Aussies Not At Their Bowling Best...

Well,the 10th ODI match between India and Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground witnessed some brilliant batting from the blades of Ricky Ponting-who scored his 26th century to become the second highest century scorer after Sachin Tendulkar (41),Adam Gilchrist-who belted 15 runs from 7 balls, Hayden(54,62b,5x4,1x6) and Andrew Symonds(59,49b,6x4,2x6).

Though being from India,I enjoyed each and every shot played by Ricky Ponting and co..The shots from these Australian batsmen were worth some praise because they all came against some decent Indian bowling of especially Ishanth Sharma.The Aussies were found to time and place the ball in the gaps frequently.This is what batting is all about.Australians deserved to have put up a score of above 300.

But,comming to the second part,ie the second innings of the match-Indian batting,it was all praise from Ravi Shastri and Wasim Akram for Indian batting especially for Robin Uttappa and Gautam Gambhir after the match.Yes,Gambhir did deserve tons of praise for his 113(119b,11x4,1x6).The man was left to bat with India losing four quick wickets in Sehwag,Sachin,Yuvraj and Rohith Sharma.

But,comming to Uttappa's innings,it was not at all the talk of the day according to my opinion.The six he hit off Lee's bowling was a replica of one of the shots hit by Pakistani slogger Shahid Afridi.With hardly any shot selection,feet movement and balance.The man was once again found struggling when it came to decent yorkers. This was showed by him when he struck his second boundary off Clarke than was short.

The reason why India could manage to be in the game is solely because of the indecent bowling of the Aussie bowlers-who were found to bowl too short,giving the Indian batsmen enough room outside the offstump and bowling no balls that even tail end batsmen like Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan were comfortable batting.

I would suggest those who praised Indian batting to take a look at the Australian bowling.One instance what I can show is the 48.1 delivery bowled by Bracken which was a bye four runs .And even after repeated scoring in the fine leg area,the Aussie captain showed no signs in restricting that area.A dependable batsman like Dhoni was found all but struggling -needing 66balls to score 36runs.

Some decent planning by the Aussie captain on the field would have made things really miserable for the Indian batsmen I beleive.With India losing four wickets for a score less than hundred,even a total of 200 would be tough.But thanks to Aussie bowlers who got carried away after their batsmen supported them and the initial breakthrough.And even the fielders who merely cared when the ball was found rolling over the ropes through the gaps.

Sorry India...You hardly deserve it.....you've got a lot to improve......

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A Forgotten Aspect Altogether?

The fourth ODI of the Commonwealth Bank series between India-Australia saw some excellent performances by the Indian team in all aspects-batting,bowling and fielding.The first taste of victory for the Indians on the Aussie soil in the series.All the talk of the day was regarding the superb bowling spells by the Indian pacemen-Ishanth Sharma,Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan.More likely Ishanth Sharma who was devastating with the ball taking career best figures of 4-38.This was all!!

But,it was a really disappointing that the fielding department was not given any credits of the match.Especially the wicket keeping of captain M.S.Dhoni-whose reflexes fetched him as many as 5 scalps behind the stumps,which included 4 catches and 1 stumping.This contribution was hardly taken into consideration.The man also empowered his team to victory when his team was in trouble after losing five quick wickets with just over hundred on the board.

Along with the success of the pace trio,it was a lone captain's knock of MS Dhoni that helped his team win the match.I wonder that weather fielding is a part of cricket?Everytime,the first preference is given to batting performances,followed by bowling and no one talks about fielding.Why?

The only fielder who remains in people's mind is Jonty Rhodes.Does anyone know about Viv Richards' fielding ability?For the readers' sake,Richards was successful in effecting four run outs in the finals of the inaugral WC in 1975.Two years down the lane,when Sri Lanka snatched an upset win over Australia in the first final of the VB Series 2006,it was Dilshan's four run outs that settled the issue for Sri Lanka,but the man of the match was Kumara Sangakkara for his dominance with the bat.

People like Muttiah Muralitharan,Ricky Ponting,Heath Streak,Andrew Symonds and much more are excellent fielders in addition to their batting or bowling abilities.But they are better remembered as either bowlers or as batsmen.A saying goes by:"Catches win Matches".But,with this kind of treatment being given to fieldsmen,I wonder will anyone be motivated to take up fielding or Wicketkeeping anymore.

And finally before concluding,I feel that even fielding-like batting & Bowling be given equal importance that could bring in more delight in cricket.Bcoz-"A catch dropped is a match dropped".Have a nice day..