
  • Strauss nutty about KP return
  • Hughes: Given is the best!
  • Benitez: We must win in Lyon
  • Pieterson: Injury break a blessing
  • Mascherano: Let’s start again
  • Liverpool chief stands by Benitez
  • Rooney: Ronaldo is irreplaceable
  • England reveal South Africa squads

• Categories

  • Cricket
  • Football
  • Formula One
  • Golf
  • Olympics
  • Others
  • Rugby
  • Tennis
  • Uncategorized
• 
  

  Archives

  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008

Given that there were still 68 overs to be bowled when the teams finally took to the field, you could scarcely blame India for batting on. After a week when seemingly insurmountable targets have been achieved with ludicrous ease, there was no point taking any chances. An hour of batting made a lot of sense, and in that time Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir rattled off 82 in just 13 overs. At lunch, with the lead 367, there was no way England could win. Even Vivian Richards and Collis King would have struggled with such an asking rate.

So when the Indian batsmen reemerged after lunch, the sense of disbelief was palpable. What was the purpose? To make the game safe, when it was more secure than a hilltop castle surrounded by 12 moats? To rub it in, when the two batsmen had done enough of it in the first hour of play? Or to lapse back to former Indian type and shamelessly pursue individual records?

The 10 overs that followed told you what you needed to know. Only 35 runs were scored. Thankfully, neither batsman scored a century. Yuvraj was run out by a direct hit from short fine leg and Gambhir sliced one uppishly to point. At that point, the declaration was applied. England had 43 overs to get 403 runs. Piece of cake.

There’s no guarantee that India could have bowled out England in 55 overs after lunch. But given the winning culture that’s taken root this season, and the fact that the last six English wickets added just 22 in the first innings, it was certainly worth a go.

At Bangalore last December, Anil Kumble bowled seam-up and Pakistan were seven down within 48 overs when bad light saved their blushes.

It came down to priorities. What mattered more? The chance, however slim, to win a Test match? Or utterly meaningless second-innings centuries for two of your batsmen? Of course, they would have mattered to Gambhir and Yuvraj, who have just seven hundreds between them, but in the context of the game, they would have meant nothing. Only someone obsessed with statistics would consider such a hundred worthy of consideration. Those that know anything about the game would tell you how a match-turning 83 [Sehwag in Chennai] is infinitely more valuable.

It’s a shame that a team that has encouraged such selfless cricket fell into the selfishness trap in Mohali. Dhoni himself cares little for personal milestones. Time after time, when quick runs have been needed, he has come in and sacrificed his wicket in their pursuit. That attitude must permeate right through the team.

Gambhir batted 577 balls in this Test match, almost as many as Rahul Dravid faced in Adelaide [616]. One match is unlikely to be remembered even 12 months from now. The other will never be forgotten as long as India plays cricket. That should tell you something. Centuries don’t matter. Victories do. By denying itself the chance to accomplish what mattered by pursuing what didn’t, Indian cricket let millions of fans down today. It wasn’t how such a great year should have ended.

As expected, the Mohali Test petered out to a draw with Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh getting some functional but meaningless batting practice on a hollow final day. Neither got to their centuries and India’s declaration left England a hypothetical 403 to win or, more pragmatically, 44 overs to bat.

Ishant Sharma removed Alastair Cook cheaply, but that was as good as it got for India - Ian Bell and Andrew Strauss denied them further success, batting out the remainder of the Test.

The fourth innings was but a formality. Cook nicked Ishant Sharma to VVS Laxman at second slip, and an out-of-form Bell poked and prodded, shuffled and swayed against pace and spin to accompany Strauss to the close. The match was dissolving into a farce when Mahendra Singh Dhoni brought himself on to bowl slow dibbly-dobblers, after which the umpires called off play.

Resuming on 134 for 4, India added 82 without fuss in a truncated 13-over morning session after thick fog delayed play by two-and-a-half hours. Gambhir and Yuvraj started cautiously before opening up with a range of aggressive strokes, Yuvraj fetching himself three sixes.

By the time lunch was taken, India’s run rate for the morning was well over six and the way Yuvraj, especially, and Gambhir were batting, it appeared a spent England were cruising towards a bruising. Instead the two batsmen came out of the interval quite content to bide their time, but England snapped up three wickets.

If Bell’s demolition of the stumps yesterday snubbed Virender Sehwag before he could ignite, his direct hit cut Yuvraj short of a century. Yuvraj swept the ball towards short fine leg and Bell swooped in to nail down the stumps with an accurate throw after Yuvraj had turned back.

Eight deliveries later, England saw the back of Dhoni, who handed Monty Panesar his easiest wicket on a thoroughly disappointing tour. Bell then stunningly intercepted a loose cut to his left at backward point, leaving Gambhir short of his hundred by three runs and prompting India to declare.

For practical purposes, it should have happened earlier, after Yuvraj and Gambhir batted England out of contention. India had dug themselves into a pattern of nervous watchfulness yesterday afternoon, their strenuous approach numbing a sparse crowd into a coma, but Yuvraj’s sparkling innings before stumps had livened up proceedings.

This morning, as the gloom steadily cleared, Yuvraj carried on in the same vein and succeeded in drawing some aggression from Gambhir too, whose bat had attracted barnacles on day four.

Yuvraj grabbed the initiative with a medley of punchy drives and slogs, including one particularly disdainful six off James Anderson. The last couple of Yuvraj’s sixes came against his old sparring partner Broad and recalled images of that famous over in Durban, when he hit six in a row.

First came an audacious shot, a front-foot, flat-batted bludgeon over mid-on, and then a scoop over backward point. Broad then bowled a clever wide yorker which Yuvraj edged to third man for a single, and Gambhir saw out the over.

India’s decision to come out after lunch will draw plenty of debate. The two set batsmen had already shoved England into a deep corner, and it appeared the only reason to continue batting was to hunt individual records.

In the end, neither Gambhir nor Yuvraj raised landmarks while India scored just 35 runs in the last 10 overs. After the thriller in Chennai, it was the weather, ultimately, that scuppered what could have been a great Test.

England have cut short the ongoing one-day series against India following Wednesday’s terrorist strikes in Mumbai and will fly back home on Saturday morning. However, Lalit Modi, the head of the BCCI’s fixtures committee, and Hugh Morris, the ECB’s managing director, both confirmed the Test series would still go ahead.

“The Test series will go ahead, and there is no problem with that,” Modi told Cricinfo. “We are sure the first Test will go ahead as scheduled in Ahmedabad [from December 14]. But there is a problem over hosting the second Test in Mumbai [from December 19]. The ECB wants the Test to be shifted to southern India, we are exploring all options.”

Bangalore and Chennai are among the venues being considered and Modi said a final decision would be taken in the next 24 hours after discussions with the ground authorities.

However the England cricketers’ association chief Sean Morris said the players will take a decision based on reports from their security advisors. “They will look at it in the cold light of day and ask, is it safe to return or not?” Morris was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph. “They will go with that advice assuming the situation in India does not deteriorate further. The players have full faith in Reg Dickason [England team security officer] and will be guided by him.”

The decision to postpone the remaining two ODIs of the seven-match series was taken during a meeting between BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, England’s managing director Morris, and the Indian team management in Bhubaneshwar. England did not travel to Guwahati on Thursday as scheduled and will remain in Bhubaneshwar overnight before flying to Bangalore, where they will spend Friday night, before boarding a plane home on Saturday.

“It’s very, very real and emotions are very high. It’s a sensitive time. The home environment is where the players should be for a few days,” Hugh Morris told Sky Sports News. “The Test matches are in place and, unless we get security advice to the contrary, they will be going ahead.”

The Indian team, which had a meeting mid-day, was informed by the BCCI about England’s position. “We have been told England are going back home. So we are going to our homes,” Venkatesh Prasad, India’s bowling coach, told Cricinfo. As of now, the Indian team has been asked to assemble in Ahmedabad on December 8, three days before the scheduled start of the first Test start against England.

The ICC said they had “no role to play in the current situation” regarding the England tour of India. “The arrangements for the tour itself is strictly a bilateral matter,” an ICC spokesperson said. “The only time we would play a part is if there is a disagreement between the boards about whether the tour would proceed or not. In that case there would be a security assessment binding with the two boards.”

England’s High Performance squad’s tour has also been called off and the players, currently training in Bangalore, will travel home immediately. The squad, which includes Michael Vaughan, Monty Panesar and Andrew Strauss, was scheduled to reach Mumbai on December 3 to play a practice game and train with the England Test side.

The strikes, including blasts and shooting incidents, were spread out across the city but the majority of them were in south Mumbai, the main tourist hub. In the early hours of Thursday morning, a major blaze was sweeping through the Taj Mahal hotel, a city landmark and the scene of one such attack, which was to host the two Test teams and was where the England side stayed during their warm-up period in Mumbai.

It is also where Middlesex were set to check-in on Thursday for their Champions League fixtures. Middlesex were due to leave London for Mumbai at 10am on Thursday to prepare for the Champions League but postponed their departure by 24 hours after being told that matches scheduled for Mumbai would be switched to Bangalore.

The Brabourne Stadium, venue of the second Test and scheduled to host three Champions League games, is in the middle of the area where most attacks have taken place. It is also the vicinity where most foreign tourists are likely to stay.

Cricket concerns are secondary in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai. Discussions surrounding the immediate future of the ongoing England tour of India and upcoming Champions League Twenty 20 are concerns for later. Now the organisation is focusing on more important matters than cricket.

Middlesex skipper Shaun Udal has confirmed Middlesex will not be travelling to Mumbai for the Champions League Twenty20, after terrorists launched a series of deadly attacks in the Indian city.

Udal and his team were due to fly out to Mumbai tomorrow morning to take part in the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League.

Their first match of the lucrative competition was due to take place in Mumbai a week today against Australian side Victoria Bushrangers, but Udal confirmed they will not fly out as planned in the wake of the attacks.

“All we know is that our flights have been cancelled in the morning,” Udal told Sky Sports News.

“We were due to fly out from Heathrow at 10 o’clock and we had a call tonight to say that those plans were now cancelled.”

Udal added that the three group matches due to take place in Mumbai will be moved to Bangalore.

England had also planned to use the hotel, where international cricket teams usually stay while on tour, during the second Test against India next month.

Cricket Australia have suspended all travel to India while it takes security advice, a decision which leaves the Victoria Bushrangers and Western Australia Warriors - the two Australian teams due to compete in the elite Twenty20 tournament - as well as several Australian cricketers who are due to play for Indian teams, such as Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden and Mike Hussey, in limbo.Warne stopped his flight to India in Singapore where he is now on an extended stopover.

An official from the Board of Control for Cricket in India is quoted as saying: “This has been a terrible day for India but at the moment it’s far too early to talk about cancelling England’s tour or the Champions League.”

With the two remaining ODIs against India already cancelled, the England cricket team have said they will not make a decision about whether to remain on tour until they have been fully briefed by the Foreign Office, but it is understood that the issue will be discussed at a team meeting later on Thursday.

Worries are also reflected by Cricket Australia in its instructions to players not to travel to India for the time being. A Cricket Australia spokesman said: “In circumstances like these it always takes at least 12 hours for details to emerge, and we will review all information available.” In the meantime, CA has put a hold on all cricket-related travel to India - hence Warne’s extended stay in Singapore.

The Cricket Australia chief executive Paul Marsh added: “We are shocked, and we have contacted all relevant experts in a bid to learn more about the situation. The teams are due to leave on Saturday, so we have to make a decision pretty quickly.”

An ­organisation calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed to be behind the attacks.

England need big scores in India if the tourists are to turn around a 3-0 deficit in the seven-match one-day series, captain Kevin Pietersen said on Friday.

“We knew coming to India we needed to score hundreds to stay competitive and we have not got a hundred yet,” Pietersen said. “Hopefully in the next four games we can try and get four.”

England were outplayed in the first two matches after scintillating centuries from Indian left-hander Yuvraj Singh, before losing a closer contest in Kanpur on Thursday under the Duckworth-Lewis system due to bad light.

The tourists must win Sunday’s day-night game in Bangalore to stay alive in the series that precedes next month’s two Test matches.

“Playing against spin is definitely something England’s cricketers need to work on,” Pietersen said. “We have played in India for years now and there have only been a few centuries by England batsmen out here.

“Unfortunately, playing in India you need to score big runs and when you get in you have got to get hundreds.”

Pietersen’s 63 in the first match at Rajkot is the highest score by an England batsman so far in the series, while Ravi Bopara has scored two half-centuries and Owais Shah one.

In contrast, Yuvraj’s hundreds at Rajkot and Indore have been backed by five half-centuries from the hosts.

However, the South African-born Pietersen was confident all was not lost for the tourists.

“We are certainly getting closer,” he said.

“I think if we had a full game in Kanpur, we would have definitely taken it close. We put a lot of pressure on them and there was plenty of aggression from the bowlers.

“But the thing we need to learn is that once we get a start, we should get hundreds. I am sure if we do that, we will be very competitive for the rest of the series.”

India, chasing England’s 240 at Kanpur on Thursday, were 198-5 in 40 overs when bad light stopped play and left the hosts winners by 16 runs under the D/L system.

The next two games in Bangalore and Cuttack are day-night matches but Pietersen fears a repeat of Kanpur when the sixth one-dayer is played in the north-eastern city of Guwahati, where daylight hours are shorter, on November 29.

“They will have to do something about Guwahati,” the England captain said.

“We are going to start there at 8.30am but that will still not make too much of a difference. It could get dark there by 3.30pm.”

When England last visited Guwahati on the previous tour in 2006, the one-day international was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to overnight rain.

Under fire for the way they conducted the Kanpur ODI, which had to be decided by the Duckworth/Lewis method, the umpires have hit back.

The Kanpur ODI started late and ended early amid fading light with India winning by 16 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method.

Umpires Russell Tiffin and Ameish Sahiba were blamed for the farcical end by a fuming British media, which said the officials’ decision to shorten the match by just one over a side after a 45-minute delay lacked common sense.

Stung by the criticism, the umpires said they were only trying to ensure as many overs as possible in the match, that they deserved applause for that and that they were amazed by the lack of knowledge of their critics.

“We lost just one over inspite of it being a 45-minute delay. That’s big achievement,” one of the umpires was quoted as saying.

“Look we lost 45 minutes, but we made it all up. First we cut the lunch break from 45 to 30 minutes, then got another 15 minutes from the extra time allotted to both sides. We would have lost two overs if we went by this calculation.

“In that case the game would have got over by 4.58 instead of a closure at 5 pm. With our calculations, at least we were ensuring that the game would go on till 5.07 pm. We had to ensure both sides get the same number of overs and we succeeded to some extent,” added the official.

The third ODI between India and England, which ended in India’s favour, was overshadowed by the umpires’ decisions.

The match had initially been delayed by 45 minutes due to the early-morning mist, but despite being aware that light fades quickly in Kanpur, the officials reduce the game to 49 overs and later shortened the lunch break to 30 minutes.

Indian coach Gary Kirsten, whose side needs just one more match to win the series, backed the umpires’ decision.

“I don’t think the umpires could have done anything different,” Kirsten said.

“They couldn’t have set up the game knowing there was going to be bad light; they had to set it up according to the time that was available.

“We just played to the rules of the game. We won a game of cricket and we’re very happy with the circumstances. It’s got nothing to do with us how the rules are made.”

Kirsten did admitted India were happy with England’s decision to bat first after winning the toss because it enabled them to control their run chase to ensure they kept ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis target.

“I think we were going to bat second anyway, it worked in our favour,” he added. “We were obviously aware, having looked at the weather and the light yesterday, that it might come into play and we prepared accordingly for that.”

The England camp echoed a different sentiment from India to the umpires’ decision. Captain Kevin Pietersen was seen protesting to umpires Russell Tiffin and Amit Saheba after India won the game on the Duckworth-Lewis. India reached 198 for five in 40 overs chasing England’s 240.

“I knew it would be difficult to get a game in,” admitted Pietersen. “I mentioned it yesterday at training and I mentioned it the day before when we had a team meeting.

“It’s a very, very bitter pill to swallow but what has happened has happened.

“I knew when the decisions were made that there was no way we were going to get this game finished. We tried to get it turned around but decisions were made and we can’t go against decisions that were made by the hierarchy.

“What we were worried about was the half an hour that it took to start the game after the 9.15am toss. We wanted to start it as early as possible because we knew we needed to do that to get a full game in.”

It was a particularly galling experience for England as Green Park has four newly-installed floodlights, but both sides agreed not to use them as they had not been tested before.

Pietersen also revealed England’s concern about the sixth match in the series in Guwahati on November 29, which has already been brought forward to an 8.30am start.

“In hindsight I definitely would have used the lights,” he said. “I think they are going to go back to the drawing board now and things are going to have to change.

“They are going to have to change for the sixth game in Guwahati, which is further north than here. We’re starting at 8.30am there but it’s still not going to make too much of a difference. At 4.30pm it’s dark here so it’s going to go dark at 3.00 or 3.30pm.”

Coach Peter Moores echoed his captain’s sentiments.

“We knew the light could be an issue so we were trying to make sure we could get a game in this morning,” he added.

“The umpires made their call and we can make recommendations afterwards.

“The key for me is that we try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. A lot of people have come to watch the game and you’ve got television so we have to do everything we possibly can to get the game in.”

However, ICC match referee Roshan Mahanama defended the decisions made.

“Everything was taken into account and the game was played according to the playing conditions,” he said.

“Yesterday the umpires were here at the ground because they knew that light could be an issue and today the fact that it was getting dark and the lights couldn’t be used had already been agreed.”

India won the Kanpur ODI by 16 runs according to the D/L method. Sehwag, Yuvraj and Dhoni batted beautifully to help India go 3-0 up.

India win by 16 runs (D/L)

Click here for Scorecard

India played smart cricket to ensure they went 3-0 up in the seven match ODI series against England. Sehwag scored a blistering 68 while Yuvraj continued his explosive form to blast 38. Skipper MS Dhoni alongwith Yusuf Pathan made sure India did not suffer any setbacks in the crucial last overs to end at 198 for five in 40 overs,

The action now shifts south to Bangalore where the two teams meet for a day-night encounter.

England recover to set decent total

England were in danger of rolling out cheaply but some lower order resistance helped the visitors set India 241 to win.

England 240 all out

Ravi Bopara, Ian Bell and Owais Shah contributed substantially to help England set India a challenging total to win the third ODI in Kanpur. However, given the way the wicket has shaped up and the kind of form India’s batsmen are in, the task would not be too daunting for MS Dhoni’s men.

Click here for Live Scorecard

Teams

India: Virender Sehwag, G Gambhir, SK Raina, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Yuvraj Singh, RG Sharma, YK Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, I Sharma, MM Patel

England: IR Bell, MJ Prior (wk), OA Shah, KP Pietersen (capt), A Flintoff, PD Collingwood, SR Patel, RS Bopara, SCJ Broad, GP Swann, JM Anderson

The match, reduced to 49-overs-a-side will start at 9.45 am.

Next Page →

• Search

  
  

• Admin

  • Log in
  • Wordpress
  • XHTML

• Browse

  all-rounder Andrew Flintoff Andrew Strauss Andy Murray Arsenal Arsene Wenger Ashes Ashes Series Aston Villa Australia Barcelona Beijing Olympics 2008 captain Champions League Chelsea Cricket Cristiano Ronaldo ECB England England and Wales Cricket Board England tour of india Football Frank Lampard ICC World Twenty20 India IPL Kevin Pietersen Lewis Hamilton Liverpool Manchester City Manchester United Man United Mclaren Paul Collingwood Premier League Rafael Benitez Ravi Bopara Real Madrid Ricky Ponting Sir Alex Ferguson South Africa Steven Gerrard Stuart Broad Wayne Rooney West Indies

• Blogroll

  • India Search
  • Indian Employee
  • Indian Leads Network
  • Indian Manufacturers
  • Indian Team
  • Live Scorecards
  • Rakhi Gifts India