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[caught and bowled]

No stopping Sehwag!
Ehtesham Hasan
 
After a well-deserved break for a couple of days, the Indian team had an intense practice session at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday.

The sequence of the batsmen padding up gave us a very good indication of things to come for the first final tomorrow. Sachin Tendulkar, once again went indoors after supervising the nets briefly. Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan and Praveen Kumar batted in the nets.

Virender Sehwag got a chance only towards the end and if nothing untoward happens, he’s likely to sit out tomorrow. Not the one to brood, Sehwag had a good time in the nets bowling medium pacers instead of his part-time spin. He looked quite effective though and troubled Uthappa and Rohit with his length and exaggerated movement.

Every time he beat the bat, he would mischievously smile raising his eyebrow and that surely must have embarrassed the young guns.

It was the first time we had seem him bowling seam up and one couldn’t resist but compliment him for his hidden art.

“Budhaape main bhai yeh sabh karna padta hai (you have to do such things when you are old,” he replied in jest.

Taking it easy

There were a couple of players who got an extended break yesterday. Manoj Tiwary who has had very little to do on this tour did not come to the ground because of a tooth infection, which had left his face swollen and Ishant Sharma was kept in cotton wool by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The lanky 19-year-old had come to the ground but he mostly stood as an umpire, keeping an eye on the no-balls and wides.

The India captain has been a little worried about his spearhead’s workload in recent times and it’s but obvious he’s keeping him fresh for the final. The rest will only allow Ishant to reinvigorate his mind and body and provide the team with the impetus against the Australians.

The Delhi lad has been a hit with the fairer sex and there were quite a few of them who had come specially to watch him, Irfan Pathan and Dhoni. On one occasion when he raised both his arms to declare a wide, one of them squeaked, “Oh he’s doing a titanic for me.”

Wishing the juniors

The Indian under-19 team will be playing the World Cup final in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow. The Indian media thought it would be befitting to ask some of the senior players here to send them good wishes for the game.

Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh got instantly ready to speak a few encouraging words.

“I want to wish the team all the best and tell them that they should enjoy their game and take it like any other game,” Tendulkar said.

Yuvraj, who had shot to fame after he played a match-winning innings against Australia in 1999, too was generous in his wishes and he said the key for the Virat Kholi-led side would be “to start well”.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Irfan Pathan, however, shied away from the cameras.

“I have their manager’s number, I’ll call him and wish the team all the best,” said Dhoni before hurriedly making his way inside the dressing room.

Pathan excused himself, saying he would need the team manager’s permission to speak with the press.

Time for a big one

Rohit Sharma is one confident guy and that’s why probably the team has more faith in him than the Suresh Rainas and Dinesh Karthiks.

A good example of his self-belief came yesterday when someone asked him how he felt facing someone like Brett Lee.

“When I started my career, in the gully, I never was intimidated by any bowler. So now, I have never thought about a Brett Lee or a Shoaib Akhtar bowling to me. I just play the ball on merit.” Fair enough. But how about converting those perky little starts into big scores? The 20-year-old hasn’t really made good use of his form by being a little over ambitious in his shot selection.

The Mumbai batsman also cleared the air on the Dhoni run out and said he would be up and running for his skipper again. “I will run for Dhoni again for sure. The umpire had told me not to take a start in the Adelaide match. But Dhoni came up to me and said ‘that’s fine.’ And that I would have to run for him if the need arises again.”
 
 

[gouravk]

Lets get the party going. This is the most excited i have bee for an odi (and me being a little bit excited for an odi itself is big) since the horrible disastrous world cup game against sri lanka.

and dare i say i consider this to be the first "meaningful" ODI we are playing since the world cup ... theres something to get a few people started ... 

[ramshorns]

I agree with GK, this is as good as gets for an ODI outside of a WC final or a SF. 

We never get woken up for all those 5 and 7 game series played in India which really are taking the interest out of the shorter version of the game. 

But this has got to be a beauty and we should all be looking forward to it and build the hype for the game in the next few hours.

I know I have been very harsh on SRT over the past few days.  But these are the games we all up to him to perform.  I have a feeling he will come up big in atleast one of the first 2 finals.  Also we have the likes of GG and Dhoni and Yuvraj to lend support in the batting backed by that vibrant and young bowling line up.

All and all an exciting finals on the cards.  All we want is for our team to play out of their skins which is not far fetched given how Dhoni and the boys did in that 20-20 cup final.

Aussies still start the finals as the favorites but I do expect this to be a closer affair than in the games past.

[gouravk]

Plus this being a 3 match series would imply that the first game would not be a do-or-die .. so a good chance for sachin to cash in ! 

[dhruvdeepak]

we will win.

sachin will get out in the 90s

[caught and bowled]

In the mean time the Indian TV Channels are going overboard with super hype. I am watching Star News where they are calling tomorrow to be a super Sunday with 2 Mahabharats... adjectives like Dhoni ke Dhurandhar, Mahi ke Matwale, Virat ke Veer keep flowing...cant imagine the hysteria if we really pull it off

[LosingNow]

ROFLMAO...
---

BTW, I like Rohit.. he has a good head on those shoulders..

--

India can beat Aussies in finals: Rohit Sharma 
PTI

Young Indian middle order batsman Rohit Sharma feels the youngsters in the team would need to rise up to the occasion to win the cricket tri-series finals against Australia starting on Sunday.

"In the absence of seniors there is pressure and it would be good for the youngsters if we were to win the trophy," said Sharma.

Rohit has played in all the games of the triangular league and scored a mere 167 runs at 33.40 but a couple of his knock have drawn heaps of praise from the likes of Ian Chappell and Sachin Tendulkar.

Chappell has been very impressed with Sharma's technique and so has been the case with Tendulkar who rates his backfoot play of good quality.

Sharma, though, feels he has not quite done justice to his talent in the series.

"I feel I could have done better and in this regard this series has been a learning experience. I have learnt how to build innings when I walked in to bat against Australia in Melbourne we were five down for 102, needing 160 runs to win.

"The one advice (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) Mahi gave me was if we stayed at the wicket the runs would come and so it happened," he said.

India put it across Australia in that game of the triangular series and Sharma feels that it's not beyond them to beat the world champions again in the best-of-three finals.

"I feel we can do it. We were 54 for 4 the other night against Australia and ended up scoring 300 runs," Sharma said.

Not one to get overawed by reputations, Sharma has taken the likes of Brett Lee as just another bowler in international circuit.

"Even when I was young, there were a few bowlers in our "galli" cricket whom batsmen used to dread to face. I always accepted the challenge as these things keep confronting you all the time.

"It doesn't matter to me if I am playing Brett Lee or Shoaib Akhtar," he said.

Sharma firmly refused to be drawn into any controversy on the amount of sledging and bad blood which has existed between the two teams this summer.

He almost pleaded to be kept out of it after questions became thicker on the recent incident of Matthew Hayden going after Harbhajan Singh in a radio interview recently.

But one thing he could not resist clarifying was the run-out he caused to his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Adelaide which led to India's sorry defeat by 50 runs last on February 17.

"Actually, the confusion was caused by the umpire. He kept telling me that I couldn't take start. Anyway that's past. Mahi told me not to worry about it. He also told me that it would be me who would run for him, if required, in future," he said.

[poondu]

The final series is really open

Can India’s ’generation next’ do better than their predecessors, asks Steve Waugh 

Friday’s game between Sri Lanka and Australia might just have made up Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s mind on the decision at the toss. If he wins, he will most certainly opt to bat. Even though conditions at the Sydney Cricket Ground are vastly different from those at the MCG, Australia’s poor form on Friday had more to do with poor batting and less with the conditions.

I am certain that India’s young and in-form bowling attack will be a handful on Sunday as they have been troubling the host right through the summer. The way I see it, this final series is really open, and will most probably go down to the third game.

Poor form of batsmen


The poor form of batsmen from all three teams involved has marked this tri-series. Sri Lanka’s poor form was particularly disappointing, with only Kumar Sangakkara showing some grit and technique.

The most disappointing performance was that of Mahela Jayawardene, because he and Sanath Jayasuriya were simply unable to come to terms with the conditions. No wonder they were out of the tournament even before their final game.

For the Indians, the main problem has been the top order. Sachin Tendulkar has not been consistent enough, and against Australia, he has been having a couple of problems facing Brett Lee.

The little champion looks a little below par, and it does not help that Lee is bowling better than ever before.

Apparently, Tendulkar does not have a single three-figure score in Australia in ODIs, and what better time to rectify that statistic than a final?

Nevertheless, while Tendulkar has looked less than sublime in this tri-series, I would never write off a champion like him.

Gambhir exceptional


Among the younger batsmen, Gautam Gambhir has been exceptional. I was particularly impressed by his temperament and the way he plays spin. Rohit Sharma also looks like he is a player to watch out for.

These youngsters came in amid much debate about whether to replace one-day veterans like Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. I am sure the old warhorses would have done well in the one-dayers, but the youngsters have not done badly either.

One has to look ahead at some point and it’s good that the selectors have decided to plan ahead.

For the Australians, their batting continues to be an area of concern. Apart from Adam Gilchrist none of the other guys seem to be in any sort of form. The top order has not been firing, and even Andrew Symonds has had a disappointing series.

Great rhythm


The fact is that Australia has not played at its best in the tournament so far, and has been lucky to get away with some off-colour batting performances. Its bowlers have been in great rhythm, which is why it lost only two games of the seven it completed in the tournament.

However, Australia always plays very well when it is in a final. The big game galvanises it and gets the best out of its batsmen. India on the other hand has always been non-starters in finals. Its record in deciders as well as finals is extremely ordinary.

It remains to be seen whether generation next of Indian cricket, which has been pretty impressive in this tournament, can do what its illustrious predecessors were unable to in 1999-2000 and 2003-2004 by winning a final in Australia!


Gameplan

[WicketView]

ROFLMAO...
---

BTW, I like Rohit.. he has a good head on those shoulders..

--

India can beat Aussies in finals: Rohit Sharma 
PTI

Young Indian middle order batsman Rohit Sharma feels the youngsters in the team would need to rise up to the occasion to win the cricket tri-series finals against Australia starting on Sunday.

"In the absence of seniors there is pressure and it would be good for the youngsters if we were to win the trophy," said Sharma.

Rohit has played in all the games of the triangular league and scored a mere 167 runs at 33.40 but a couple of his knock have drawn heaps of praise from the likes of Ian Chappell and Sachin Tendulkar.

Chappell has been very impressed with Sharma's technique and so has been the case with Tendulkar who rates his backfoot play of good quality.

Sharma, though, feels he has not quite done justice to his talent in the series.

"I feel I could have done better and in this regard this series has been a learning experience. I have learnt how to build innings when I walked in to bat against Australia in Melbourne we were five down for 102, needing 160 runs to win.

"The one advice (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) Mahi gave me was if we stayed at the wicket the runs would come and so it happened," he said.

India put it across Australia in that game of the triangular series and Sharma feels that it's not beyond them to beat the world champions again in the best-of-three finals.

"I feel we can do it. We were 54 for 4 the other night against Australia and ended up scoring 300 runs," Sharma said.

Not one to get overawed by reputations, Sharma has taken the likes of Brett Lee as just another bowler in international circuit.

"Even when I was young, there were a few bowlers in our "galli" cricket whom batsmen used to dread to face. I always accepted the challenge as these things keep confronting you all the time.

"It doesn't matter to me if I am playing Brett Lee or Shoaib Akhtar," he said.

Sharma firmly refused to be drawn into any controversy on the amount of sledging and bad blood which has existed between the two teams this summer.

He almost pleaded to be kept out of it after questions became thicker on the recent incident of Matthew Hayden going after Harbhajan Singh in a radio interview recently.

But one thing he could not resist clarifying was the run-out he caused to his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Adelaide which led to India's sorry defeat by 50 runs last on February 17.

"Actually, the confusion was caused by the umpire. He kept telling me that I couldn't take start. Anyway that's past. Mahi told me not to worry about it. He also told me that it would be me who would run for him, if required, in future," he said.

Everyone likes Rohit ... he has just impressed everyone!

BTW, this is also what I like about Dhoni as captian. While I believe that he should not have publicly gone about blaming Rohit for the run out, he clearly has reasserted his confidence in Rohit, in private ... not just by empty words like 'it is OK', but by a clear promise.  I also like the idea that he had given Rohit ... about batting on and runs would come. Too often, our Indian batting lineup seems to have believed in 'now  or never' too early in the game and thrown it all away. The consistent thing about Dhoni's captaincy that I have noticed from his 20-20 time, is that under dire circumstances, he tries hard to keep the match going till the end.

 

[LosingNow]

WV:
Another thing about MSD.. he backs his players and will take the odd risk, if necessary. This is a good sign of his leadership skills (in this aspect, he is like SG)

One thing that is bothering me is ..his handling of Raina. I thought Raina should have got at least one match in the prelims. He is quite a talent and has delivered recently.

[LosingNow]

My strategy..

Win toss.. bat first (given SRT's knack for 1st inning scores).. bat big ..put 275+ on the board.. unleash Ishant and Sreesanth on the Aussies!!

Make one gutsy call on team selection.. replace HS with PC.

[poondu]

Make one gutsy call on team selection.. replace HS with PC.

Never going to happen. MSD is also keen on using Bhajji in the end overs

[LosingNow]

Make one gutsy call on team selection.. replace HS with PC.

Never going to happen. MSD is also keen on using Bhajji in the end overs

Well.. that is sad.. Sydney bounce and turn would help PC

[OldPal]

Make one gutsy call on team selection.. replace HS with PC.

Never going to happen. MSD is also keen on using Bhajji in the end overs

Well.. that is sad.. Sydney bounce and turn would help PC

I was also pondering on it. IMO this should be a gutsy and smart move. Australia are al ready fighting their batting woos . An attacking bowler like PC (of whom they dont know much) can spring in a surprise.

[ramshorns]

ROFLMAO...
---

BTW, I like Rohit.. he has a good head on those shoulders..

--

 

Another of the Hyderabad's signing's for the IPL.  VVS and co. did their homework before the auction.  I agree he has the potential to be an awesome player.

[ramshorns]

WV:
Another thing about MSD.. he backs his players and will take the odd risk, if necessary. This is a good sign of his leadership skills (in this aspect, he is like SG)

One thing that is bothering me is ..his handling of Raina. I thought Raina should have got at least one match in the prelims. He is quite a talent and has delivered recently.

WN:Give it sometime.  Raina will his get his chances.  Another of the youngsters with vibrant presense and great talent.  This guy has got some extraoridnary cricketing shots unique in a way much like Lara, not saying quite the same but again has the potential and he is very young.  All this boards very well for India in ODI's ahead.

One thing I do not want to happen whatever happens in the finals is a recall of Dravid and Ganguly to the ODI team.  IMO that will be taking a step back.

[inoc]

Rams

WN:Give it sometime.  Raina will his get his chances.  Another of the youngsters with vibrant presense and great talent.  This guy has got some extraoridnary cricketing shots unique in a way much like Lara, not saying quite the same but again has the potential and he is very young.  All this boards very well for India in ODI's ahead.

very high praise indeed. i hope he achieves at least a small percent of what lara did and it will certainly bode well for the indian team.
not discounting your assay of SRs talent but hoping it proves to be correct.

One thing I do not want to happen whatever happens in the finals is a recall of Dravid and Ganguly to the ODI team.  IMO that will be taking a step back.

agree

PS:

I know I have been very harsh on SRT over the past few days.

LOL. Hope you are not so harsh next time around.

[OldPal]

 I have been thinking something that is also  worrying Dhoni for this match.
Who will open in this match if VS does not play:
Team : SRT,GG,RS,YS,MSD,RU,PK,IKP,HS,IS,SS

Options :
1 GG : IMO , this is a No . I will let him come at no1.
2. PK : Don't think he can negotiate fiery Blee in initial overs : No
3. RU : A potential yes .Not sure he could last first 10-15 overs though.
4. IKP : IMO can come good. Has played enuff of no3 , and has faced Blee and bracken enuff, plays with his eyes open, and calm mind multiple time. all this is needed just for 10 overs.

[LosingNow]

I have been thinking something that is also  worrying Dhoni for this match.
Who will open in this match if VS does not play:
Team : SRT,GG,RS,YS,MSD,RU,PK,IKP,HS,IS,SS

Options :
1 GG : IMO , this is a No . I will let him come at no1.
2. PK : Don't think he can negotiate fiery Blee in initial overs : No
3. RU : A potential yes .Not sure he could last first 10-15 overs though.
4. IKP : IMO can come good. Has played enuff of no3 , and has faced Blee and bracken enuff, plays with his eyes open, and calm mind multiple time. all this is needed just for 10 overs.

Sorry Pankaj, PK's batting skill is a joke. I can't imagine he is listed as an allrounder in fantasy league... if he is then Bracken should be listed as an allrounder too.

I think opening with RU is not a bad idea.

[OldPal]

Agree WN , that is why i dont want him to open , was just exploring the options. RU has not really played a lot of overs early on in this series. Thus was not to sure if we want to lose a key batsmen early on especially when we are playing 5 bowlers.

[dlee1]

WV:
Another thing about MSD.. he backs his players and will take the odd risk, if necessary. This is a good sign of his leadership skills (in this aspect, he is like SG)

One thing that is bothering me is ..his handling of Raina. I thought Raina should have got at least one match in the prelims. He is quite a talent and has delivered recently.

WN:Give it sometime.  Raina will his get his chances.  Another of the youngsters with vibrant presense and great talent.  This guy has got some extraoridnary cricketing shots unique in a way much like Lara, not saying quite the same but again has the potential and he is very young.  All this boards very well for India in ODI's ahead.

One thing I do not want to happen whatever happens in the finals is a recall of Dravid and Ganguly to the ODI team.  IMO that will be taking a step back.

yes raina should have been given a chance.but again one must remember that under gc regime he was given a fair bit of rope and did not really fire.
i tend to disagree with ur last line regarding rd/sg.the criteria of selection should be purely based on performance not age.if someone performs exceedingly well then he should be given a chance and we should not have a bias towards them just because of their age.similarly if our youngsters do not perform well or only flatter to decieve they should not be in the team just for the sake of making the team young.our goal is to win and whatever combination delivers the result is the one who should be choosen.

[ramshorns]

Rams

I know I have been very harsh on SRT over the past few days.

LOL. Hope you are not so harsh next time around.

Inoc:I am not very hard to please.  Hope Sachin gets a 50 in this game and helps us.

[OldPal]

Rams

I know I have been very harsh on SRT over the past few days.

LOL. Hope you are not so harsh next time around.

Inoc:I am not very hard to please.  Hope Sachin gets a 50 in this game and helps us.

Rams,
This is "finals" and you are expecting Sachin to score ?
Sachin by nature is a thinking player and I have read articles that he does not gets good night sleep before big games. Thus i am personally not expecting much from him. my expectations are from GG,RS ,RU and YS .

[dlee1]

australia bat and chawla prob in the squad in place of munaf

[poondu]

WN, U are  on the money here 

"India are, interestingly (likely), playing Piyush Chawla, ahead of Munaf Patel."

[dlee1]

ram since india is batting second now i guess its not whether sachin scores 50 or not but whether he makes a significant contribution towards india willing this odi

[ramshorns]

ram since india is batting second now i guess its not whether sachin scores 50 or not but whether he makes a significant contribution towards india willing this odi

Agree, I hope he builds on that 63 he scored in the last game while chasing.

[dlee1]

think it will all boil down to how much aus scores.if they score a lot then doubt he will live up to the expectations

[poondu]

How come Kumar playing ahead of Munaf or SS ? 

[ramshorns]

How come Kumar playing ahead of Munaf or SS ? 

I was wondering the same too.  May be that 4 wicket haul had something to do with it.

[poondu]

Hope he gets 4 more here and justifies Dhoni's faith

[ramshorns]

How come Kumar playing ahead of Munaf or SS ? 

I was wondering the same too.  May be that 4 wicket haul had something to do with it.

Having said that he gets Gilly.  All he needs to do from this point is not go for too many runs and his selection will be justified.

[OldPal]

How come Kumar playing ahead of Munaf or SS ? 

I was wondering the same too.  May be that 4 wicket haul had something to do with it.

Having said that he gets Gilly.  All he needs to do from this point is not go for too many runs and his selection will be justified.

Ha Ha Ha .. Ponting gone ..I have him (kumar)as trump in my second Fantasy team //

[ramshorns]

How come Kumar playing ahead of Munaf or SS ? 

I was wondering the same too.  May be that 4 wicket haul had something to do with it.

Having said that he gets Gilly.  All he needs to do from this point is not go for too many runs and his selection will be justified.

Ha Ha Ha .. Ponting gone ..I have him (kumar)as trump in my second Fantasy team //

[poondu]

pk   
cmon kill them

[Cover Point]

Dude!!!

I just told my friend that P Kumar is bad .... that is Unhoni's mistake .... two freaking wickets!

[dlee1]

think kumar selection is a gamble which is paying off till now.the fact that ishant is diff to score off and the australia were struggling against him meant that they would try to go after kumar and thus make mistakes which they have

[OldPal]

think kumar selection is a gamble which is paying off till now.the fact that ishant is diff to score off and the australia were struggling against him meant that they would try to go after kumar and thus make mistakes which they have

Ssanth was thrashed in SCG in last match. Mpatel went for runs against australia.
Having PC and PK in with 5 bowlers , I think MSD wanted element of surprise for Aussies.
With Ishant bowling good, it was obvious they would go for PK . knowing PK gets little movement, IMO this was a calculated risk

[OldPal]

Clarke gone.. Aussies batting woos continues

[WicketView]

!!!!!!!!! Get them!