One of my friends, Manda Srinivas seen on TV9 today protesting for Telangana at Warangal.

One of my friends, Manda Srinivas seen on TV9 today protesting for Telangana at Hanamkonda, Warangal.

India makes a strong statement in its WC opener

India makes a strong statement to the teams participating in WC 2011 with an impressive win over Bangladesh at Mirpur in its first league match today.

Though the pitch appeared to have prepared for a batsmen friendly, Bangladesh decided to put the opposition in as they won the toss considering the due factor that comes into play in the second innings of the match.

With the result is out, I think now that they should have evaluated the pressure against the score board vs the due factor that comes.

Especially when playing against a strong country like INDIA, they should not have given more weight to the Pressure on the score board that India could put.

The conditions right from the word go, favored Batsmen. The opening duo Sachin and Sehwag utilized them for the best of the team.  The score board was hopping at it’s ever best.

A good indication was, Sachin found his feet moving at their best. Sehwag too was in a bright form.

When it appeared that only a self -mistake can separate the duo, we lost Sachin to a run-out.

Gambir was too at his best until he fell for a decent spin delivery.

Virat was a class act as usual. The best part of his innings was, he never came under the influence of Sehwag. He was playing his shots within his strengths to complete his first century in the WC.

Sehwag’s innings scared many a sachin’s fans like me as he was nearing to a double but it was at 175, he lost his wicket.

India concluded it’s innings at 370.

Bangladesh started well and continued to be well all the way. Especially the batsmen showed their courage and made a statement to the world of cricket that they are no more cubs… they have immense talented people in the team.

I liked the way they tried to come close to the target.

Indian bowling too was good except Sreeshanth, who is a bit off-colored.

A bit concern to be given for the Indians is on the extras being given. It contributed 24 in the match and really a cause of concern especially in big matches that are coming.

Munaf was excellent with his line and length, which rewarded him with 4 wickets.

Zaheer was too impressive so as Harbhajan, who is after a long time, coming closure to his best of late.

Over all, Fighting Bangla and hot Indians and off-colored Sreeshanth were the real features of the match in which Sehwag was declared “man of the match”.

Pictures courtesy: ESPN

A disappointing win by INDIA , review on the practice match between IND and AUS

Before to the practice match between India and Australia match, I was excited to see the Indian Cricket team’s  preparation for the forth coming mega tournament WC.

We won the toss and elected to bat first. I was surprised to see the pitch report. This pitch was amazingly changed. As Sanjay Manjrekar and Ian Chappell were doing the pitch analysis, I could not believe if we are in INDIA or in AUS.

First time, a pitch in INDIA laid to suit the fast bowling and batting. (For batting only if you can apply your skills.)

As Sehwag and Gambhir were walking in, I never got confidence for the first time in Gambhir. Like I felt, he lost his wicket in the early stage of the innings.

Sehwag was out of strike for most of his time at the crease for the first 5 overs at least. The strike was kept by Kohli, who looked confident and was making some strokes. But at the same time, Sehwag was not happy at the non-striker’s end.

A couple of times, he was running for a no-run putting himself, INDIA in trouble.

Though Sehwag scored a half-century, he was never a old batsman. He could not time the ball well until he started middling in his second half of his innings.

I thought Sehwag was eyeing to play a long innings and as part of that plan he cut-down the shots.

Australians were good in their bowling and looked to be ready for the challenge.

Our batsmen were never on the button.

There were a lots of run out chances missed (lucky for us). There seem to Indians were never ready for the challenge. They need to be a little more serious particularly when it comes for the running between the wickets. The lack of communication between the batsmen were one of the concern seen in the last match.

As long as we are winning, fingers never point towards Dhoni but can you guys tell were you able to see old Dhoni or at least batsman Dhoni of late? At least I could not get a sign on him working hard in the future too. Of course he is working hard but not in the cricket ground it is in the ad-film making. He needs to be more responsible. Too much are the advertises, too less are the performances..

Yuvi’s out was really a result of an outstanding effort from Michelle Johnson.

All the other Indian batsman were lazy... No one cared about their wicket except for a few in the tail.

Especially Suresh Raina needs big lessons to learn. I don’t know why he is not been able to learn from his past experiences. There would be 2 places to claim from 3 players in the final 11 with Sachin coming into.

Those 3 players are Kohli, Yusuf Pathan and Raina. With the kind of form they are in, I guess for Raina, it would definitely a dream remain for him to be in the final 11.

Looks like the pitches have been improved at Bangalore to support fast bowling. Surprised to see such a pitch in India. Good job done by Bangalore cricket board. Australians utilized the bowling conditions well and applied themselves to extract the maximum from the pitch.

Indians have shown problems with the short pitch deliveries. And Australians definitely have got plans for the Indian Batman

The game plan for Australians was to bowl short-pitch deliveries and they executed it well. Consistent short pitched deliveries troubled Indians.

Ashwin and Yusuf shown determination, guts and maturity to extend the innings,  which lacked with the other players.

Tail that followed too demonstrates the batting to the top order on a tough pitch

Though we won the match with the amazing spinning abilities of the Indians, there is something which is still pricking in a common Indian fan, are we losing out our best strength, Batting.

It’s the time to the management and players go back and re assess what went wrong and work on the area of improvements.

The pic was taken while Siddhi was seriously watching the practice match