Australia defeats India by 72 runs, wins first ODI.

Australia thrashed India by 72 runs in the first ODI of the 7 match ODI series at Pune. After posting a challenging 305 runs target batting first, it was left to the Australian bowlers to halt the solid Indian batting line-up from overcoming the 1st innings score. 

India started cautiously with both openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma taking time to settle and get used to the pitch. The Australians seamers made it extremely difficult for the Indian batsmen to score runs. Consistent line with good bowling speed combined with short bowling pushed Dhawan and Rohit into a shell.

As the pair tried to break free, Dhawan felt prey to a very good delivery from Faulkner which moved away from batsmen and nicked Dhawan's bat on its way to wicket-keeper Haddin. In walked Virat Kohli, but the Australian pace attack of Faulkner and Mckay didn't give any chance to the right handers to score runs. 

In the 9th over Rohit Sharma eased the pressure as he hit Faulkner for 3 boundaries. Just when things started looking good for India and there was a partnership building, Shane Watson bowled a beautiful delivery to get rid of Rohit Sharma. The ball swayed away after hitting the deck and Rohit Sharma couldn't resist nicking the ball to part-time wicket-keeper Phil Hughes. 

Faulkner 3 wickets proved crucial in Australia's victory

Suresh Raina walked in at No.4 to accompany Virat Kohli. The pair looked good as India began scoring runs at a brisk pace. The pair had put on 71 for the 4th wicket till Faulkner striked again to remove Suresh Raina for 39 leaving India at 3 down for 137 runs. Yuvraj Singh walked to the center amidst huge cheers. The crowd went wild as Yuvraj pulled the second ball of his innings for a six. George Bailey made a quick change and brought in the fierce Mitchell Johnson and Johnson in-turn appreciated his captain's call by scalping the price wicket of Yuvraj Singh for 7.

The run rate kept on mounting from 6 an over to 7 and then 9 per over. Australian pace attack kept on greeting Indian batsmen with chin music. No batsmen looked comfortable except for Virat Kohli who completed his 25th ODI fifty. Shane Watson removed the well set Virat Kohli an over before the batting powerplay, leaving India with only two specialist batsmen in Dhoni and Jadeja with over 140 runs to chase. 

Jadeja was caught by Bailey as Faulkner picked up his 3rd wicket of the night. India never looked comfortable chasing 300 plus as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Australian bowlers didn't give away anything to Indian batsmen. Every single run was made to earn. Australia's brilliant fielding added to the difficulties for team India. 

Even Dhoni didn't look comfortable facing Australian seamers. The captain cool looked out of options as he was unable to free his arms at his will.  Mckay uprooted Dhoni's off stump in the 41st over, thus crushing any hopes of India winning the match. Bhuvanesh Kumar and Vinay Kumar held on for final few overs to take India to 232. Finch removed Bhuvanesh Kumar to seal a 72 run victory for Australia.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's off stump uprooted by McKay

It's never going to be easy for India against Australia. Although the current Australian team is being underrated but still they are on the No.2 spot in the ODI rankings for a reason. The win at Pune is a bright example of what this Australian team is capable off. Indian batsmen have to find a way to deal with the short pitch bowling of Australian seamers. It's just the end of first ODI, there are 6 more to go and there are equal number of opportunities for both the teams to top the world ODI rankings.

Indian Cricket : Politics at grass root level

Mahatma Gandhi, Poverty and Sachin Tendulkar are three things that almost every foreigner knows about India. On 2nd April 2011, the whole nation was in tears of joy.. No, no, no ! It wasn't for the happy ending of a romantic bollywood flick neither it was a much anticipated prospective change in the Indian political scenario.. It was the instinctive outburst of emotion from the whole nation as Dhoni lashed the world cup winning six into the stands of the vociferous and jam packed Wankhede  stadium.

Cricket is undoubtedly a rage in India. A sport that draws emotions from every street and corner of the nation, like no other sport has ever been able to do . A sport that gave real life superheroes for every child in the country. A sport that gave the people of India Sachin Tendulkar, a deity figure of the cricket universe. A sport that has now become a  part of our culture and to many of us, a way of life.

Back in 1983, when Kapil's devils lifted the world cup at the Lord's balcony for India by defeating the mighty West Indies, they gave millions of Indians a a historical moment to cheer for ages to come. The victory, unarguably seen as the greatest, particularly for its constructive impact on the younger generation, acted as an inspiration and a motivation for those aspiring to replicate the same for India.

 

The future of every game rests on the shoulders of the budding aspirants,  who, with all their talent and capabilities, dream of achieving feats their idols have left behind for inspiration and sometimes even aspire to surpass them and bring more glory to the nation. 

When such deserving talent is denied a potential opportunity by the so called dignitaries in power it is evidently politics at grass root level. Young talent is therefore left disappointed. Disappointment to aspiring young talent is like gravity is to weight.

 

Despite the fact that cricket has earned scores of international recognition for India and remains one of the most essential sports in its international outlook, young talent is barely given an unbiased chance at elementary platforms of selections. The process of selection of players for the inter college tournaments, under 16, under 19 tournaments and the university teams is just for namesake. In most cases there is always a pre-selected team comprising of players who have represented the state earlier, few of them brought in on recommendations by the higher officials. The selection and fitness trials are just in place to fulfill the formality. It just ends up as a part of news in next day newspapers.

Apart from the selection process the commercialization of cricket leaves the deserving talent stranded. League teams available on lease have added up to the unprofessional ethics of selection. A one-day league cricket team would charge an interested player around Rs 8000 for a season whereas the amount demanded for the 2-day and 3-day leagues are much beyond the affordability of a common man. Making it even worse is the reputation of a team which has become more of a brand name. For example, a league team might have five Ranji players chosen on merit and the rest of them pay the amount demanded by the team owner if they are to play for the team.This often causes the young and capable talent which cannot afford this amount to lag in the race and eventually end up with broken dreams of bragging the whites. 

Nevertheless, one cannot completely blame the higher officials and the owners of the league teams for partiality in selections.Unjust and corrupt practices have become an integral part of the system and now, even cricket is affected by this disease that does not seem to have an immediate cure. The scenario is such because people who can afford these mounting rates do it with a hush. Never has anyone dared to question the awry of selection process or so does it seem.  

As long as such unethical and selfish practices form the core of the selection system a proportion of the deserving talent will always be denied a chance. Genuine talent must not be marooned for the sake of monetary gains or political benefits. Such nuances must be curbed and the fire of corruption must be extinguished. While this can seem an insurmountable feat, it is certainly not impossible.

Today, domestic cricket in India is in dire need of straightening these elementary processes.As cricketers themselves, it is the moral responsibility of the selectors to be fair with the selection process, to give the deserving talent a fair chance, and acknowledge their potential that often goes unnoticed or prematurely marooned. 

In foreseeable possibilities to curb this trend, one idea is to begin reformation at the grass root level. Cricket is born at the grass root level in a cricketer and nourishes with time and encouragement. If the process of selection is structured, organized and above all, just and unbiased, it will bring more transformation to the game than anybody could have ever imagined.  It is never a right time to do something right. So, let us stop waiting and start now.

It is seldom seen that little things often  making a gigantic difference and this principle holds true with Cricket too. 

Young Blood Has It All...

Indian cricket is on the pinnacle of its success and much of its blossom can be owed to the dynamic captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and a bunch of young lads, who have grown in their stature by accomplishing achievements that no other cricketers of same generation were able to accomplish.

They changed the face of Indian cricket forever. The need for more youngsters in the team was realized by Saurav Ganguly, under whose captaincy names like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Mohammed Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan emerged. But then team India always had seats reserved for the ageing fabulous four (Saurav, Sachin, Dravid and Laxman).  There was a wealthy chance given to players who didn't perform. As the time marched on, the lack of agility and flexibility became more and more visible.

 

The captaincy shifted hands and the young lad from Ranchi (whose long cascading hair once drew praise from the then Pakistani President General Parvez Musharraf) was presented with the gigantic task of leading team India. Soon it was apparent that things were inclined to change.  Leading team India was no meager task yet Dhoni took no time to prove his mettle. He didn't invest in the risk of losing matches by sitting down players with inconsistent performances. The budding cricketers used this opportunity to shine above the horizon just in line with Dhoni to turn his dream of winning the 2011 world cup into a praise-worthy reality.

 The move quickly uncovered the abundance of talent available at domestic level in youngsters like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and few young lads who gradually became the core part of team India. This was the reincarnation of Indian cricket; young and prolific form yet mighty and unshaken in its potential. Even as this transformation drew some criticism, Dhoni maintained his stance.

The transformation paid off as India made history by winning the inaugural edition of Twenty20 world cup and then scripted history by defeating Australia in their homeland in the Common Wealth Bank Series. It was made clear by the selectors that experience is no more a criteria and one has to perform on a consistent basis to cement his place in the team. The mantra worked as every youngster became more focused in seizing every opportunity at their disposal.

The likes of Dhawans, Rainas, Kohlis and Jadejas soon emerged. The team India which had two or three good fielders in the squad soon became a team where everyone would dive to stop in a single. An athletic bunch of youngsters soon earned recognition as the best fielders in the world. The standards were now on par with the most acclaimed teams around the globe including England, Australia and South Africa. One must also appreciate the efforts of BCCI in improving the infrastructure that eventually lead to the raise in standards.

In Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Shamra, India found successors for the flamboyant opening pair of Sehwag and Gambhir. Kohli and Pujara could always be shuffled for number three and number four spots in the batting list. There’s much of reliability on Kohli, Pujara, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, who strengthen the middle order. One can only be a fool to exclude the Captain Cool, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, finest of batsmen and unarguably the greatest finisher in the world of cricket.

The bowling department is just as good as the batting with the experienced Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma. Bhuvanesh Kumar has been the find of the season for team India with Umesh Yadav on the reserve. India has world class spinners in Ravichandra Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha and Ravindra Jadeja with his successful bowling stint ends the search for the fifth bowler.

For now, everything looks green for team India with the bench being warmed up by the names that include Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Kartik, Murali Vijay, Amit Mishra, Manoj Tiwari, Shami Ahmed and Parvez Rasool, the talent of whom have already been glimpsed to the world.

Team India in its current composition stands tall with a learned past, a remarkable present and possibly a lustrous future.