Tondulkar has done India proud

At last the moment has arrived where we will all celebrate Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th 100. He has become the first batsman to achieve this feat. The first time I heard about Tendulkar was when he had scored over 600 runs in that amazing partnership with his childhood friend Vinod Kambli. After that day his was given few sobriquets like “wonder boy” and “small wonder”. That small wonder has achieved something very huge by scoring that ton against Bangladesh on 16 March 2012.

Century of century sounds so unrealistic and insane. The fan waited and waited for a year and four days for it to happen but the wait is finally over. They say that great things come in small packages. He has proved it right time and again. He keeps the statisticians busy while he is at the crease scoring those centuries. In ODIs, he has scored small amount of 49 hundreds which is a world record. He has made hundreds against 11 different countries. He was the first batsman to score a double hundred in an ODI.   In tests, he became the first one to reach 50 tons and both the innings were against the formidable attack of South Africans. Wisden named the Indian run machine as the leading cricketer in the world for 2010.   

It is a monumental effort when you sit back and think that he made his debut way back in 1989 and he is still around to provide us the entertainment in 2012. He has achieved long cherished dream of being part of a world cup winning team. It was disappointing that people were not that talking about India losing the match. Everyone was talking about the milestone. Perhaps it is easy for us to say that may be nothing is left now for him to achieve and he should hang his boots. But it is best left to the man himself to decide when to declare the innings as it were.

Everything said and done, I think people will agree with me in saying that we are all lucky that we live in the same era as Sachin. May the entertainment continue.

Brick has gone missing from the wall

Surprise surprice! India have lost the test match for the 6th time on the trot away from home. Now if this doesnt set the alarm bells ringing , nothing will. M S Dhoni won the toss and to his credit he chose to bat first which was a bold move. But India failed to cross 300 yet again! Its a shame when you consider that the famous indian batting lineup has scored something like 40000 runs between them.

Sehwag continues to throw his wicket away like he usually does. Gambhir does not know the whereabouts of his off stump. Laxman seems to have lost his silky touch ever since the year began. Although, Tendulkar has looked in great touch but he has failed to bail out india again. I think he will dislike one statistic about his illustrious career that he failed to win a single test series in Australia as well as South Africa. And less said the better incase of Virat Kohli. When he won the under 19 world cup, he was being looked upon as future captain of India. But if he continues to indulge in things like the fingergate then God only help him.

One man needs to be praised undoubtedly is the Aussie skipper Michael Clarke. Not only did he batted brilliantly but also declared without thinking about the personal glory. He could have achieved greater heights but he chose to keep the bigger picture in front which was to win and win they did inside 4 days. Clarke was very impressive in the previous edition of the T20 world cup in the West Indies too where he captained the side aggressively. Its amasing how many fast bowlers they have in their ranks. Apart from, Hilfenhaus, Siddle and Pattinson, they have the likes of Harris, Cummins, Johnson, Bolinger and Nannes to fall back upon. Seems as if McDermott has had a great influence in the performance of their bowling unit.

As far as India are concerned, thay have to turn things around in a big way to come out of this mess. Scores of 49, 30, 2, 2, 24, 1, 58*, 176*, 32, 31, 57, 15, 2, 1, 2, 66 is not a good reading if you are a supporter of VVS Laxman. Those magical wrists are not working anymore to bail India out. With only one major score of 176* in last few matches , and that too on a placid track of Eden Gardens, tells you that he is past his prime. Rahul Dravid has had a brilliant 2011 but in this series he has looked below par to say the least. His mode of dismissals would suggest that the brick in the 'wall' has gone missing. In four innings,he has been cleanbowled thrice;if you add the no-ball that stupefied his defenses in the Melbourne Test too,it is an alarmingly high percentage.The scorecards show that since 2011,he has already taken this exit route 8 times.

All in all, well played Australia !

C'paul does it again vs India

The third match of the series between India and West Indies has come to a tame end. It was poised for an exciting finish though. At one point it looked as though India were running away with the game but it was that man again Shiv Chandrapaul. He has done it time after time especially against India. It seems as if he gets the best out of him whenever he plays against the Indians. He has a very envious kind of record against the team from the sub-continent. His is a technique which is very unique and it has worked well for him nicely considering the fact that he has just notched up his 23rd ton in test match cricket. He is like Rahul Dravid of West Indies in many ways. He plays the ball very late and doesnt get flustered by the situation or the pitch conditions. Just goes about his business quietly and collects his runs by pushing and nudging to begin with. He always remained in the shadow of the more illustrious and more versatile Lara like in the case of Dravid who remained in the shadow  of Tendulkar.

There were few others as well who performed well in the match. Fidel Edwards, for example, bowled with vigor and surprisingly this was his best series so far in his career statistically speaking. He also contributed with the bat in that crucial partnership with Chandrapaul and that partnership helped them in taking the game away from India. The other Edwards in the team had a dream debut. He achieved something which many other greats could not. That is to score a ton in the first match of your test career. From the Indian perspective, Ishant Sharma had a good outing once again. He achieved a landmark during this series. It must be a great feeling for the young man to reach the first major milestone of 100th wicket. He was not the only bowler to achieve a milestone during this series. Harbhajan Singh grabbed his 400th wicket when he dismissed the wicket keeper from the West Indies.

So next station for this Indian Express is England. It will be an interesting contest with some of the best cricketers taking part in it. The likes of Swan, Peterson, Strauss, Anderson playing against guys like Dhoni, Tendulkar , Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Zaheer. Mouthwatering to say the least. For the first time India has got a variety which is unmatched as far as the bowling department is concerned. They have Zaheer who has some county experience alongwith Sreesanth. Ishant and Praveen had good outings as well in the West Indies. Perhaps this is an ideal opportunity for them to consider going in with Four seamers into the match. The only question mark will be Sreesanth's form and his temperament. Then they have Bhajji and Mishra to handle the old ball. Mishra needs to be given a long spell in order to make him comfortable. He might be a good bet especially with the kind of record englishmen have against good leg spin bowling. Either way its going to be a good series. Hope the weather doesnt intervene like it did in the West Indies series or the Sri Lanka - England series for that matter.