Our blue-eyed boys in Blue left red-faced in Mirpur after loss of 1st ODI

It was a pathetic display of one day cricket put up by our blue-eyed boys in Blue after they were left red-faced following the loss of the 1st ODI at Mirpur by 79 runs.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 19 June 2015.

Batting first, the young team of Bangladesh began attack from the very first ball and left the Indian bowlers clueless on how to control the flow of runs. The Bangladesh batsmen treated the Indian bowlers with disdain and belted them to all corners of the stadium. Ravichandra Ashwin managed to bag three wickets but Umesh Yadav came in for plenty of punishment.
Anyway, the way Bangladesh was playing, at one point of time it appeared that they would post around 350 runs – but, finally, it was 307 and it was a formidable one as it turned out when the Indians took the field.
The bowling of the home team was superb as was their fielding and they gave nothing away. The Indians had to grovel for runs and it played in their nerves. Rohit Sharma was the highest scorer – he scored 63 runs. Apart from him, others who reached double figures were Shikhar Dhawan (30), Suresh Raina (40), Ravindra Jadeja (32). Bhubaneshwar Kumar (25) and Mohit Sharma(11).
Obviously, the Bangladesh team has matured and Indians cannot take them lightly. They had done their homework while Indians were overconfident. This is a 3 ODI series and with one loss, Captain M S Dhoni would have to rethink his strategies if he wants to win the series. (Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Chennai Super Kings remain favorites for IPL8

#CSK #IPL8 #PepsiIPL #EdenGardens Cricket festival is back in India and IPL8 is set to be launched tomorrow at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. In spite of a series of unpleasant revelations connected with match-fixing in the wake of IPL7, the ownership of CSK is now with a new entity – namely, a wholly owned subsidiary Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd as reported in ibnlive.in.com dated 6 April 2015.

The CSK has a well-knit team and has an impressive record – it was two-time winners, two-time semi-finalists and three-time runners-up, and have never gone out in the group stages. Its strength is in Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. This year CSK has retained 17 players and bought 8. Two of them, prime performers Irfan Pathan and Michel Hussey, were bought in for 1.5 crores each. The other new arrivals are Rahul Sharma, Kyle Abbott, Ankush Bains, Pratush Singh, Andrew Tye and Eklavya Dwivedi.
It already has strong hitters like West Indian Dwayne Smith and New Zealander Brendon McCullum and are backed by Faf du Plessis and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo besides M S Dhoni himself and Suresh Raina. Australian veteran Michael Hussey returns following a disappointing stint with Mumbai Indians in 2014.
In the bowling department, pacer Mohit Sharma and offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin will be a handful – they would spearhead the attack.

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#cwc2015 #sydneycricketground #IPL #INDvsAUS From a win-win situation in the seven matches leading up to the semi-final clash with the Aussies at the Sydney Cricket Ground, it was a lose-lose situation for the Indians in CWC 2015 in Sydney. They first lost the toss, then they lost their way in the bowling department allowing the home team to pile on the miseries and, while batting to defend a 300 plus score, they lost the will to fight back. It was abject surrender all the way – most unlike the way they are known to fight back.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 26 March 2015.

One can safely assume that too much hype is bad for health of Indian cricket and this has been proved in the lead up to the forgettable 26th March 2015 – none of the Indian players would want to relive that day. It was a day of failures galore and captain M S Dhoni had no answer to the way the world crumbled around him and he remained a silent spectator to the downfall.
In fact, his run out has also raised questions – from all appearances, he could have made a last attempt to save the run-out but he did not. Obviously, he knew that he was battling for a lost cause and must have been missing the company of Suresh Raina and Ravinder Jadeja.
Should the blame lie with the bowlers who allowed the Aussies to hammer them at will and create a mountain of runs that was insurmountable? Or – should the blame be assigned to the batsmen who failed to rise to expectations? Those who had scored centuries earlier in CWC 2015 just did not deliver.
Anyway – their stint in foreign soil is over for the time being and they will return home to join the extravaganza known as IPL. The past would be a closed chapter.

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#CWC2015 #msdhoni #IrevsInd #dhawan #wewontgiveitback The Indian cricket team is making winning a habit and has won the fifth match in a row by beating Ireland. It was a convincing win and the men in blue have shown that the venue or country where the game is played is immaterial – it is the supremacy that matters. Winning is the bottom line and a determination to retain the Cricket World Cup that it had won in 2011. We won’t give it back!!
Ireland put up 259 runs and, at one time, it was presumed that they would go past 300 when the two Irish openers William Porterfield (67) and Paul Stirling (42) took their team off to a flier. But, Ravichandra Ashwin got his team the first breakthrough to break the 89-run stand as India. This has been reported in ibnlive.in.com dated 10 March 2015. Captain Dhoni brought Suresh Raina into the attack and he did not disappoint his skipper – he took the wicket of Ed Joyce (2).
Realizing that the fast bowlers were unable to make any dent in the Ireland lineup, Dhoni decided to go in for spin and succeeded in keeping the runs down – thereby, the Irish batsmen tried to break the shackles and failed. Mohammad Shami was the pick of the bowlers (3 for 41) while Ashwin's 2 for 38 gave him good support. Other bowlers also chipped in and ensured that the final target was a reasonable one.
Anyway, when India began the chase, openers Shikhar Dhawan (100) and Rohit Sharma (64) laid a good foundation and India romped home with 79 balls to spare.

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India lose in Brisbane – beaten hollow by England in Carlton Mid tri-series ODI

#INDvsENG #carltonmidtriseries #gabba #2015CricketWorldCup It was yet another collapse of India at the Gabba in Brisbane when England beat them hollow by 9 wickets to earn a bonus point in the Carlton Mid tri-series. It was England’s biggest win against India. One wonders why the captain opted to go in for batting after winning the toss when it is a fact that Indians are good at chasing targets instead of setting targets.
The poor form at the top order continued with Shikhar Dhawan raising doubts of whether he would find a place in the playing eleven of the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Virat Kohli, India’s test captain failed yet again and this was strange.
As to Suresh Raina, he wanted to blast off from the word go to prove a point that he had arrived but was stumped – he had gone way outside his crease and committed suicide.
Captain M S Dhoni with Stuart Binny tried to mend the innings but could not and India crumbled to end at 153 runs – it was at least 100 runs short – and could not even complete the quota of 50 overs and finished in 39.3 overs. This score of 153 was their lowest ever ODI score against England – the previous low was 158 at Headingley in 1996.
Such display of attitude and irresponsible play is not what India would have wanted as the World Cup draws near and it would require complete attention of the captain, the team manager as well as the director to work out better strategies.

BCCI announces Indian team for 2015 cricket World Cup

BCCI has announced a team consisting of 30 players for the 2015 World Cup to be played in another 71-days’ time in Australia but big names like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh are not in the list.
The decision was taken by the five-member selection panel headed by Sandeep Patil and they chose to leave the heroes of World Cup 2011 from the squad in spite of their past laurels.
Commenting on the selection, former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar remarked that the omitted seniors had not performed in domestic circuit and therefore, could have hardly made their case. He has added that the game has become faster and a team cannot afford to take passengers.
The only players carried forward from the 2011 World Cup are MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and R Ashwin. The focus is obviously on youth.
Remaining players are new to the huge stage of the World Cup but, that should not be much of a problem because they have experience of playing in the IPL at home.
It is understood that the final 15-member squad should be announced latest by January 7 - the World Cup starts from February 14.